OAN Staff James Meyers
2:53 PM – Thursday, May 15, 2025
Denver air traffic controllers were without communications for six-minutes earlier this week after several radio transmitters suddenly lost power, according to a new report.
The horrifying outage left as many as 20 pilots without communication with air traffic control towers as they were trying to land on the runway of Denver International Airport on Monday, according to ABC7.
An air traffic controller eventually made contact with one of the pilots on a “guard line,” which is only used when a pilot is in distress.
Advertisement
The one pilot was then able to contact the other pilots that did not have communication with air traffic control towers and told them to switch radio frequencies, according to multiple sources.
During the chaotic situation, controllers at the Denver Air Route Traffic Control Center communicated on a backup frequency after four other frequencies went out of service.
“It’s one thing to lose track of one airplane because you can’t communicate with them, but to lose track of all of the airplanes that you had communication with,” David Riley, a retired air traffic controller, said. “And from my understanding, in this situation, they still had radar coverage, but that’s like watching a car crash happen and not be able to do anything about it.”
The latest airport chaos in Denver adds to the list of recent issues with air traffic control communications. Newark Liberty International Airport has been dealing with mass cancellations over the past few weeks after suffering repeated outages.
Additionally, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy revealed plans last week to revitalize the country’s air travel system as a whole, while discussing a multi-billion-dollar overhaul to replace America’s aging air traffic control system.
The plans include replacing 618 radars, installing 4,600 new faster connections and upgrading every computer that air traffic controllers use.
Nevertheless, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials spoke during a congressional hearing on Wednesday, claiming that it would take another year or more to upgrade aging infrastructure and complete recruitment for controllers.
Still, the FAA remains short almost 3,000 air traffic controllers as they also look to upgrade telecommunications wires for a newer fiber-optic network.
Air Traffic Organization deputy COO Franklin McIntosh said that the agency is on pace to hire 2,000 air traffic controllers by the end of 2025.
“We have to account for attrition,” McIntosh said.
“I think we’ll finally start gaining traction this year, where we outpace attrition. And then we’ll start seeing over the next 18 to 24 months where we actually see a positive gain in the controllers.”
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts
