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.

  • dellish@lemmy.world
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    15 days ago

    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.

    • throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works
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      15 days ago

      If something bad had happened who would get blamed?

      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.”

    • ByteJunk@lemmy.world
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      15 days ago

      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…

      • justgohomealready@sh.itjust.works
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        15 days ago

        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.

  • N0body@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    15 days ago

    Move fast and break things: air traffic controller trainee edition

    There needs to be a nationwide, unionized air traffic controller “consultant” business formed for when the shit hits the fan. Pay these people what they deserve to fix the disasters that will be caused by their ill treatment.

    • Bahnd Rollard@lemmy.world
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      15 days ago

      You forget the last time ATCs tried to stand up for themselves, Regan fired the entire industry and made the air force pick up the pieces until replacements could be trained. They should be considered as invalueble to society as doctors, but just like teachers, their industry is turbo fucked by their own managment.

      • Ænima@lemm.ee
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        14 days ago

        You forget the last time ATCs tried to stand up for themselves, Regan fired the entire industry…

        Yeah but Reagan is dead this time!

      • chilicheeselies@lemmy.world
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        14 days ago

        What they dont talk about much though is that many of those same atcs that got fired got rehired. Its such a specialized job and so few are able to do it that they really dont have a choice.

    • aramova@infosec.pub
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      15 days ago

      That’s what Taterboro (TEB) is for.

      Only private jets can land there due to its runway weight limit, it’s the oldest still operating airport in the NYC area, hell Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart flew out of it when JFK was still some farm land.

      Easy ride into the city via the GWB or a helio

      • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
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        14 days ago

        What air space do they use though? I grew up in Chicago and the air traffic controllers controlled all of the airports, O’Hare, Midway, etc. The actual controllers were in a far off suburb. Since Jersey and New York are close by, I bet they control a lot of the periphery of New York or maybe work together.

        My good friend’s dad in college was an air traffic controller. Alcoholism is a side effect due to the stress. They thought it was great pay, but not necessarily worth it.

    • Apytele@sh.itjust.works
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      15 days ago

      They probably have a chauffer drive them out of the city to a smaller airport while their personal assistant makes sure they get everything else done in the car on the way.

  • Trimatrix@lemmy.world
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    15 days ago

    Here is the neat part. ATC controllers in training needed a huge bump in recruiting numbers 10 years ago. These jobs aren’t something you can pull people off the street to do. There can be zero mistakes, trainees need to be vetted and undergo tons of hours in training and education to be experienced enough to work unsupervised in the tower.

    I reckon we are past the point of no return with the current system. Either we are going to see a reduction in operational airports or we are gonna see a lot more automated systems directing traffic.

      • friedmag@lemmy.ml
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        14 days ago

        Why does law only matter when applied to workers? They’d be better off just ghosting than pocket lines, admittedly.

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      14 days ago

      I don’t know the full details, but I’m not sure how being more organized in the Reagan era would have helped. If the boss is willing to fire everyone, then a strike doesn’t matter anymore.

      I guess you could do more to try to prevent scabs from coming in? It’s already incredibly difficult to train up the scabs in this particular niche, and they were willing to go that route, anyway.

      • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
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        14 days ago

        They’re understaffed as fuck. The scabs would be completely unqualified and people will die. Not a good look for those striking but at this point it sounds like every day without a crash is a miracle. I completely support a strike.

  • NatakuNox@lemmy.world
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    14 days ago

    Could you imagine. For the straight hours, having thousands of lives in your hands knowing full well one mistake could send hundreds of them to their deaths. Bruh. Air traffic controllers need to strike.

    • Scotty_Trees@lemmy.world
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      14 days ago

      They are federal employees. Federal employees can’t go on strike. Shit is fucked up. The US hates it’s labor force and that’s by design.

      • NatakuNox@lemmy.world
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        14 days ago

        I keep seeing people say that… But what are they going to do? Fire them?! They have a fucking moral obligation to those flying under their watch, and if they are unable to do that for whatever reason, everything needs to stop until the issues are resolved. Not continuously hoping that crash won’t happen. It’s a matter of when not if.

    • MeThisGuy@feddit.nl
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      14 days ago

      and apparently the stress level and PTSD without actual incidents is very high. can’t imagine being responsible for that many lives and probably not getting paid nearly enough.

