A burning smell inside an elevator at Newark Liberty International Airport’s control tower forced a full evacuation Monday morning, temporarily halting all flights and sending air traffic controllers scrambling to a backup facility.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued a ground stop around 7:30 a.m. after staff detected the odor, which officials later confirmed was not caused by an actual fire. Controllers relocated to a backup tower at Terminal C while investigators assessed the situation. By 8:05 a.m., operations had resumed, and staff returned to the primary tower. The disruption lasted less than an hour, and no injuries were reported.
The evacuation triggered a complete ground stop, one of the strictest traffic control measures, requiring inbound and outbound flights to pause while authorities evaluated the scene. Newark Liberty, one of the primary airports serving the New York City metropolitan area and among the busiest in the nation, saw operations grind to a halt during the morning rush.
The FAA confirmed the burning smell originated from an elevator in the control tower complex. Although no fire was found, the situation prompted an immediate evacuation as a precaution.
The Newark incident unfolded just hours after a deadly crash at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, where an Air Canada Express jet struck a fire truck on a runway late Sunday night. Both pilots were killed, and dozens of passengers were injured in the collision, which shut down LaGuardia until at least 2 p.m. Monday.
FAA and Port Authority officials emphasized that the two incidents were unrelated.
Monday’s evacuation adds to a growing list of disruptions at U.S. airports amid a partial government shutdown that has strained staffing levels across aviation agencies. Transportation Security Administration officers have been working without pay since mid-February, contributing to longer security lines and heightened safety concerns.
Earlier this month, four airports serving Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Richmond, Virginia, halted all flights for over an hour due to a strong chemical smell that was traced to an overheated circuit board. Federal Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy noted that the circuit board was replaced after that incident.
With flights back on schedule and controllers returned to their posts, Newark Liberty is operating normally. The FAA continues to investigate the source of the burning smell that triggered Monday’s evacuation. For now, the incident serves as a reminder of the fragility of air travel infrastructure, and the thin margin between routine operations and full-scale disruption.
