https://www.youtube.com/@VASAviation posts ATC audio and a visualization a day after such incidents happen. Fantastic channel, if a bit too addictive.
Air traffic controllers pushed to the brink
31–40 of 362 posts
Re: Air traffic controllers pushed to the brink
#32Well that was worrying to read since I flight through San Diego coming up. Why are the budgets low and why is our government running atc like a best buy durring holiday season?
- ATC is a difficult job both in terms of training required and day-to-day work - There are high health requirements to hold the job, which should be revisited - The federally mandated retirement age is relatively low. - Pay is not attractive - Overall FAA funding is largely set by the finicky Congress, which swings between extreme austerity and moderate fiscal pragmatism - Airports can supplement federal funding, bu…
> Pay is not attractive
That's not my impression at all, based on discussions with FAA employees.
From a quick online search:
> ATC 2022 median pay: $132,250 per year
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/transportation-and-material-moving/a...
Re: Air traffic controllers pushed to the brink
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
This would be very interesting to look into if you cited a source.
"Affirmative Action Lands in the Air Traffic Control Tower", Wall Street Journal (June 2, 2015): https://archive.is/lDyOB >A recently completed six-month investigation by Fox Business Network found that the Federal Aviation Administration has quietly moved away from merit-based hiring criteria in order to increase the number of women and minorities who staff airport control towers. The changes come despite the fact t…
"Fox Business (officially known as Fox Business Network, or FBN) is an American conservative business news channel and website publication owned by the Fox News Media division of Fox Corporation."
~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Business
Re: Air traffic controllers pushed to the brink
#34I don't know why, but archive.is is not loading for me
They're in a fight with Cloudflare over technical details, if you use CF as DNS that's why
This is a relevant explanation from the perspective of cloudflare
Re: Air traffic controllers pushed to the brink
#35[flagged]
Re: Air traffic controllers pushed to the brink
#36Very scary indeed. I think for the first time in my life I will be a little on edge flying in the US. You always hear that flying is the safest mode of public transport--well, if this is the state of the ATC, we're definitely in trouble. And you know there won't be any real change until hundreds of people die needlessly...I just hope it won't be my flight.
It's the safest per mile, but not per journey. A nice comparison to other transport methods, including taking the bus, and the Space Shuttle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_safety#Transport_comp...
It is utterly fascinating to me that technically walking is just as safe as a car on a journey by journey basis. I definitely didn't need to know the danger per journey for flights though. I liked the lie I had before
Re: Air traffic controllers pushed to the brink
#37Re: Air traffic controllers pushed to the brink
#38FWIW Obama’s administration instituted a diversity program for ATC that gave points to people that did poorly in school and haven’t had a job recently and penalized people with pilots licenses or military ATC experience and other qualifications. The ATC was considered “too white”. In essence they worked backwards to figure out how to hit their arbitrary diversity targets without considering the lives of everyone that…
This would be very interesting to look into if you cited a source.
[deleted]
Re: Air traffic controllers pushed to the brink
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
- ATC is a difficult job both in terms of training required and day-to-day work - There are high health requirements to hold the job, which should be revisited - The federally mandated retirement age is relatively low. - Pay is not attractive - Overall FAA funding is largely set by the finicky Congress, which swings between extreme austerity and moderate fiscal pragmatism - Airports can supplement federal funding, bu…
> Pay is not attractive That's not my impression at all, based on discussions with FAA employees. From a quick online search: > ATC 2022 median pay: $132,250 per year https://www.bls.gov/ooh/transportation-and-material-moving/a...
Is $132,250 attractive relative to the constant high stress and everything else involved with the job?
Re: Air traffic controllers pushed to the brink
#40Car accidents are up as well, less so this year than last. Both Air traffic and Car accidents have been up since 2020. Its not unique to Air traffic control. https://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyamohn/2023/09/28/road-crash... Its also happening worldwide, more air traffic near misses in the EU alongside road accidents as well. I suspect its world wide.
I don't really see how that's related though