An exclusive report by the New York Post claims that on Monday evening between 18:30 to 21:30, flights out of Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) were handled by just one air traffic controller and a trainee. The report quotes a New York-based controller describing the situation as “pure insanity.” It also noted that an FAA spokesperson said that there were at least three controllers scheduled for each hour on Monday night but did not clarify how many of them were fully certified personnel.
The New York Times reported something similar, adding that four people familiar with the situation said that the number of fully certified controllers on duty to manage Newark’s air traffic was sometimes one or two. These figures are shocking because the target number of controllers for Newark to manage traffic in those hours is around 14-15.
Could you imagine. For three straight hours, having thousands of lives in your hands knowing full well one mistake could send hundreds of them to their deaths. Bruh. Air traffic controllers need to strike.
Especially since I believe they are supposed to take a ten minute break every hour of work
How’d that work out last time?
How hard would it be to piss on Reagan’s grave?
They are federal employees. Federal employees can’t go on strike. Shit is fucked up. The US hates it’s labor force and that’s by design.
I keep seeing people say that… But what are they going to do? Fire them?! They have a fucking moral obligation to those flying under their watch, and if they are unable to do that for whatever reason, everything needs to stop until the issues are resolved. Not continuously hoping that crash won’t happen. It’s a matter of when not if.
All of your questions can literally be answered with history, as this type of stuff has already happened. Long story short, since others have typed it here as well, Reagan as president fired all 11k ATC workers and forced the Air Force to help pick up the slack while they looked for more workers. Some of those ATC workers got rehired, but it essentially prevents ATC from having any control of their careers.
forced the Air Force to help pick up the slack
Kindly, do you have a primary source for this? I would like to learn more.
Here is a politico article. About 900 Air Force Controllers were put to work in civilian towers, along with the 3000 supervisors around the country and 2000 non-striking controllers. The article fails to mention Reagan reversed his lifetime ban a few months later and began rehiring controllers.
Thank you
ATC towers were staffed by non-striking ATCs, along with military personnel and retired ATCs who agreed to return to work.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_Professional_Air_Traffic_Controllers_Organization_strike
Thank you
Not OP but “Collision Course: Ronald Reagan, the Air Traffic Controllers, and the Strike That Changed America” by Joseph A. McCartin. This book provides an in-depth analysis of the events surrounding the strike, including the role of military personnel in air traffic control during the crisis.
Thank you
and apparently the stress level and PTSD without actual incidents is very high. can’t imagine being responsible for that many lives and probably not getting paid nearly enough.
It’s less the pay and more the conditions. There isn’t really a wage that would justify making aomeone work like that.
Ya they signed up to help planes land safely. They didn’t sign up for incompetent leadership and stress. Too many people in America think, well they signed up for the job so bite the bullet. But no! If you’re job is made harder and more stressful because of poor working conditions, poor leadership, and poor compensation “You did but sign up for that shit!” you signed up because the alternative is worse. Additionally every corporation have decided together to race to the bottom so no matter where you work it’s wealthy ass hats making decisions. You didn’t sign up for that.
He probably needs a drink after that shift
It’s already one of the highest stress jobs out there, I can’t imagine after this…
I think one of the biggest problems is the government cutting and not investing in our infrastructure just to give hand outs to big businesses and the wealthy.
Newark running a whole real busy airport like M. Bjoernstroem running his remote Swedish airport, wtf?
I categorically refuse to fly under Trump’s FAA.
The thing is it’s not Trump. Or more precisely it’s not only Trump. This shit started with Reagan. He decided to break the air traffic controller Union and in doing so he inexorably steered us down this path of chaos with our airplanes and airports. Trump is only the most recent president to throw gasoline on this particular fire. Biden did too so did Obama so did Bush.
The thing about Trump though is that he’s setting up even more situations that are going to be exactly like this with all the other agencies he’s trying to de-unionize.
I really wish we had better trains in the USA.
Here is the neat part. ATC controllers in training needed a huge bump in recruiting numbers 10 years ago. These jobs aren’t something you can pull people off the street to do. There can be zero mistakes, trainees need to be vetted and undergo tons of hours in training and education to be experienced enough to work unsupervised in the tower.
I reckon we are past the point of no return with the current system. Either we are going to see a reduction in operational airports or we are gonna see a lot more automated systems directing traffic.
Another option: high speed trains
oh no sorry, it’s US
Not trying to be a pessimist. But we need solutions in the next few months to a year. Even if we went all in on high speed rails, its gonna be years before there are tangible impacts to transportation.
Haven’t you been paying attention? AI will do it.
Yeah, that’s what they just said, Al from Newark did it all for a full 3 hours.
The man’s an absolute megamind.
Al AI huh can’t tell them apart. Font failure.
Put some respect on A1’s name
For high steaks work, trust A1.
