(NewsNation) — A veteran air traffic controller who says he prevented a potential midair collision near troubled Newark Liberty International Airport this month said travelers may wish to avoid that busy air hub until changes are made.
“It’s safe to fly,” Jonathan Stewart told “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” Friday. “I would probably avoid Newark until something else is done.”
Stewart said he has been discussing shortcomings in the U.S. aviation system and the stress he and his colleagues are under following his own harrowing experience May 4 while controlling Newark air traffic from Philadelphia. In recent weeks, Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control, or TRACON, has experienced highly publicized outages that left controllers shaken.
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On May 4, Stewart said, he saw two planes on a potential collision course. Because he was afraid communications systems might fail, he wrote down the planes’ call signs and flight data by hand and used “nonradar rules” while keeping the aircraft separated.
“I was anticipating losing radar or radios or both,” he said.
Stewart, who has a supervisory role, said he soon fired off an angry email to management that was leaked online.
“To be put in a situation where I’m guaranteed to fail really ticked me off,” he said. “That’s why I took the steps that I took.”
He recommends an overhaul of the Federal Aviation Administration.
“We don’t need any more managers in the FAA,” Stewart said. “We need leadership from the top. There’s an old saying in the military, which is, ‘Lead, follow or get out of the way.’ So, somebody needs to do something.”
The Trump administration has promised to begin making improvements to modernize the U.S. air traffic control system.
