Over the last few weeks, a crisis has unfolded just outside New York City at Newark Liberty International Airport.

Controllers losing communications with packed passenger planes approaching for landing and planes taking off.

In late April, the radios that controllers used to talk to airplanes went silent.

And the radar they used to guide the planes suddenly went dark.

Unable to see here or talk to the pilots of the aircraft, they were monitoring.

Controllers were in the dark for a harrowing 90 seconds. Then last week, it happened again.

Another outage earlier this morning. And then just a few days ago, another malfunction.

Another technical issue at Newark Airport today forcing a 45-minute ground stop,

leading to more delays and cancellations. Government officials say they're working to fix the equipment problems.

And the CEO of United Airlines, which has a major hub at Newark, has personally tried to

reassure the public. In an email to customers, he said that it is, quote, absolutely safe

to fly out of the airport.

But there's another voice that you don't often hear from after incidents like this,

the people on the front lines of air safety.

And this week, the journal sat down with one of them.

My name is Jonathan Stewart.

I'm an air traffic controller. I received my first rating in

2000. Excuse my voice. Apparently, I'm losing an occupational hazard. I don't think anybody

wants to be involved in any sort of incident where safety is compromised.

Nobody was to be involved in that.

It's not on anybody's wish list.

So, yes, under a lot of stress, under duress, yes, you don't want to be involved in any kind of incident where there's a loss of life.

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