      • NatakuNox@lemmy.world
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        14 days ago

        Ya they signed up to help planes land safely. They didn’t sign up for incompetent leadership and stress. Too many people in America think, well they signed up for the job so bite the bullet. But no! If you’re job is made harder and more stressful because of poor working conditions, poor leadership, and poor compensation “You did but sign up for that shit!” you signed up because the alternative is worse. Additionally every corporation have decided together to race to the bottom so no matter where you work it’s wealthy ass hats making decisions. You didn’t sign up for that.

      • Soggy@lemmy.world
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        14 days ago

        It’s less the pay and more the conditions. There isn’t really a wage that would justify making aomeone work like that.

  • magikmw@lemm.ee
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    15 days ago

    That controller should have walked off and notified media no flights should be handled by Newark until they get their shit together.

    This type of heroics can kill people.

    • HotChickenFeet@sopuli.xyz
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      14 days ago

      Usually, it’s a chain of errors/failures that leads to accidents, after the many years of dissecting and trying to prevent air disasters.

      2002 Uberlingen collision is one such case where while the reliance on a sole air traffic controller was part of that chain. And that was with one controller instead of the desired two. 50% headcount. Here it’s 1 or 2 instead of 14-15? That’s 7-14% headcount.

      We know overworking people and understaffing introduce substantial risk to managing, assisting, and responding to flights. Even supposing this poor soul could adequately manage the workload by themselves, the introduction of a single problem could throw all of it off.

      • AtariDump@lemmy.world
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        14 days ago

        And it’s a shame that the ATC was murder. He had a small margin of blame, but not enough to kill over.

    • pleasegoaway@lemm.ee
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      14 days ago

      Yeah. Or the ATC could just tell all incoming planes to divert to another airport because it is “not safe to land”.

      It would cause chaos and keep everyone a bit safer.

      If there is only one ATC at the helm, precisely ZERO flights should come or go.

      • mhague@lemmy.world
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        14 days ago

        I’m glad I’m not the only one who gets annoying comments from people who can’t read

        • Jhex@lemmy.world
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          14 days ago

          This type of heroics can kill people.

          So that line is not placing blame on the traffic controller holding the tower together?

          • mhague@lemmy.world
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            14 days ago

            I assume they are frustrated and they’re talking about how a good heroic outcome has sinister alternatives at every fork in the road. Different people react differently and the people who heroically soldier on are not simply saving the day, they are like an extension of dangerous policy. They’re never going to talk to the controller so it’s more general I think. Like “don’t be a hero, don’t be like this guy, if your bosses create a deadly environment then walk away”

            Edit: I can be hypocritical and an asshole so if I say try assuming people are correct, might want to just ignore me.

            • Jhex@lemmy.world
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              14 days ago

              No, I like your take and while I still disagree on focusing on the most vulnerable person in the chain, at least the way you describe it makes sense as it includes the entire decision making chain.

              Thanks for taking the time to explain.

            • Jhex@lemmy.world
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              14 days ago

              So saying the person who stayed behind to be a hero could have killed people is a compliment to that person?

              • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works
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                14 days ago

                No. It’s saying that the person who stayed behind to do their job (like a hero would do) should have just walked out the door … because if there had been any plane crashes (that killed passengers) that person would have been blamed for them.

                • Jhex@lemmy.world
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                  14 days ago

                  Funny how you can say it in a way that does sound like you are not blaming this person…

  • zebidiah@lemmy.ca
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    14 days ago

    there is a reason they say ‘safety regulations are written in blood’…

    this won’t change until there is a major disaster, and even then, there is no reason to think it will make any difference to this current dumpster fire of an administration…

    (…not to disparage dumpster fires, as they at the very least provide heat and light)

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      14 days ago

      Part of me is wondering if they’re purposely allowing a disaster to occur so they can push through some bullshit AI solution and layoff all existing human ATC

      • Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        14 days ago

        Private jets use mostly the same runways and traffic patterns, and they have enough political power to do whatever they want without prior justification. Occam’s and Hanlon’s razors both tell us it’s probably just greedy idiots. They might try some AI bullshit, but only as part of their tried-and-true method of “break things first and panic later when you realize they were load-bearing”

    • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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      14 days ago

      The thing is it’s not Trump. Or more precisely it’s not only Trump. This shit started with Reagan. He decided to break the air traffic controller Union and in doing so he inexorably steered us down this path of chaos with our airplanes and airports. Trump is only the most recent president to throw gasoline on this particular fire. Biden did too so did Obama so did Bush.

      The thing about Trump though is that he’s setting up even more situations that are going to be exactly like this with all the other agencies he’s trying to de-unionize.