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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
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