There may be a job more stressful than that of air traffic controllers, but it is hard to imagine what that might be. How are people motivated to take on such work in places like Newark or Washington D.C.?
Those are questions currently on the desk of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. He has proposed a massive reconstruction and modernization of the air traffic control system. That is a process that will take at least four years, provided that the necessary billions are made available.
Trump, of course, places the blame for the currently disastrous state of the system on the Biden administration. Unmentioned is that fact that the proposal of Biden's transport secretary, Buttigieg, to massively invest in rebuilding the system was torpedoed by congressional Republicans.
It is also worthwhile to look back to the opportunity that was lost in 1981 when Ronald Reagan fired all the air traffic controllers who had struck for better working conditions. Reagan brought in active military controllers as strike breakers, and did an expert PR job of manipulating media accounts to minimize concerns then about controller job stress. That effectively set the pattern for the subsequent twenty-year development of failed policy and performance.
Duffy, to his credit, cut short the DOGE initiative to include controllers in their firing spree, but the subsequent loss of FAA analysts and support staff cannot be without consequences. That shortsightedness seems due in part to overwhelming emphasis on equipment upgrades while continuing to minimize the centrality of human preparedness and performance.
* A Newark air traffic controller on how it felt when systems went dark (NPR)
1 comment:
I remember 1990s or early 2000s attempts to modernize the computer systems and displays used by the ATC system. One of the contractors was IBM. Forbes reported that vast sums were spent with minimal outcome.
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