NEW YORK, May 16 (Xinhua) -- An air traffic control facility in the U.S. state of Colorado experienced a communications outage earlier this week, the latest in a series of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) equipment failures that have raised concerns over the country's air traffic control infrastructure, reported USA Today on Friday.
Part of the Denver Air Route Traffic Control Center lost communications with planes for about 90 seconds at around 1:50 p.m. local time on May 12, according to the FAA. The agency said transmitters that cover a segment of airspace had gone down but controllers were able to use another frequency to send instructions to pilots.
"Aircraft remained safely separated and there were no impacts to operations," the FAA said in a statement. The agency said it was investigating the incident. Franklin McIntosh, the FAA's deputy head of air traffic control, confirmed the communications outage during a U.S. House of Representatives hearing on May 15.
"Air traffic control staffing issues and equipment failures have made national headlines in recent weeks due to a series of telecommunications outages at a facility that oversees air traffic at the Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey," said the report.
Delays and cancellations at the airport have persisted since the initial outage on April 28 when controllers temporarily lost radar and radio communications with aircraft, it added. ■
