BySuzanne Rowan Kelleher,
Forbes Staff.
A mix of staffing shortages at air traffic control centers and thunderstorms on the East Coast sparked chaos for travel across the U.S. on Thursday.
A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air traffic advisory issued at 1:37 p.m. EDT Thursday listed staffing alerts indicating insufficient personnel at two FAA control facilities: Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) Area C, responsible for the sequencing and separation of planes at Newark, and the Central Florida TRACON that guides flights in and out of Orlando.
As of 3 p.m. EDT Thursday, there was a ground delay at Washington’s Reagan National due to staffing, with average flight delays of 90 minutes.
