A communications failure that caused pilots flying near Denver International Airport to lose contact with air traffic control for almost two minutes in May occurred because of overlapping equipment outages, federal officials said Wednesday.
The problem at the Denver Air Route Traffic Control Center in Longmont was caused by “overlapping outages to radio transmitters and circuits,” Federal Aviation Administration officials said in a statement.
When the transmitters went down, air traffic controllers used another frequency to communicate instructions to pilots, and all aircraft remained safely separated, federal officials said after the May 12 outage. The transmitters were replaced, and the circuits were repaired after the incident, the agency said.
Air traffic controllers at the Longmont facility oversee planes flying through 285,000 miles of airspace over nine states, including portions of Wyoming, Kansas, Utah, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota and Arizona.
The May outage sparked national attention as the FAA faces increased scrutiny after several high-profile plane crashes and mishaps.
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