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Air traffic controllers in Philadelphia had been guiding planes to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey last week when communications suddenly crashed.“Approach, are you there?” one pilot asked the controller.The controller had stopped responding.United Airlines Flight 1951, flying from New Orleans to the Newark hub, tried to radio the controller five times before finally getting a response.“United 1951, how do you hear me?” the controller asks, according to air traffic control conversations recorded by the website LiveATC.net.“I got you loud and clear, United 1951,” the pilot responds.Those 30 seconds of silence when communication went down ultimately cascaded into a weeklong meltdown at Newark, one of the nation’s largest airports. It resulted in delays and cancellations for thousands of customers, controllers taking leave for trauma, and renewed scrutiny on an outdated air traffic control system.The chaos also highlighted the challenges of an understaffed system, the latest incident in an already turbulent year for aviation that included a deadly collision between a passenger jet and U.S. army helicopter.‘I don’t know where you are’Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Fox News Monday controllers had lost the primary communication, and the backup line did not immediately take over. Audio obtained by CNN shows the tense moments from the afternoon of April 28.“United (flight) 674, radar contact lost,” a controller tells a pilot flying to Newark from Charleston, South Carolina. “We lost our radar so just stay on the arrival and maintain 6000 (feet).”The same flight, traveling at hundreds of miles an hour, returns to the radar but does not show up in an accurate position.The connectivity between Federal Aviation Administration radar and the frequencies that air traffic controllers use to manage planes at the airport “completely failed,” a source with knowledge of the situation said. Without radar, another approach controller told the pilot of a smaller aircraft to rely on towers for clearance.“Do I have bravo clearance?” the pilot asks. Bravo clearance is permission to enter into the airspace surrounding a larger airport, like Newark Liberty.“No, you do not have a bravo clearance. We lost our radar and it’s not working correctly. Radar service terminates… If you want a bravo clearance, you can just call the tower when you get closer,” the controller said.About 15 to 20 flights were being controlled by Newark Liberty approach controllers when communication and radar went down on April 28, according to an analysis by flight tracking site Flightradar24.The number is based on the altitude of aircraft bound for and departing Newark and audio from the approach radio frequency, Ian Petchenik, the director of communications for the site, tells CNN.No crashes occurred, but at least five FAA employees took 45 days of trauma leave afterward.Aviation analyst Miles O’Brien told CNN that the controllers did what they could with a potentially dangerous situation.“I think, as I always say, that the controllers, the individuals who run this system daily, perform quiet heroic acts, in spite of a system that is built to set them up for failure. I believe in those people doing their job, but there’s only so much stress they can take,” O’Brien said.The incident has compounded existing staffing shortages and equipment failures and contributed to frustrating hourslong delays for passengers, Duffy told Fox News.A CNN analysis of FAA airspace advisories shows at least 14 straight days of FAA-imposed delays for flights to or from Newark.More than 150 flights into or out of the airport on Monday were canceled, with more than 350 flights delayed, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. And on Tuesday, the FAA announced a ground delay for inbound flights at the airport, causing further delays.The FAA has indicated it expects delays at the airport to continue due to the staffing shortages. Duffy added that authorities will have to slow traffic at Newark before restoring full capacity.A traumatic eventThe current shortage of air traffic controllers is nearly the worst in 30 years, said the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, which represents 10,800 certified air traffic controllers across the country.The control facility responsible for traffic at Newark has been “chronically understaffed for years,” United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said in a Friday message addressing the delays. He also said the shortage was compounded by over 20% of FAA controllers who “walked off the job” at Newark Airport last week.The controllers’ union said workers did not “walk off the job.”“The controllers didn’t just walk off the job, they were traumatized, their equipment failed,” the source with knowledge of the situation said. “It’s written in the regulations if they experience a traumatic event — they can take time off to go see psychiatrist. The people working that day did that.”But filling those empty positions is not an issue that can be sorted overnight, according to the FAA.New air traffic control applicants must be younger than 31 years old so they can work the mandatory 20 or 25 years needed to qualify for pensions before their mandatory retirement age of 56, according to the FAA. Physical stamina and mental sharpness are critical to performing the job.And air traffic controllers can’t simply fill in at a different airport without extensive preparation.“When you first start at an air traffic control facility, you have to do a lot of memorization,” said Michael McCormick, a professor and air traffic management coordinator at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.“Most air traffic controllers don’t just monitor one airport. Many keep tabs on dozens of other regional airports to make sure planes keep a safe distance from each other.”The FAA acknowledged a wave of new controllers won’t come overnight.“While we cannot quickly replace (the controllers) due to this highly specialized profession, we continue to train controllers who will eventually be assigned to this busy airspace,” the FAA said.A frail system in placeFlights arriving to Newark were experiencing an average delay of 2 hours and 40 minutes as of Tuesday morning.One passenger, Geraldine Wallace, told CNN Sunday she was anxious about the staffing shortage after her flight was delayed for almost three hours.Mark Wallace, her partner, told CNN he was more worried about equipment failures.“As concerning as the manpower issue is, according to news reports, the equipment that they’re using out of Philadelphia is antiquated,” he said.The Department of Transportation will announce a plan Thursday to transform the air traffic control system, remodeling an outdated system that contributed to days of delays at Newark, Duffy, the transportation secretary, told Fox News on Monday.The system used to manage air traffic at Newark is “incredibly old,” Duffy said.“We use floppy disks. We use copper wires,” he said Friday. “The system that we’re using is not effective to control the traffic that we have in the airspace today.”Duffy has since pledged to implement a new, “state-of-the-art” system at air traffic control facilities across the country that would be the “envy of the world” – but said it might take three to four years.“We are going to radically transform the way air traffic control looks,” Duffy told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham.President Donald Trump has “bought into the plan,” he said.Duffy also reiterated that the airspace was still safe.Peter Goelz, former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board, said he wasn’t sure he’d want to fly out of Newark for the next 10 days.“We have a very safe system, but anytime it’s stressed like this, where you have controllers who are feeling under maximum pressure, it impacts safety – and people have a right to be concerned,” Goelz told CNN.“You cannot expect humans to function at their highest level for sustained periods of time with this kind of pressure on them.”CNN’s Lauren Mascarenhas, Holly Yan, Rene Marsh and Zoe Sottile contributed to this report.