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America desperately needs more air traffic controllers

cnn.com

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Re: America desperately needs more air traffic controllers

#41

Post by iancmceachern »

psunavy03 wrote: post #24
butterlettuce wrote: post #16

Fellas, I got a question. Is it really safe to fly these days if this is now a national discussion?

It has always been and will continue to be more safe than driving to the airport. The fact that something extraordinarily safe is potentially less safe is a topic for discussion, but not at the expense of realizing the relative risks of everything else. Prior to the midair at DCA, there had not been a fatal (edit) airliner crash in this country since 2009, and there had not been a midair collision involving an airlin…

But is it as safe today as it was a year ago today?

Re: America desperately needs more air traffic controllers

#42

Post by bloopernova »

mooreds wrote: post #26
butterlettuce wrote: post #16

Fellas, I got a question. Is it really safe to fly these days if this is now a national discussion?

Here's a study[0] looking at data from 2022 that says flying keeps getting safer. The press release[1] has some nice quotes: > “You might think there is some irreducible risk level we can’t get below,” adds Barnett, a leading expert in air travel safety and operations. “And yet, the chance of dying during an air journey keeps dropping by about 7 percent annually, and continues to go down by a factor of two every deca…

I think the grandparent comment is asking within the context of the past couple of weeks.

Not saying that your sources aren't useful or anything.

Re: America desperately needs more air traffic controllers

#44

Post by foxyv »

butterlettuce wrote: post #16

Fellas, I got a question. Is it really safe to fly these days if this is now a national discussion?

USA Air Traffic deaths spiked back in 2018 during the Boeing 737 Max debacle. They have declined since then. With the introduction of ADS-B things are only getting safer for commercial air travel. A lack of ATC personnel will probably just mean airport delays and cancelled flights. They can't get any more tired and burnt out than they are now.

Re: America desperately needs more air traffic controllers

#46

Post by sc68cal »

GiorgioG wrote: post #25
hansvm wrote: post #11

This should be easy enough to solve. Cut the hours back to something sane, and as much as possible time the airport closures in ways that affect the ruling class. You get bonus points if their jets are also delayed during normal taxiing and clearance requests -- explain that it's for their safety, since they're more important than everyone else and can't slot in to the same sorts of back-to-back landings that the com…

> Cut the hours back to something sane, and as much as possible time the airport closures in ways that affect the ruling class The ruling class flies private aircraft and don't have to operate out of large municipal airports.

They're not going to want to fly to a tiny airport in the middle of nowhere and then have to drive into the city. That defeats the whole point

Re: America desperately needs more air traffic controllers

#47

Post by simplicio »

wry_discontent wrote: post #15
7speter wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I understand, if they are over 30 and have less than 20/20 vision, they aren’t qualified.

Do you have a date when that policy was instituted? I've known a lot of air traffic controllers, and most of them wore glasses.

Think the qualification is to get into the training program, presumably air traffic controllers who develop near nearsightedness later in life aren't summarily fired.

Still, seems like a crazy requirement.

Re: America desperately needs more air traffic controllers

#48

Post by Ichthypresbyter »

dgfitz wrote: post #18
wry_discontent wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a date when that policy was instituted? I've known a lot of air traffic controllers, and most of them wore glasses.

First result in google for "air traffic controller training" https://www.faa.gov/air-traffic-controller-qualifications Edit: I didn't take a stance on this topic, if you think I did, you are incorrect. I was simply linking the website that outlines the requirements instead of postulating as to what they were.

AIUI that requirement can be met with vision corrected to 20/20 by glasses.

Re: America desperately needs more air traffic controllers

#49

Post by kaikai »

psunavy03 wrote: post #24
butterlettuce wrote: post #16

Fellas, I got a question. Is it really safe to fly these days if this is now a national discussion?

It has always been and will continue to be more safe than driving to the airport. The fact that something extraordinarily safe is potentially less safe is a topic for discussion, but not at the expense of realizing the relative risks of everything else. Prior to the midair at DCA, there had not been a fatal (edit) airliner crash in this country since 2009, and there had not been a midair collision involving an airlin…

Where are your dates from? According to the Wikipedia page, there have been multiple fatal plane crashes in the US since 2009, including a midair collision in 2019 (although not an airliner).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_accidents_and_...

Re: America desperately needs more air traffic controllers

#50

Post by lenerdenator »

robert_foss wrote: post #38
lenerdenator wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if half of the air traffic controllers took the offer to leave their jobs, do we have a Plan B? In theory you could do what Reagan did and tell the military to do ATC. Whether or not this is a good idea is another matter.

Reagan taking away collective bargaining rights for ATCs seems to be what have led to the shortage and the helicopter accident last week.

Indeed. Wouldn't want people doing a safety-critical job being fairly compensated, after all.
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