According to hundreds of air traffic controllers across the nation, the Trump Administration’s prioritization of cutting costs has come at the expense of public safety. What’s more, they’re afraid to raise their concerns out of fear of retribution from the government. This is according to a new bombshell report published by the Washington Examiner on Friday, which revealed “low morale” among air traffic controllers and “heightened risk” for travelers flying during the busy Labor Day weekend.
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“Air traffic controllers are accusing the Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration of prioritizing efficiency and cost-cutting over public safety, a shift that workers warn has driven morale to an all-time low and placed the flying public at heightened risk,” wrote the Examiner. The paper spoke with over 400 air traffic controllers who “warned that the nation’s aviation system has reached a breaking point.”
According to the Examiner, “These mounting problems have placed immense pressure on an exhausted, underpaid, and mentally stressed workforce expected to perform flawlessly every time they sit at the controls. The crisis has led to tragic and unprecedented outcomes: insiders note that suicides among controllers are eight times the national average, while tenured employees are increasingly walking away from the agency years before reaching mandatory retirement age.” As one controller explained, “We work hard every day and take a tremendous amount of pride in what we do. Most of us are veterans. We have been completely demoralized for the past five years while trying to manage the busiest airspace in the world with more airplanes than any other time in aviation.”
Controllers assert that FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford’s approach to air safety is “entirely backward, treating a federal safety agency like a corporate balance sheet by trying to squeeze out every ounce of productivity from controllers. Critics say he is running the FAA like a capitalist businessman, prioritizing cost-effectiveness as he did at his former company, regional Republic Airways, while treating public safety as a secondary concern. One controller from the New York Center who retired in August said he chose to leave after more than two decades due to the deteriorating culture. ‘With the administration that’s in now, the morale in that building is at an all-time low,’ he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The retired controller stated that management at his facility focused heavily on keeping controllers on shift longer, a move he says actively endangers the public.”
“What upset the workforce most,” writes the Examiner, “was Bedford’s admission that the FAA is withholding a 2.8 percent retroactive raise, and wrongly claiming it was a union issue and not under the FAA’s control.” While Congress approved and funded the compensation package months ago, Bedford asserts that it is on hold until the agency can “unlock more productivity” from controllers by having them work five hours at the controls each shift instead of the current four. As one controller put it, “Controllers are working harder than ever, moving more traffic than ever, and are responsible for a large portion of the country’s GDP but Bedford and [Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy] are literally trying to make [the] job more difficult instead of helping us.”
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What’s more, the government is well aware that emphasizing productivity does not result in safety. According to the Examiner, “The National Transportation Safety Board told Congress in February that ‘research in a simulated air traffic control room showed that extended time on task (over 90 minutes) increased detection latency for complex events such as two aircraft at the same altitude on the same flight path.’ This means every additional minute a controller is forced to work beyond that window drastically increases the likelihood of a catastrophic miscall, making sheer productivity a potentially dangerous metric for success. Additionally, air travel has surged since 1980. More than 906 million people boarded flights in the United States last year compared to 295 million in 1980, yet thousands fewer certified controllers work today than 46 years ago — about 11,000 now compared to 16,300 then.”
Every controller that spoke with the paper reported “a long-term trend of getting just four days off per month. Shifts regularly span 10 hours. Instead of working a standard four-day, 40-hour week, controllers are assigned two mandatory overtime shifts per week, forcing them into six-day workweeks that often devastate family and personal life, as well as complicate mental health.” They say they’re “buckling” under the strain, and while they are unionized, several current and retired controllers told the Examiner their union has so far been “treading lightly with the Trump administration out of concern the government could legally decertify the union, as the Reagan administration did.”
Warnings about air traffic safety come as the nation heads into Labor Day weekend, one of the busiest travel days of the year. An expected 3 million people are expected to take to the skies.
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