Good morning fellow ECAHF’ers. Most of us fly. Well, at least most of us fly for business or pleasure on commercial airliners. But few of us have been inside an Air Traffic Control (ATC) airport control tower or in an enroute ATC facility controlling flight operations. What happens in these facilities is not “controlled chaos” like depicted in the movies. It’s actually relatively quiet, controlled, and unemotional in terminal (tower and ground control) and enroute ATC facilities.
ATC is sort of like an iceberg. A large part—one of the most vital parts—of how we get from point A to point B in the air is hidden in those ATC facilities. We see the planes and the flight crew and we surmise the engineering and construction of the aircraft and the maintenance and scheduling required behind us getting comfortably and safely from point A to point B, but the controlling of that flight from point A to point B and safely separating the scores of aircraft flying in close proximity to each other? Those operations are unseen. Unless we’re in control of an aircraft, we hardly think about them, if we think of them at all.
But as quiet and controlled as the environment in ATC facilities may be, the job of an air traffic controller is one of the most stressful in the world for several reasons, not the least of which is that Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) controllers can be responsible for the lives of thousands during a typical shift and are required to be on duty 24/7, every day of every year.
According to Business Insider’s Pete Syme in an article entitled Air traffic controllers are overworked and stressed — and that's dangerous for safe flying published this past March, “An initiative to help prevent close calls between aircraft was announced by the Federal Aviation Administration this week.
“Arrival Alert Notices are aimed at stopping ‘wrong-surface’ events, such as a plane landing on the wrong runway or lining up on the wrong taxiway — creating the risk of a collision.
“The notices, which the FAA started testing in 2022, give pilots an aerial view of an airport during pre-flight planning.
“General aviation pilots account for 83% of wrong-surface events, the FAA said. But there have also been several recent instances involving commercial airlines.
“Last year, The New York Times found that near-misses between aircraft were happening more often than previously thought.
“In January 2023, an American Airlines plane taxied onto the runway at JFK Airport while a Delta Air Lines flight was about to take off.
“And in July, an Allegiant Air flight attendant was injured when the plane suddenly shot upwards to avoid a nearby private jet at the same altitude.
“Despite the best efforts of pilots and air traffic controllers, sometimes collisions do happen.
“Earlier in February, two JetBlue planes collided, with one plane's wing hitting the other's tail in a de-icing area at Boston Logan International Airport. It was the third plane collision at the airport within a year, although nobody was injured.
“The dangers were made clear in January when a Japan Airlines A350 caught fire after hitting a smaller plane on the runway at Tokyo Haneda Airport. Five were killed in the mishap.
“An FAA representative told Business Insider its plans included "technologies that provide capabilities to improve controller situational awareness and reduce runway incursions," such as a device that gives an audible and visual alert to controllers.
“One major cause of near-misses is the strained workload of air traffic controllers.
“Rich Santa, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, previously told Business Insider that many controllers are working six-day weeks and ten-hour days.
“Long hours and irregular shifts also cause fatigue, which in turn leads to more problems at airports — as pointed out by Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, during a Senate hearing last November.
“‘Air traffic controllers are being required to do mandatory overtime,’ she said. ‘It ends up leading to fatigue and distraction, which is exactly what we're seeing as part of these incident investigations. And it all just comes down to the shortage of staffing.’
“A government audit released last June found 77% of critical ATC facilities are understaffed.
“Paul Rinaldi, a former NATCA president, told Forbes that shortages began back in 2013 due to funding restrictions from budget sequestration.
“‘They closed the air traffic control academy,’ he said. ‘They looked at reducing hours and many air traffic facilities. They looked at closing and cutting more than 100 federal contract towers, and stopped most modernization projects.’
“It's also a notoriously difficult job, so there are lots of training requirements. When the world was struck by the COVID pandemic, many training programs were paused, in turn delaying certification for controllers.
“The FAA is trying to combat the shortage in a variety of ways, like streamlining training programs.
“An FAA spokesperson said it is ‘accelerating air traffic controller hiring by moving to a year-round hiring track for experienced controllers from the military and private industry,’ and enhancing training with modernized simulators.
“It's also put together a panel to review air traffic controller fatigue.
“‘The panel will examine how the latest science on sleep needs and fatigue considerations could be applied to controller work requirements and scheduling,’ Whitaker said during the congressional hearing.
“That includes ‘risks associated with controller fatigue resulting from shifting schedules and excessive overtime.’
“Now it looks like controllers' sleep schedules are set to receive more attention. Not because they're unavoidably changing time zones like pilots, but because the work is so demanding.”
Notwithstanding the stress that ATC controllers have faced and continue to face, on this day in aviation history on August 5, 1981 and according to History.com, “President Ronald Reagan began firing 11,359 air-traffic controllers striking in violation of his order for them to return to work. The executive action, regarded as extreme by many, significantly slowed air travel for months.
“Two days earlier, on August 3, almost 13,000 air-traffic controllers went on strike after negotiations with the federal government to raise their pay and shorten their workweek proved fruitless. The controllers complained of difficult working conditions and a lack of recognition of the pressures they face. Across the country, some 7,000 flights were canceled. The same day, President Reagan called the strike illegal and threatened to fire any controller who had not returned to work within 48 hours. Robert Poli, president of the Professional Air-Traffic Controllers Association (PATCO), was found in contempt by a federal judge and ordered to pay $1,000 a day in fines.
“On August 5, an angry President Reagan carried out his threat, and the federal government began firing the 11,359 air-traffic controllers who had not returned to work. In addition, he declared a lifetime ban on the rehiring of the strikers by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). On August 17, the FAA began accepting applications for new air-traffic controllers, and on October 22 the Federal Labor Relations Authority decertified PATCO.”
Onward and upward!
Barry R. Fetzer
ECAHF Historian