Airports in the northeastern United States are starting to return to normal operations after a technical failure that on September 21, 2026 led to flight restrictions and ground handling at several major airports.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that “telecommunications lines have been repaired, and operations at airports in the northeast [of the United States] are resuming“. At the same time, he warned that clearing the delays accumulated after the outage will take several days.
The cause of the problem was damaged fiber optic cable in New Jersey, caused by construction work by the Amtrak railway company, US authorities said. The incident prompted the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to restrict flights, including at John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia, Teterboro, Westchester, Newark and Philadelphia airports.
Among the affected flights was the government plane carrying Bulgarian President Iliana Yotova, which landed in Boston instead of New York, Bulgarian National Television reported. Yotova is scheduled to participate in the general policy discussion at the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, which begins Tuesday in New York.
Sources: Federal Aviation Administration, Bulgarian National Television