A ground stop was issued at Newark Liberty International Airport on Monday morning after the air traffic control tower was evacuated due to smoke. A burning smell had been detected from an elevator. Arrivals and departures were temporarily paused. “An FAA spokesperson confirmed there was no fire and the controllers evacuated the tower due to a burning smell from an elevator,” ABC7 New York wrote. “The ground stop at Newark was lifted just after 8:30 a.m. Newark’s ground stop came amid regional travel chaos; nearby LaGuardia Airport closed hours earlier following a plane-truck collision on a runway,” it continued. Newark Liberty International Airport experienced a ground stop Monday morning after a report of smoke in the air traffic control tower. An FAA spokesperson confirmed there was no fire and the controllers evacuated the tower due to a burning smell from an elevator. The ground… pic.twitter.com/QxxK8i3j8M — Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) March 23, 2026 ABC7 New York shared further: The air traffic controllers were moved to the backup facility on site. Flights were forced to hold, but then air traffic controllers were seen moving back to the tower by 8:30 a.m. Flights were spotted landing at the airport and the ground stop was lifted. Nearby LaGuardia Airport remains closed after a plane collided with a truck on a runway. LaGuardia Airport will remain closed until at least 2 p.m. EST. What a horrific incident. My thoughts are with the victims and their families. Will be critical to learn what failures allowed this to happen. In meantime LaGuardia is closed until at least 2:00pm today. NYPD has advised that all streets and highway exits into the airport are… https://t.co/F8wSSBzSfh — Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) March 23, 2026 More from the New York Post: Passengers at airports across the country have been subjected to hours-long security delays because of the ongoing Transportation Security Administration shutdown. Two pilots were killed late Sunday at LaGuardia Airport in Queens when an Air Canada-operated flight collided with a fire truck on the runway.