*

FAA convening emergency task force on Newark telecom

outages

*

Trump administration blames Biden for not doing more to

address

telecom issues

*

Transportation Department says more airports could suffer

issues

like Newark

(Adds United CEO email, Buttigieg response, update on Newark

flights in paragraphs 4,7,18)

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, May 12 (Reuters) - The Trump administration

said on Monday it was convening an emergency task force and

fast-tracking urgent steps to prevent additional telecom outages

at the facility overseeing Newark air traffic after three

incidents have shaken public confidence.

Acting Federal Aviation Administration head Chris Rocheleau

said the agency was naming an emergency task force to help

address telecom issues at the facility overseeing Newark Liberty

Airport traffic that includes L3Harris Technologies ( LHX ),

Verizon and other technical experts. He pledged to be

"transparent about the progress that we are making."

Officials said the FAA could experience other telecom

failures.

"We could see other situations like this around the country

because the system is old," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy

said at a press conference.

Duffy said he expects testing will be completed in two weeks

after the FAA installed fiber lines to replace copper wire to

boost resiliency at the air traffic control center in

Philadelphia that handles Newark flights and a successful

software patch. "We are going to fix Newark," Duffy said. "Our

redundant lines are now working."

Duffy called the current system "a lemon" akin to a faulty

used car and blamed former President Joe Biden and the prior

transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, for not doing more to

address telecom issues and not ensuring the reliability of

telecommunications before it transferred control of Newark

airspace to the Philadelphia facility last year.

In response, a spokesperson for Buttigieg said: "Secretary

Duffy has a tough job. But he needs to spend more time doing

what the American people are paying him to do - fix problems -

and less time blaming others."

STAFFING ISSUES

The FAA relocated control of the Newark airspace to

Philadelphia last year to address staffing and congested New

York City area traffic. The FAA is about 3,500 air traffic

controllers below targeted staffing levels.

The FAA earlier said it will propose flight cuts at Newark,

citing air traffic controller staffing, runway construction and

equipment issues as it continued to delay flights on Monday.

Low air traffic control staffing for Newark resulted in

average delays of more than two hours late on Monday with more

than 20% of all flights delayed and 87 canceled, according to

data provider FlightAware.

"The airport clearly is unable to handle the current level

of scheduled operations," the FAA said ahead of a two-day

meeting starting on Wednesday with airlines to discuss flight

cuts.

The FAA is proposing an hourly arrival rate of no more than

28 flights and corresponding departure rate of 28 flights during

construction on a runway at Newark.

That limit would be in place until June 15, and on weekends

from September through the end of the year. The FAA is

separately proposing capping the scheduled rate of arrivals and

departures at 34 each per hour through October 25 when

construction is not ongoing.

On Sunday, the FAA said a new telecommunications issue at

the Philadelphia facility forced the agency to issue a 45-minute

ground stop and slow flights in and out of Newark airport.

On Friday, the Philadelphia facility suffered a 90-second

radar and telecommunications outage, the second in two weeks

after a serious outage on April 28.

The latest incidents highlight the air traffic control

network's aging infrastructure and come after Duffy last week

proposed spending billions of dollars to fix it over the next

three to four years.

The FAA said last week it was taking immediate steps to

address ongoing problems that have disrupted hundreds of

flights, especially from United Airlines, the largest

carrier at the airport.

United has sharply cut flights and wants the FAA to impose

new limitations on Newark flights to address ongoing delays.

United on Monday sent emails to 3.7 million New York-area

customers and passengers with upcoming Newark flights seeking to

reassure them about safety. "The truth is that all these flights

in and out of (Newark) are absolutely safe," United CEO Scott

Kirby said.