Quick Study: Air Traffic Control

How does air traffic control work? RD takes a look at the history of controllers and how flights get delayed.

The sky is one giant chessboard for air traffic controllers. In 314 control towers and navigation centers across the country, they hunker down in windowless rooms, staring at color-coded radar screens that show aircraft moving through thousands of square miles. Radio headsets crackle nonstop with pilots requesting course changes, asking for higher or lower altitudes, and, on a bad day, declaring emergencies. Each controller communicates with as many as 30 aircraft at a time, issuing commands that dictate each plane's movement.

A half century ago, flying was a much simpler affair. Pilots navigated by pointing their planes where they wanted to go, and it was up to the captain to steer clear of other aircraft in the sky. But with the surge in air travel following World War II, the Federal Aviation Administration stepped in to regulate commercial flight paths around major airports, and the responsibility for navigation shifted from pilots to air traffic controllers.

Remarkably, navigation technology has changed very little in the 50 years since its debut. Despite flying modern planes stacked with computers, pilots lack the capability to "see" the traffic around them and must rely on ground-based controllers for directions. The controllers, in turn, use a patchwork quilt of ground-based radar and radio transmitters to keep planes away from one another. The truth is, your car's GPS system has more precision than the air traffic control technology in use today.

Time Line

Early 1900s -- After the Wright brothers' first powered flight in 1903, aviation technology takes off. With the advent of airmail in 1918, the number of flights (and concerns about in-air collisions) soars. In 1921 the Post Office creates a system of rotating beacons, or transmitters, on towers to guide pilots.

Late 1920s -- The Air Commerce Act of 1926 ushers in airline regulation. In 1929 the city of St. Louis hires Archie League, the country's first air traffic controller. He uses two signal flags to direct planes. Red means hold; black-and-white means go.

1930s -- Airlines begin putting radios in planes; radio transmitters are installed at airports. Ground-to-air communication is now possible.

W. L. Smith flew in rain and fog to test new radio technology in 1929.

1940s -- World War II brings radar and the first women to air traffic control.

1950s and 1960s -- Congress creates the FAA to oversee air traffic. With new computer systems that can pinpoint a plane's position, speed, and altitude, controllers can now see air traffic in 3-D.

1970s and 1980s -- After Congress passes the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, fares drop and air traffic increases. This leads to a strike by the air traffic controllers' union in

1981 -- On day three, President Reagan fires 11,000 strikers. The FAA hires new workers.

1990s -- Color displays replace monochrome screens in the control towers.

2001 -- On September 11, 2001, controllers can't prevent planes from crashing in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania-but they do guide 4,500 planes carrying 350,000 passengers to safe landings (75 percent within the first hour). In the months afterward, air travel plummets and five airlines declare bankruptcy.

2002 to the present -- By 2003, sales are back up and planes are 90 percent full. The number of passengers reaches a record high in 2007 -- the same year the number of fully certified controllers (11,140) hits a 15-year low.

Flash Points

The worst staffing crisis to hit aviation in a generation is now plaguing the FAA, which employs 90 percent of the nation's air traffic controllers. Thousands of controllers hired to replace those fired during the 1981 strike are reaching retirement age (for this industry, it's mandatory at 56) and leaving.

Contract negotiations have stalled between the FAA and the controllers' union. The sides haven't been able to reach an agreement on salaries and work conditions since 2006.

Inexperience abounds. Twenty-five percent of today's controllers are trainees; the number has doubled in the past year.

The remaining controllers are working longer hours: Overtime increased 50 percent from 2006 to 2007. Some airports are understaffed to the point that only one controller monitors aircraft at a given time. When Comair Flight 5191 took off from the wrong runway at Lexington, Kentucky's Blue Grass Airport on August 27, 2006, one controller was on duty and hadn't seen the pilot steer onto a runway that was too short. Forty-seven people died when the plane overran the runway and crashed; critics say the accident could have been avoided if a second controller had been monitoring the plane's ground movements.

Forward Thinking

Better technology is in the works. The FAA is seeking $14 billion in funding from Congress to launch NextGen, a program that would replace ground-based technology with navigation satellites by 2020. (Similar systems are already in use in Europe and Australia.) Using a powerful GPS-like device (called Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, or ADS-B) installed on all aircraft, pilots would be able to track every plane in their airspace instead of waiting for controllers to warn of nearby traffic. The goal: to enable planes to fly closer together and more directly to their destinations.

Recruitment is now a priority. Last year the FAA hosted seven job fairs across the country to attract new controllers. It also increased the number of colleges that train new controllers by nine, to a total of 23.

Training time is down. With the latest computer-simulator training programs, controllers learn the necessary skills faster. It used to take three to five years to earn full certification; now it's two and a half. Financial incentives are up. Money talks: The FAA is paying $24,000 bonuses to veteran air traffic controllers who stay in the industry, $20,000 to controllers with military experience, and $10,000 signing bonuses to new controllers.

The Back-and-Forth

'What you're doing is putting together a jigsaw puzzle that's moving at 1,000 miles per hour. Your decisions have to be right all the time.' --Scott Conde, Oakland Center air traffic control specialist

'Controllers are tired, and they make mistakes. They don't want to be put in a situation where they're going to kill people.' --Patrick Forrey, head of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association

'Everyone except the FAA acknowledges there is a problem with staffing, and the most experienced controllers are leaving. The agency is in denial.'
--Rep. Jerry Costello (D-IN), head of the House aviation subcommittee

'We'll have times when staffing will be a lot tighter than we'd like. I think the hiring is going very, very well.'
--Robert Sturgell, acting administrator of the FAA

Pilots With Problems

Shortly after 10 a.m. on February 13, as Go! Airlines Flight 1002 made the 214-mile hop from Honolulu to Hilo, Hawaii, air traffic controllers were becoming frantic. Getting no response from the captain and copilot, they began yelling over the radio as the 50-seat jet overshot the airport by 15 miles at 21,000 feet. Finally, the pilots responded. The FAA is now investigating whether they fell asleep. (Oh, and the airline fired them.)

The episode brought to light a hidden danger in the cockpit: pilot fatigue. The problem began after 9/11, when demand for air travel plunged and many pilots' salaries were cut by 30 percent. Pilots are paid for every hour they fly, so they've taken on more flights to compensate.

Financially squeezed airlines are also pressuring pilots to fly more hours so they can employ fewer of them. Under current regulations, pilots are permitted to fly 100 hours per month; many are reaching that number. "You need recuperating time, and now people are pushing it to the limit," says Mark Seal, a pilot for United Airlines.

"It used to be you'd do one international trip per week," says John Prater, president of the Airline Pilots Association. "Now it's not uncommon to do six of those a month. There is never time to catch up." This summer, the FAA is convening a conference of pilots, doctors, and airline representatives to discuss the fatigue factor and potential solutions.

Another issue: Pilots have less experience than they used to. "When I got hired with Continental in January 1978, I had over 5,000 hours. At this point, the industry is hiring pilots with 250 to 500 hours," says Prater. This is partly because fewer pilots are being hired from the military, where historically they gained thousands of hours of experience. (The military has fewer pilots now and does a better job of retaining them.) But with low starting salaries (from $18,000 at a regional airline to $40,000 with a major carrier), it's tough to recruit anyone but recent flight-school grads.

The bottom line: A pilot shortage looms. The airline industry will need to hire 100,000 new pilots by 2020 to keep up with demand, according to Air Inc., a company that tracks pilot hirings; this exceeds the current capacity of flight schools. "The jobs aren't attractive anymore," says Juergen Haacker of the International Air Transport Association. "Being a pilot is like bus driving now."