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Commercial jet collides with Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan airport

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Re: Commercial jet collides with Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan airport

#731

Post by smcin »

smcin wrote: post #320
anigbrowl wrote: post #60

[flagged]

As fullshark commented above, there is no value to wild speculation. Wait for the facts, avoid the noise and wild speculation. We do not have many facts as of 1/29 overnight. (Next thing is how would we ever falsify a wild theory like that to the satisfaction of all speculators, given we only have the ATC recording, not the audio from the helicopter (assuming the Black Hawk didn't have a black box, as seems to be the…

(Turns out the Black Hawk did have a black box and it is expected to be recovered soon.)

Re: Commercial jet collides with Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan airport

#732

Post by ModernMech »

rayiner wrote: post #708
ModernMech wrote: post #554

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they really do want to hollow out the federal government, and we should expect things like planes falling out of the sky as part of that. Given the release of this memo[1] offering the buyout of any federal employee who wants to step down, what I think we are looking at is the Musk-Vance-Thiel axis of the MAGA movement is implementing Curtis Yarvin's "R.A.G.E." plan to install a king dictator atop a neo-feuda…

You’re throwing around all these buzzwords like “dictator” and “feudalist,” but what’s the word that refers to government employees openly declaring “Resistance” to agenda of the duly elected president? Because that’s not “democracy” either, right? Trump literally campaigned with Musk on this very issue. He explained at length what he was going to do in long form podcasts and in lengthy rallies. Musk was Trump’s clos…

> You’re throwing around all these buzzwords like “dictator”

To be clear, I am not the one throwing the word "dictator" around, that would be Curtis Yarvin. I am repeating his words. These people believe they are implementing a dictatorship, and it's not a buzzword, it's their stated goal. I don't even need to exaggerate it, I just need to quote them.

I realize that Trump did in fact campaign on being a dictator, but I also am listening to a lot of people who voted for him, who don't really feel they voted for a dictatorship.

I mean, do you agree with the statement "If Americans want to change their government, they’re going to have to get over their dictator phobia."?

Re: Commercial jet collides with Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan airport

#733

Post by brendoelfrendo »

brendoelfrendo wrote: post #418
SenHeng wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably because Trump just offered an 8month severance package to all fed workers. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cnvqe3le3z4o > US President Donald Trump has offered federal workers the option to resign and receive pay for eight months, in a major effort to shrink and reform the US government.

It's not even a buyout. They have to work for those 8 months; it's not a severance package.

Replying to myself days later to correct this statement: I did learn later on that the deferred resignation does mean that the employee is free to stop working once they submit the resignation, and will continue to be paid for 8 months regardless of whether or not they continue working. I don't think it was clear from the initial "buyout" offer, but it was clarified in later communications.

Re: Commercial jet collides with Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan airport

#735

Post by smcin »

kemayo wrote: post #423
UltraSane wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not being allowed to re-enter the program is just insane.

Particularly not for the last reason mentioned -- declining an offered position because it's not in a place you want to live.

Agreed. Imagine if tech hiring worked like that. Entry-level positions could be moved to WV or the Dakotas, optimize for low salary and cost-of-living and ignore retention/burnout/washout rates since you figure they're going to be high anyway.

FYI the states(/districts) with lowest ATC pay are DC, IA, MS, MT, SD, VT, WV : See third plot: "Annual mean wage for air traffic controllers, by state, May 2023" and lots of other useful stats in https://www.bls.gov/oes/2023/may/oes532021.htm

Re: Commercial jet collides with Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan airport

#736

Post by wildzzz »

wildzzz wrote: post #535
LeafItAlone wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please expand. I fly out of DCA and IAD frequently (and JFK and LGA). I’ve gone through the process next to politicians, though I’ve never recognized any highly ranked ones (e.g. Pelosi, McConnell, etc.). What’s the difference they experience?

I watched Warren and some of her staff cut the entire pre-check line at BOS. They still had to walk through the metal detectors but without any bags, they whisked through. I got to cut the line at security once because I was on the job, I was completely embarrassed.

Kind of but even Clear still has a line. Warren had an airport escort walk her around the stanchions and directly to the metal detector.

Re: Commercial jet collides with Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan airport

#737

Post by smcin »

xienze wrote: post #354
mplanchard wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In addition, ATC is not allowed to go on strike, limiting the degree to which they can bargain for better working conditions, pay, etc.

Then why is there an ATC union if, apparently, it can't affect any change?

In the US, most public-sector unions incl. transport workers are essentially not allowed strike under the Railway Labor Act unless they have exhausted all mandatory federal negotiation/ mediation (nominally on the grounds that it could cripple the economy).

This was also an issue in the 2022 US freight rail labor dispute where Biden, Pelosi and Congress passed a law to criminalize the prospect of rail strike. [0][1] If the freight staffing level cuts had been reversed, it's quite likely the 2/2023 East Palestine, OH train derailment and $$bn environmental disaster [2] would have been avoided. The freight companies, in the name of efficiency and slashing staffing levels, had combined multiple trains into one huge one (which has a higher risk of derailing, and larger size of derailment.)

To your question, it would be good if the US had a nonpartisan setup for balancing profit and efficiency vs safety and conditions, but that's not the case. Since the time of Reagan and the 1981 PATCO strike. Curious if there's any objective comparison between China and US how freight rail is operated. But then the Chinese freight rail is state-owned which largely removes the profit incentive for cutting safety. Compared to the US, China has almost no freight rail disasters, and it has more freight traffic.

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33781421

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_United_States_railroad_la...

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Palestine,_Ohio,_train_de...

Re: Commercial jet collides with Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan airport

#738

Post by xenadu02 »

xenadu02 wrote: post #629
jumpman_miya wrote: post #539

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Citation needed. "DEI did it" is just the new conservative buzzword for everything. You should be clear what you mean by saying this is DEI: you (and POTUS) are saying "they hired too many female and/or black air traffic controllers, passing over superior white male applicants, thus leading to this accident". Air traffic controllers go through objective standards-based training and testing. Are you proposing that the…

Update: I'll retract part of this. I'll stand by the part about conservative buzzwords and the dogwhistle of "you hired too many women and blacks".

But it appears the FAA did have some kind of "biographical questionnaire" that was not objective and standards based. I'm 100% against that kind of system or anything else that seems like a quota. Making an effort to recruit from all communities and making a welcoming environment is good. Lowering standards is not.

The other thing I'll stand behind is the ATC pipeline has not been fully-staffed for a very long time, pre-dating COVID and the even earlier biographical questionnaire. It appears both of those things made it worse (independently).

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