A few days after a passenger jet and military helicopter collided at Washington DC, all 67 people in two aircrafts died, a new report has revealed that air traffic facilities in America run again under the shortage of serious employees in America Has been
Staffing levels are recommended below 90 percent of the 313 air traffic control facilities in the United States under the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the New York Times has reported.
By January, 285 facilities, including traffic control towers and other places, were below the Staff Thresholds set by the FAA and the Controllers Union. Staffing on 73 of these features is so low that at least one -fourth of the workforce is absent.
According to a CBS News report, the case came under investigation after the US Airlines flight and collided near a Black Hawk Army Chopper Reagan National Airport. At the time of the incident, only one air traffic control worker was managing helicopters and some aircraft of the Reagan National Airport Tower, a task that usually requires two individuals.
The American air travel system remains one of the safest in the world, but safety measures have led to a dangerous number of close calls as a result of the lack of employees and underworks.
The decrease in the New York region is particularly important, where two important features on long island are operated with about 40% of the posts. These facilities manage air traffic for some of the most busy airports in the US, including Newarark, JFK and Laguardia, who handled 1.2 million flights last year, which was according to data from Port Authority of New York and New Jersey .
According to Federal Aviation Administration Estimates, efforts to hire and train more controllers have already begun, but are expected to be less than the demands of the staff. Despite extensive training, about three-fourths of facilities will be below the recommended staffing levels.
It will take time to improve the rank as some facilities may take four years to train a new air traffic controller and about 16 months at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, New York Times further mentioned.
According to CBS News, about 2 percent of the towers met the 2024 staffing target of the collaborative resource work group for fully trained air traffic controllers. According to analysis of 2023 staffing data for approximately 200 airport towers, about 8 percent of the objective is fulfilled, even after accounting for hundreds of air traffic controllers in training.
