Fewer eyes on the skies

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, February 4th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

A quick note of correction, yesterday we commemorated the anniversary of the 1960 Woolworth’s lunch-counter sit-in and got the math wrong.

It was 65 years ago this week, sorry about that.

EICHER: Coming next on The World and Everything in It: More now on the plane and helicopter crash in Washington.

The New York Times reported that a preliminary Federal Aviation Administration report found staffing in the control tower during the crash was not at typical levels.

Over the weekend at a briefing by the National Transportation Safety Board, board member Todd Inman said it was too early to say:

INMAN: The question was regarding staffing at the time of the actual accident—whether the five individuals in the tower were sufficient.

I have not gotten an update from the air traffic control people. I know the primary thing we wanted to get was exactly that. There have been discussions because, again, “typical” can change based on thte day of the week, the time, and the weather.

So we will not categorize anything as “typical” right now until we can present it in a better fashion.

WORLD’s Lindsay Mast has the story of how the FAA has historically struggled with staffing shortages.

LINDSAY MAST: Dan Brandt has a lot of sympathy for air traffic controllers.

BRANDT: Yeah, I feel sorry for the guy. To go through that is not good.

When he heard the news about the crash between American Airlines flight 5342 and a military Blackhawk helicopter last week, he thought immediately of the controller on duty.

BRANDT: It's tough on him. He was doing his job. He'll keep thinking about himself, “What could I have done different?”

Brandt worked in the industry for the better part of four decades. He served as an Air Force controller in the 70s, and then wanted to work for the Federal Aviation Administration. He got a perfect score on the required test, along with extra points for his military service.

But the FAA was fully staffed and didn’t need him.

Just a couple of years later, that changed.

AUDIO: [Sound from PATCO strike]

In 1981, nearly 13,000 members of the air traffic controllers union walked off the job. They wanted a hefty pay raise and a 32 hour work week. They’d already rejected a lesser deal.

President Ronald Reagan on the morning of the strike:

REAGAN: This morning at 7:00 a.m. the union representing those who man America's Air Traffic Control facilities called to strike this was the culmination of 7 months of negotiations between the Federal Aviation Administration and the Union.

Reagan declared the strike illegal and told workers if they weren’t back on the job within 48 hours, they would be fired. Then he made good on the threat, firing about 90% of them.

That became Brandt’s opportunity to get in at the FAA.

But he says hiring a lot of new controllers all at once started a cascade of problems for the administration. There are age rules: You have to be hired by age 31, with mandatory retirement at 56. So a lot of hirees around the same time meant a lot of retirees around the same time.

BRANDT: 20 or 25 years down the road, we all start retiring, and the FAA doesn't have anybody to fill in for us. So that has hit them time after time, and that's the, why their staffing is down, because they were never able to prepare to fill in all the people that were going to lead or leave in 20 to 25 years.

In 2008, the U.S. General Accountability Office reported the FAA needed to hire and train 17,000 controllers over the next decade to replace retirees.

But training is a long process. From the time a controller gets hired until they are talking to airplanes, it can be years. They continue airport-specific training after that. Since that 2008 report, a prolonged hiring freeze, a government shutdown, and COVID all contributed to the continued shortage.

DANIELS: Right now, we have a controller shortage in this nation.

Nick Daniels, the current president of the air controllers union, told CBS last week there are currently just under 11,000 controllers–about 3500 fewer than optimal.

DANIELS: It is not uncommon for us to routinely combine positions, de-combine positions…

He said doubling up on jobs in a tower isn’t abnormal and that if there aren’t enough controllers, flight numbers may also be reduced in order to maintain safety.

But Brandt says more controllers would keep Americans safer in the air.

BRANDT: Until somebody stands up and says, “We need more controllers,” sooner or later, this will happen again. It's inevitable.

Aviation experts say it’s important to note the overall safety of commercial air travel. Before Wednesday, it had been almost 15 years since a major commercial airline crash in the U.S.

I played Brandt the audio of the control tower during the crash. He says the tape demonstrates the controller did his job before the crash. He pointed out the jet and got confirmation from the Blackhawk pilot that the crew had the plane in sight.

AUDIO: Washington, one side. Check three. Oooo, Oh my-! 176, American 34, 3130, Blackcheck 3 Can you return To base? You're the base? Blackcheck 3 proceed directly to land. I need you to land.

BRANDT: One thing right off the bat, the controller is doing an excellent job. He's doing what he was trained to do. Something like that happens, you can't lose it. You got to take care of whatever’s there, unless there's somebody to come and get you out right away. He did a really good job.

But Brandt says if the controller had been manning only helicopters or only planes, what became a crash might have just been a close call.

BRANDT: To me, listening to that, there's no way that could have ever happened if you had a controller monitoring just that situation. I mean, if that helicopter was too high, it would have seen it, you know, and maybe when he said he had somebody in sight, you'd reconfirm it. You do that a lot.

Brandt says he prays for controllers in the tower during a crash. They struggle with the weight of it long afterward.

BRANDT: You know, they need the crutch of God to lean on. When things like this happen, controllers will blame themselves until they retire. Then they will blame themselves after they retire.

The National Transportation Safety Board says it may have a preliminary report in 30 days. A full investigation can sometimes take a year or more. Regardless of the findings, the grief and frustration felt by many since last week is certain to last much longer.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Lindsay Mast.

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