In news presented by this presidential administration that surely was meant to impress us but is actually deeply concerning, the federal government’s attempt at solving the nationwide air traffic controller shortage seems to have begun and ended with recruiting gamers, based on the half-cocked theory that people who play video games somehow have the right stuff to boss around pilots.
The Department of Transportation says more than 2,000 people have been hired this year, with gamers among the applicants targeted by its recruitment campaign. “Among” is the operative term here, because the federal government’s framing of it makes it seem like they snatched a bunch of teens out of a Marvel Rivals lobby, tossed them into the towers, and wished them good luck.
The FAA says gaming can develop useful skills like spatial awareness, multitasking and quick decision-making. Sure, why not. Gamers have reflexes. They communicate. They understand complicated interfaces. Presumably some of them can distinguish between the buttons in a cockpit and the ones on an Xbox controller.
The FAA Thinks Gamers May Have the Skills to Become Air Traffic Controllers
But this gets exceedingly silly when you think about it for approximately two seconds. “Gamers” is an enormous category. I don’t know how that’s defined, and surely someone who plays Grow a Garden in Roblox is not as qualified as someone who has logged thousands of hours in Microsoft Flight Simulator, if even that qualifies you for anything. And then there’s the small matter of whether these people can actually make it through training.
The 2,000 hires aren’t 2,000 fully certified controllers. Training can take two years, and roughly one in three trainees drops out. The Government Accountability Office has reported that only about 2 percent of applicants ultimately complete the entire process and become fully certified.
Meanwhile, the FAA has reduced its 2026 staffing target from 14,633 to 12,563 controllers while boasting that it has reached 94 percent of its hiring goal. In other words, it’s all silly nonsense that doesn’t mean anything and will continue to not mean anything until these alleged gamers are actually certified air traffic controllers who land jobs.
Maybe gaming skills help some people become good air traffic controllers, but planes are not video games, and passengers are not NPCs who can die and be save-scummed back to life. The real test isn’t how many gamers the government can hire. Any idiot can just hand out jobs to any moron with some platinum trophies.
The real test will be how many qualified controllers end up making it through the long, arduous process.
The post The FAA Is Recruiting Gamers to Help Fix Its Air Traffic Controller Shortage appeared first on VICE.
