Why US air traffic control is tense

Air traffic controllers have been under strain for many years, but last week we uncovered how decades of understaffing, underinvestment and patchwork solutions have been at the forefront of decades of understaffing, lack of investment and patchwork solutions, due to 90-second equipment failures.

The outages also caused hundreds of flight delays, disrupting the travel of thousands of travelers for days.

On the afternoon of April 28th, the air traffic controller at a Philadelphia facility responsible for guiding the plane between Newar Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, faced a dark radar screen and was unable to speak to the plane for more than a minute.

The stoppage lasted about 30 seconds. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, it took another 30-60 seconds for the aircraft to reappear on the radar corp.

Pilots for major US airlines say they are specially trained to handle such outages.

But Jeff Gutsetti, a retired aviation safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA, said for a few seconds it was “forever for an air traffic controller.”

The incident, which was not the first time the facility had been damaged, has some cases “taken leave to recover from the stress of multiple outages,” the FAA said.

More than 1,500 Newark flights were delayed last week, according to FlightAware. United AirlinesHe said the hub is operating from Newark, which cuts 35 flights a day from its schedule, reducing its operation and burden on customers.

The Newark runway has also been closed for construction, adding to the chaos.

On Wednesday, the FAA said it would work to strengthen staffing at its Philadelphia facility and modify communications lines that provide data to controllers for flights in Newark. It plans to install a temporary backup system there to “provide redundancy during the switch to a more reliable fiber optic network.”

Transport Secretary Sean Duffy is scheduled to announce major upgrade plans for the US air traffic control system on Thursday.

“We have a computer, but today I won’t give birth to you that it’s based on Windows 95 and floppy disks in 2025,” Nick Daniels, chairman of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said in an interview in March.

Last year, the FAA said the tower’s average age was 40 years old, with most radar systems approaching 40 years old. “Aging facilities add risk to the system, including the risk of service disruptions,” he said.

The April 28 incident and previous outages did not cause an accident, but the failure caused more concern about the outdated system and chronic shortage of air traffic controllers, particularly in outer space around New York City.

According to the FAA, US air traffic controllers process approximately 45,000 flights per day.

The urgency to fix lingering issues after a Black Hawk Army helicopter collided has reached a new level American Airlines All 67 people on the plane on the regional jet were killed on January 29th. It was the most fatal air force accident in the United States since 2001.

“For a fatal airline accident to occur, it had to attract the attention of everyone,” Gusetti said.

Newark already deals with space constraints from the start.

Last year it processed flights 414,000 in the country’s port authority data, which reportedly last year handled flights 414,000 in Queens, New York. However, Newark is half the size of the JFK.

Technology glitches and staffing shortages have been particularly difficult in Newark these days. Last year, the FAA sequenced a controller that handles Newark from a facility on Long Island in New York (and also a plane from Queens’ Lagardia Airport to JFK) to a remote station in Philadelphia. The move was intended to ease crowds and tensions at Long Island facilities, but there are still issues.

The lack of air traffic staffing is plaguing airline executives who want to take advantage of strong demand, but are constrained by a lack of controllers, causing them to plague high costs.

“This particular air traffic control facility has been chronically understaffed for years without these controllers, and the FAA is now clear. They say Newark Airport cannot handle the number of planes it is set to operate in weeks and months.”

According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, four flights were cancelled on average in April in April before April 26th, but rose to 39 a day from Monday to Monday. About 80% of flights were scheduled on schedule in April before that day, but fell to 63%.

Duffy says air travel is safe. After visiting the Philadelphia facility last week, he said that if there is a shortage of air traffic controllers, the FAA will be late once it arrives fully, if not stopped.

United CEO Kirby told employees in a memo Wednesday that it was safe to fly to and from Newark. He said the carrier pilot had thousands of hours of experience and training in the procedures for the controller to follow to reestablish contacts to safely move the plane to its destination.

Airlines are seeking capacity restrictions to help with crowds, and the final disruption was no exception.

“United has urged the U.S. government to use its authority to effectively limit airports to what they can realistically deal with,” Kirby said in a note to employees on Friday. “The past failures of not making these changes have led to a united situation and, most importantly, what our customers are facing.”

In 2016, the FAA relaxed flight restrictions at airports, and Kirby said the FAA should return to previous rules.

“It’s been past time when it treats EWR like a crown jewel,” he told an employee on Wednesday using the airport code. “We will work closely with the FAA and (the transport sector) to completely revise the EWR and bring the country a suitable first-class air traffic system.”

According to Controllers’ Union’s NATCA, there are around 10,800 air traffic controllers in the United States, reaching 3,000.

“In the past eight years, we have 146,000 applicants, of which we have hired 7,905,” Chris Wilbanks said in a March interview that he is the FAA’s vice president of mission support, responsible for hiring and training controllers. “Less than 10% of those who apply for the job actually arrive at the Academy (Oklahoma Training) and then graduate and head out into the field.”

In the previous fiscal year, the FAA’s goal was to hire 1,800 controllers.

“We lose 35% of the academy. If we enter the field in vocational training, we lose another 20%. So we don’t net 1,800 controllers,” Wilbanks said.

A tough job requires an air traffic controller to retire at the age of 56, and applicants to the academy are not over 30 years old.

Duffy recently moved to increase financial incentives, including higher wages for air traffic controllers. The median wage for U.S. air traffic controllers is $144,580 a year, but the starting wage is about $45,000, according to the U.S. Labor Bureau.