Newark and Philadelphia airport flights return to normal after Monday’s disruptions

✈️Flights resumed at Newark and Philadelphia airports after Monday's disruptions

✈️A damaged fiber-optic cable disrupted air traffic across the region

✈️NJ Transit is looking into utility markings tied to the construction project

Operations have returned to normal at Newark and Philadelphia airports following Monday's ground stops, which caused hundreds of delayed and canceled flights across the region.

The outage brought commercial air traffic to a near-standstill at Newark for much of the day, with no commercial flights landing at the airport from about 9:40 a.m. to just after 5:20 p.m. local time, according to flight-tracking site Flightradar24. More than 200 flights into and out of Philadelphia International Airport were also canceled, while disruptions hit LaGuardia and Kennedy airports in New York. By Monday evening, flights were resuming at those airports.

FlightAware.com shows nearly 60 canceled flights in and out of Newark, with another 30 cancellations to and from Philadelphia as of 7:30 a.m. Monday.

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The entrance to the TSA checkpoint at Terminal A inside Newark Airport. (PANYNJ)

Fiber-optic cable cut disrupted airport operations

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said fiber-optic cables accidentally cut by an Amtrak crew along the Northeast Corridor led to the issues.

NJ Transit, however said that a crew working on the Delco Lead project severed the fiber-optic cable. They became aware the cable acts as a backup to the primary circuit that failed. As of Tuesday morning all the fiber cables were repaired, according to NJ Transit.

"Preliminary information indicates the crew was operating approximately 10 feet from the utility markings. NJ Transit staff is currently on site working to determine the status of the repairs, while also determining whether it was Verizon or the contractor who made the utility markings at the site," NJ Transit said in a statement.

NJ Transit project is designed to protect rail cars from flooding

The Delco Lead project is creating a facility to store rail cars in New Brunswick and North Brunswick that is not susceptible to flooding.

The facility will allow those rail cars to be put quickly back into service.

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