An air traffic control outage caused ground stops and significant travel delays for three major East Coast airports. Radio frequency failures at the Philadelphia Federal Aviation Administration TRACON facility, which guides arriving and departing traffic in the region, have caused chaos for Philadelphia International, Newark Liberty, and Teterboro. The FAA issued urgent ground stops around 10 a.m. on Monday, affecting hundreds of flights across the U.S. Affected planes can’t leave, and inbound flights were ordered to hold at their departure airports. Newark and Teterboro are seeing delays of more than three hours, while Philadelphia is slightly luckier, with delays of up to 2.6 hours. A passenger posted on Facebook that Newark Airport was entirely shut down and he was stuck on a plane for three hours before heading back to the gate. Others reported empty gates and stacked taxiways. Flights are being redirected to Cleveland and other surrounding airports. Officials warn the ground stops could be extended, but haven’t provided an update on when the equipment might be repaired. President Donald Trump was set to travel to New York City around 2 p.m. John Kennedy International Airport is also experiencing a ground stop. But Air Force One also flies into Joint Base Andrews, so it’s currently unclear if the flight is affected.
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