No thanks we are a proud red blooded American nation and we use ketchup like real men.
Or option 3: the whole airport system collapses.
Well im glad im reading this after I landed bc wtf
I see lots of dead people in the future of flight.
just what I want to hear from a drunk engineer : )
Sounds like he’s in a very strong bargaining position at least
Voting to make cuts to an already ailing ATC system makes no sense to me. Simply from a self-preservation aspect, I would think this is one service that all politicians and oligarchs would maintain. It doesn’t matter if you fly private or commercial, everyone uses and needs ATC to fly safely.
At least with something like global warming/climate change, I can see people selfishly believing it won’t effect them during their lifetime, but the 2nd and 3rd order effects of removing ATC can be immediate and fatal.
I only hope that a minimum number of bystanders are killed when poetic justice occurs.
It’s because the people at the tip top who regulate ATC don’t have any idea what’s actually involved. The actual regulators are very experienced and valuable. The suits think ‘It already works so why spend money on a system that already works.’ It gives a financial opportunity to cut on capital expenditures and engage in stock buy backs.
Maybe elon convinced them that grok could do the job next year. The same as robotaxis are a thing since 2018.
It’s probably going to take several fully loaded passenger jets or just two private jets colliding.
Whacko conspiracy time: they’re also working on cutting down Amtrak’s staffing and cutting funding for rail transit. Gas is expensive af and driving is uncomfortable and slow (not that Amtrak is any faster). What if the plan here is to just make interstate travel so painful that people stop travelling? I doubt it, though, I think this is just extra strong vanilla incompetence. I can’t imagine what the point of that would be, for starters.
In my admittedly limited experience, rail is a hell of a lot faster getting into an urban area.
It depends a lot on where you are. In the west? 50% of Amtrak stations are out in a suburb or a field or some bullshit like that. In the east, you’re absolutely correct. We’ve basically spent 100 years dismantling, underfunding, and obstructing passenger rail to prioritize cars, and it, uh, shows.
Think of it this way: You need to get out of a bad living situation, and you have $1000 that you can allocate to travel. If there’s public transit to an airport, you can easily take a flight to anywhere in the country, or even to another country, well within that budget. If you can get on a bus, you can make it at least a few states away. If you can get on a train, likely to any state on it’s network.
If none of those are available, you have to buy a car or take taxis. Buying a car means buying gas and insurance, plus having a license, and the cost of registration. That $1000 might get you about as far as a full tank of gas will last, the license plate is traceable, and you have a much higher chance of getting hurt in an accident.
Now consider that situation, and you are a pregnant woman in Mississippi, which has some of the most restrictive laws banning abortion. You live in an abusive household and want to leave, as well as end the pregnancy. With access to a bus and plane, you can get to anywhere in the US to have your abortion, likely with money to spare. If you only have a car and one tank of gas, you’re not going to make it to any state that would allow that abortion.
This kind of shit is part of how I square government-supplied mass transit with libertarian/anarchist views. Cars are the gateway to so much intrusive, authoritarian bullshit, it’s actually nuts how people see them as tools of freedom.
Give them a raise! Fire everybody who let and allowed this to happen.
What if he needs to take a dump?
Was he not wearing socks?
Not after the first hour or so.
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I recall he was left watching someone else’s screen while they went out for a break. He did notice the collision course but unfortunately gave one aircraft a direction that was the opposite of the TCAS directive, then missed further radio comms, so the confused crew followed the ATC order and collided with the other aircraft. I think that air traffic controller got hunted down and killed by the husband of one of the victims too… a horribly tragic story for all concerned really.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Überlingen_mid-air_collision
One of them followed TCAS, according to procedure, the other one mistankenly thought they were supposed to follow ATC. So they both ended up going the same direction.
New Standard Operating Procedure that is clarified after the accident is that you always ignore ATC and follow the TCAS Resolution Advisory.
If ATC says anything, pilots are supposed to say “Unable, Resolution Advisory”
there is a reason they say ‘safety regulations are written in blood’…
this won’t change until there is a major disaster, and even then, there is no reason to think it will make any difference to this current dumpster fire of an administration…
(…not to disparage dumpster fires, as they at the very least provide heat and light)
It takes like 2 years of specialized training to get operators in these comm towers.
Part of me is wondering if they’re purposely allowing a disaster to occur so they can push through some bullshit AI solution and layoff all existing human ATC
Private jets use mostly the same runways and traffic patterns, and they have enough political power to do whatever they want without prior justification. Occam’s and Hanlon’s razors both tell us it’s probably just greedy idiots. They might try some AI bullshit, but only as part of their tried-and-true method of “break things first and panic later when you realize they were load-bearing”
Hanlon’s razor is bullshit. Especially when we’re being governed by malicious assholes
