Issues with air traffic control staffing are under the spotlight following the fatal mid-air collision between an American Airlines plane and a military helicopter in Washington D.C. on Wednesday that killed 67 people.
The air traffic control tower at Reagan Washington National Airport, where the American Airlines plane was headed, was not fully staffed, with one traffic controller handling the jobs of two people. An air traffic control source told CNN such an arrangement is not uncommon.
However, a preliminary Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) internal report said staffing at the air traffic control tower at Reagan Washington National Airport was “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic.”
Why It Matters
Wednesday’s collision was the first major U.S. commercial air crash since February 2009. Following the incident, concerns have been raised about safety protocols, and in a news conference on Thursday, President Donald Trump questioned if diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives were partly to blame for Wednesday night’s crash, claiming that DEI programs had “lowered standards” for hiring air traffic controllers in the Federal Aviation Administration during the Joe Biden and Barack Obama presidencies.
What To Know
Some airports around the country have been operating below the FAA’s recommended staffing levels for air traffic control facilities for years.
Data from the union representing controllers shows that 285 of the country’s 313 air traffic control facilities operate below FAA recommended staffing levels. That amounts to more than 90 percent of the country’s air traffic control facilities. At 73 of those facilities, staffing is so low that at least a quarter of the workforce is missing.
According to the data, the shortage is especially dire in the New York region, where two key facilities on Long Island are operating with nearly 40 percent of positions unfilled. These centers manage air traffic for some of the nation’s busiest airports—Newark, J.F.K., and LaGuardia—which collectively handled 1.2 million flights last year.
Meanwhile, data shows that there is also a shortage of fully qualified air traffic control staff. Training new air traffic controllers can take years—over four at some locations and about 16 months at Reagan National, where this week’s crash occurred, and a 2023 inspector general report noted that training pauses during the pandemic extended certification times, while many older controllers retired.
According to the latest data from the FAA, as of September 2023, only about 70 percent of staffing targets at airport towers and terminal approach facilities nationwide were met by fully certified controllers. When including controllers in training, the figure increased to approximately 79 percent.
Certain traffic control towers at major airports across the country—such as those in Philadelphia, Orlando, Austin, Albuquerque, and Milwaukee—had less than 60 percent of their staffing targets filled by certified controllers. Reagan Airport was slightly better, with about 63 percent of its staffing targets met.
A 2023 inspector general report noted that training pauses during the pandemic extended certification times, while many older controllers retired. Former Department of Transportation inspector general Mary Schiavo pointed out that training air traffic controllers is both expensive and rigorous, with about a third of trainees washing out.
And such staffing issues are nothing new. According to the NASA database, air traffic controllers in the U.S. have been raising alarms about the effects of low staffing levels for years, submitting anonymous reports to NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System. In the past year alone, at least 10 reports from controllers highlighted concerns related to staffing shortages, work schedules, and fatigue.
Hundreds of incidents since 2015 are detailed on the NASA database in which pilots have said they were forced to take evasive action to avoid collision with another aircraft or helicopter when trying to land or depart from the country’s busiest airports.
Reagan National, which processes over 25 million passengers annually, had more of these reports than any of the top 10 busiest airports, with at least 50 such incidents in the past decade. Las Vegas, with nearly 60 million travelers, had over 40 reports, while Miami, which handles twice as many passengers as DCA but filled only 60 percent of staffing targets with certified controllers in 2023, had about 36 reports. Reagan also saw a higher number of near-collisions between aircraft and helicopters, with 23 such incidents since 1988, while most major airports had fewer than five.
In 2023, following a series of close calls at airports, the FAA commissioned a safety review of the national airspace system. The resulting report found that inadequate staffing, outdated equipment, and technology were making safety unsustainable. It also noted that record-high overtime for controllers contributed to fatigue and absences. The report highlighted that, as of August 2023, there were about 1,000 fewer fully certified controllers compared to 2012, despite increased airspace complexity.
The FAA has recently highlighted its progress in hiring more controllers. In the most recent fiscal year, from October 2023 to September 2024, the agency exceeded its hiring goal by bringing on over 1,800 new controllers. In a statement, the FAA called this “important progress… to reverse the decades-long air traffic controller staffing level decline.”
What People Are Saying
In a report to NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System, one controller in Southern California wrote last year: “We have been short-staffed for too many years and it’s creating so many unsafe situations. The FAA has created an unsafe environment to work and for the flying public. The controllers’ mental health is deteriorating.”
What Happens Next
An investigation into Wednesday’s crash is ongoing.
The FAA has said that it expects hiring efforts to fall short of staffing demands this year.
The post Air Traffic Control Staffing Issues in Spotlight After DC Plane Crash appeared first on Newsweek.
