An exclusive report by the New York Post claims that on Monday evening between 18:30 to 21:30, flights out of Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) were handled by just one air traffic controller and a trainee. The report quotes a New York-based controller describing the situation as “pure insanity.” It also noted that an FAA spokesperson said that there were at least three controllers scheduled for each hour on Monday night but did not clarify how many of them were fully certified personnel.
The New York Times reported something similar, adding that four people familiar with the situation said that the number of fully certified controllers on duty to manage Newark’s air traffic was sometimes one or two. These figures are shocking because the target number of controllers for Newark to manage traffic in those hours is around 14-15.
Here’s a fantastic case for a union. There simply MUST be a minimum number of personnel looking after any given airspace for it to be considered safe, or the whole area gets shut down. It really is pure insanity, and no single person should be responsible for all flights at an airport. If something bad had happened who would get blamed? Who would live the rest of their life knowing they had been taken advantage of and put in a position where over a hundred lives were lost? It’s simply unacceptable that one person should bear that responsibility.
Oh they had one. In 1981 they called a strike, and Reagan fired the 11 000 ATC who were on strike.
That is one of the reasons why labor protection are virtually inexistent in the US, as it’s illegal for federal employees to strike. Wild…
The weird thing for me here is why does the president have power over the employment of random government employees. I’m used to employment having legal protections so that prople can’t be fired just because.
The US doesn’t care about their labor force.
because we’re a family company!!
Every generation of Americans decide they want their President to be a bit more like the king that they rebelled from.
This is what pisses me off the most they’re slow walking back to King George III like nothing happened.
The President is the head of the executive branch. i.e the Chief Executive. i.e. CEO.
Not defending this, just an explanation. Usually it works ok, but not when we elect Republicans as we’ve seen again and again.
Haven’t you ever heard of sMaLL gOvErNmEnT??
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Überlingen_mid-air_collision
“Devastated by the death of his wife and two children aboard flight 2937, Vitaly Kaloyev, a Russian architect, held Peter Nielsen personally responsible for their deaths. He tracked down and stabbed Nielsen to death, in the presence of Nielsen’s wife and three children, at his home in Kloten, near Zürich, on 24 February 2004. The Swiss police arrested Kaloyev at a local motel shortly afterward, and in 2005, he was sentenced to eight years for manslaughter. However, his sentence was later reduced after a Swiss judge ruled that he had acted with diminished responsibility.”
By his logic, Nielsen’s kids should now hunt him and kill him for killing their father.
Don’t read that article any further. It only gets worse.
They do have a union