CLEVELAND, Ohio — For 35 minutes this morning, air traffic controllers at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport could not talk to pilots trying to land or take off at the airport.
About 9 a.m., a construction crew working on Brookpark Road struck the fiber-optic cable that enables traffic controllers in Cleveland to communicate with pilots, airport spokeswoman Jackie Mayo said.
The repair took 35 minutes, but flights were delayed for a couple of hours. The schedule was back on track about 11 a.m., Mayo said.
The disruption occurred after the morning rush, during the lull between 9 and 11, she said.
During the outage, traffic controllers in Oberlin maintained contact with pilots in the area. Oberlin controllers normally hand incoming flights over to Cleveland's tower.
Mayo didn't know how many planes had to circle the area during the radio outage. Planes that had already descended to where the pilot could see the airport could have landed without communicating with the tower, she said.