Black Wednesday (September 15, 1954)

In the 1940s and 1950s air travel increased at a greater rate than air traffic control's ability to handle the traffic. In normal clear weather pilots could fly without air traffic control but when inclement weather occurs pilots would obtain clearance from air traffic control and fly on the federal airways at 50 to 100 miles separation. Frequently, weather would overload the system and cause delays up to 1,000 miles away. Black Wednesday was a particularly bad example of air traffic control's inability to handle current traffic levels. The most extreme case of this occurred when inclement weather approached New York City, on September 15, 1954. Air traffic controllers were confronted with a record number of pilots filing instrument flight plans causing severe traffic congestion and substantial delays amongst 45,000 airliners and private aircraft all along the eastern seaboard of the United States ().

Nolan, M.S. (1999). Fundamentals of air traffic control. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks Cole Publishing Company.