HONOLULU (AP) — A longtime federal employee has been fined $5,000 and given two years of probation for cutting communication between air traffic controllers and planes flying above Honolulu in early 2019.
Joelyn DeCosta modified into sentenced this week by a federal think after pleading guilty to maliciously interfering with a federal communication machine. In a plea deal, she agreed to resign her job as a transportation-systems specialist and forfeit retirement benefits price greater than $500,000, in accordance to federal prosecutors.
In line with court docket paperwork, DeCosta severed well-known and standby communication traces between air traffic controllers in Honolulu with about 10 planes in two separate incidents on Jan. 4, 2019. Prosecutors acknowledged pilots couldn’t hear instructions from controllers for 2 minutes.
One of the most pilots testified relating to the hazard that modified into posed to his aircraft and its 40 passengers.
The outages affected airspace feeble for flights between Oahu and five diversified Hawaiian islands.
DeCosta, 48, of Honolulu, had labored for the Federal Aviation Administration for 26 years.
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Federal worker cut air traffic communications with planes
