An air traffic controller who works the airspace around Newark, N.J. speaks out about what it was like to lose radar and communication systems during a shift, and how the situation got to be so bad.

With summer travel season approaching, the crisis at the New Jersey airport could mean weeks, if not months, of misery for travelers.

Most important, the current governance arrangement jeopardizes safety, because the FAA both operates and regulates the air-traffic-control system. This is a clear conflict of interest, and one that the International Civil Aviation Organization has directed member countries to eliminate.

As of May 7, all but two of the 313 air traffic control facilities in the United States were understaffed, a New York Times analysis found.

The shortage on Monday forced the F.A.A. to delay flights to the busy airport for up to nearly seven hours, the latest problem to plague the airport.

The Federal Aviation Administration is working on a short-term fix to the problems at the Newark airport that includes technical repairs and cutting flights to keep traffic manageable while dealing with a shortage of controllers. Officials are meeting with ...