The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued ground stops at several major airports in the northeastern US after an equipment and communications failure disrupted air traffic control operations at a Philadelphia facility.

The disruption initially affected Philadelphia International, Newark Liberty International and Teterboro airports before expanding to New York’s John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports, along with Westchester County Airport. The outage has caused widespread delays and forced some flights to divert.

The problem is centered on certain frequencies at the FAA’s Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON), which manages aircraft arriving at and departing from airports across the region.

More than 600 flights at Newark and Philadelphia had been delayed by about 1 p.m. ET, representing roughly 20 percent of scheduled flights at the two airports, according to FlightAware data cited by Reuters. Newark is a major United Airlines hub, while Philadelphia is an American Airlines hub.

TRACON facilities use radar and radio systems to guide aircraft during approach and departure. A failure affecting communications frequencies at Philadelphia TRACON limited the facility’s ability to handle normal traffic levels.

“The FAA is pausing flights into Philadelphia International, Teterboro and Newark Liberty International airports due to issues with some frequencies at Philadelphia TRACON,” an FAA spokesperson said.

The FAA later expanded ground stops to additional airports as the disruption affected traffic across the Northeast. JFK warned passengers that arrivals and departures were experiencing delays because of an FAA equipment outage.

The disruption involved failures in the telecommunications circuits supporting the Philadelphia facility.

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