A temporary ground stop at Newark Liberty International Airport on Thursday disrupted incoming flights due to air traffic control communication problems. This incident is the latest in a series of technical issues affecting the busy New Jersey airport.

The ground stop occurred from approximately 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. ET, during which air traffic controllers lost their radio frequencies. As a result, delays for incoming flights averaged more than two hours. In response, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reduced Newark's flight capacity to 28 incoming flights per hour, effective until at least Friday. This is a significant decrease from the airport's normal capacity of 40 to 42 flights per hour, which had already been lowered to 34 in recent weeks.

The FAA stated, "The FAA is pausing some flights into Newark Liberty International Airport due to equipment issues. We are investigating the cause." Controllers were instructed to space arriving aircraft about 20 miles apart as they approached Newark.

This disruption marked the second outage for controllers at the Philadelphia air traffic control center, which oversees Newark's airspace, within a 24-hour period. During an outage on Wednesday evening, pilots reported that controller call signs were cutting out completely. One controller informed pilots they were experiencing "some sort of FTI issues" and had placed flights in a hold. A pilot described the situation, saying, "Out here it'll be no call sign or just be heading 040," explaining why aircraft were not acknowledging transmissions.

The recent issues add to a growing list of technical problems at Newark. On May 11, a telecommunications issue at the Philadelphia TRACON facility led to a 45-minute ground stop. Just days earlier, on May 9, radar screens went dark for 90 seconds, prompting controllers to alert incoming aircraft about potential communication issues. In late April, controllers faced a 60 to 90-second outage that disrupted their computer screens and cut off communications with aircraft. Following that incident, several controllers took medical leave, citing the event as traumatic.