WASHINGTON - Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY17) of Rockland and Westchester counties Wednesday criticized the Federal Aviation Administration for a breakdown of its computers Tuesday that left airline passengers across the country stranded in midair and hours late on their flights.

“This is the same agency that is making a true mess of the airport redesign in the metropolitan area, making a bad situation worse in its efforts to cut flight delays through the country,” said Engel.

“Now their computers malfunction for hours, crowding the skies with planes. This is not the leadership we want in an agency that has so much responsibility for the safety of passengers,” he said. “There is a pattern of ineptness emerging here that is intolerable. The FAA must get its act together before something truly horrific happens.”