Air Traffic Controller Left ‘Traumatized’ and Placed on Leave After Being Only One on Duty During Terrifying 90-Second Blackout

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Air Traffic Controller Left ‘Traumatized’ and Placed on Leave After Being Only One on Duty During Terrifying 90-Second Blackout

An air traffic controller, who has chosen to remain anonymous, has recalled being the only one on duty working for Newark Liberty International Airport when the system blacked out for 90 seconds in the early hours of Friday, May 9

The 39-year-old woman from New York told The Times she’s now been placed on leave after being left “traumatized” by the incident

“To be without eyes or ears in air traffic control for a full minute and a half is absolutely terrifying,” she wrote, per the U.K. paper

An air traffic controller was left so “traumatized” by a recent 90-second blackout incident at Newark Liberty International Airport that she’s had to go on leave.

While speaking anonymously to

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, the woman, a 39-year-old New Yorker, recalled being the “only operator on deck” when “the system blacked out” on Friday, May 9 just before 4 a.m. local time.

“It was my last late shift of the week, and I felt tired, but tried to remain alert. Then the unthinkable happened… Suddenly, all my frequencies cut out. Then my radar scope went dark and I could no longer see the dozens of planes that had dotted my screen seconds earlier,” the woman, who has been doing the job for 16 years, shared.

“I had no way of tracking where any of the four aircraft I had been speaking to were and I had no means to reach them,” she added, per the outlet.

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Newark Liberty International Airport

The May 9 outage came after a similar incident on April 28 caused air traffic control computer screens to briefly go dark,

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. The woman told The Times that the previous communications outage had lasted around 90 seconds, and resulted in five of her fellow controllers ending up “on 45 days of trauma leave.”

“To be without eyes or ears in air traffic control for a full minute and a half is absolutely terrifying. But now here I was, alone, facing the same fate,” she told the U.K. paper, revealing that “anything can happen” during a 90-second blackout, including planes turning the wrong way and jumping from 2,000ft to 4,500ft.

“Being at the controls without any of our signals is like trying to dodge mines without a mine detector,” the controller wrote, per the outlet, claiming that her supervisor was on duty, but “wasn’t actually working air traffic.”

“His job is essentially to react if anything goes wrong, including making calls to other air traffic facilities,” she explained.

Admitting she “knew how to act” because of the time she’d spent doing the job, the worker shared, “I found a radar scope that, miraculously, still seemed to be working, and I managed to reconnect with the departing plane I had been speaking to seconds before the dropout.”

She said that she was able to recover “contact with all four planes” after “all the frequencies came back” after 90 seconds, the outlet stated, noting that yet another blackout had occurred two days later, on May 11.

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Bryan Smith/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

Runways at Newark Liberty International Airport

“I was so shaken by the incident, I was put on stress-related trauma leave the following day and I’m undergoing psychological evaluation,” the controller wrote for the outlet. “I haven’t returned to work — but this concerns me, too, because it means there are even fewer controllers managing the skies around Newark.”

“If Newark’s air traffic control problems don’t get fixed, I believe it’s only a matter of time before we have a fatal ****** between two planes,” she claimed.

“The troubles started last summer when the government forced Newark’s air controllers out of our central hub in Long Island, which previously oversaw aircraft flow to all three New York airports — Newark, LaGuardia and JFK — to where we are now, in Philadelphia,” the person added.

She explained how the relocation meant the Newark team had “shrank from about 30 to 24 certified controllers, which isn’t enough to provide 24/7 coverage for Newark,” noting that some team members had stayed in Long Island to cover JFK and LaGuardia.

The woman alleged that there have been times when controllers at Newark have had to “work a dozen aeroplanes at once,” stating that the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) had been warned about the system being “overwhelmed” after they experienced “repeat power failures” at Philadelphia “due to poor technology.”

“Each occurrence leaves us sick with dread and severely burnt out. About a third of Newark’s controllers are on trauma leave as a result of the crisis,” the worker said of the multiple outages.

When approached by PEOPLE for comment on the controller’s claims, the FAA said that they had “provided frequent updates about Newark Liberty International Airport that outline ongoing issues with equipment and staffing, and actions we are taking.”

The federal agency

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on Tuesday that “an interim order” had been issued, “reducing the flight arrival and departure rate” at the airport.

“Our goal is to relieve the substantial inconvenience to the traveling public from excessive flight delays due to construction, staffing challenges, and recent equipment issues, which magnify as they spread through the National Airspace System,” Acting FAA Administrator, Chris Rocheleau, said, per the release.

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The FAA also confirmed how it was “taking action,” including plans to increase controller staffing, as well as “replacing copper telecommunications connections with updated fiberoptic technology that also have greater bandwidth and speed,” among other things.

PEOPLE attempted to reach out to Newark Liberty International Airport for a comment, but was advised by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to contact the FAA.

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