Air traffic controllers who lost communication with aircraft at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, leading to hundreds of delays for more than a week, are taking special government leave for traumatic situations to recover from the stress.

Earlier on Monday, April 28, air traffic controllers were suddenly unable to get in contact with an undisclosed number of planes streaming into Newark. In a statement, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association union says that its controllers “temporarily lost radar and communications with the aircraft under their control,