It’s been a brutal month for Newark Liberty International Airport, as telecommunications and radar outages have plagued one of the nation’s busiest airports, triggering delays and cancellations for thousands of passengers.

Outages are not just a Newark problem—in recent weeks, at least three other U.S. airports have reported communication breakdowns that left air traffic controllers unable to contact pilots. The FAA's air traffic controllers manage roughly 45,

Behind the scenes of every flight, air traffic controllers are working tirelessly to ensure that the global aviation system moves safely.