There's A Crisis In Aviation, And it's Getting WORSE!

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Is there a deeper issue inside US Air Traffic Control? With thousands of positions going unfilled, could this issue be putting passengers at risk and what’s being done to stop it?
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Below you will find the links to videos and sources used in this episode.

SOURCES
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#Mentourpilot #pilot #aircraft

[Umbreon-Jet]

Hearing 10 hours maximum and 9 hours between shifts as a minimum for ATC in the USA sounds insane to me. That's illegal for minimum wage retail jobs that get at least 10 hours between shifts in my country, let alone safety critical roles. You cannot commute, rest, prepare and commute again properly in 9 hours, even if you live inside the tower.

[msvsalt]

I retired this week after 25 years of being an air traffic controller at Memphis Center. I got hired in 2000 and trained/worked with the post Reagan guys. We all knew exactly when all these controllers were going to retire, and it was with growing horror, we realized we were not hiring enough replacements. We also failed during the hiring/screening process before people arrived at facilities. A lot of people "washed out" after months or years of training.
I retired the minute I was eligible because the mandatory 6 day work week over the past five years was enough. So were the 24 years of brutal shift work and the fact there is no hope for fixing in the staffing issue for years.
But man, I will miss talking to the planes.
Thank you for doing a video on this, especially the effect of Reagan firing.

[dan]

I was in the FAA controller pipeline for two years. Couple points; 1) it takes forever to get a slot in their schools 2) starting wages + education requirements + 3 years of training means I and many others go elsewhere 3) where you get assigned may not be where you or your family wants or can afford to live. In summary, it’s a difficult situation to imagine trying to fix this in the next 5 years.

[tommussington]

My son was in the US army as an Air Traffic control.
When he got out I thought he would use his Ticket to go to the FAA.
He said no way they are demanding jobs way too much mandatory over time and he saw that it wasn't going to change.
He used the GI Bill and got a electrical engineering degree and working less and making more.

[aps-pictures]

Just think about how moronic 9 hours between shifts is as a rule. To get 8 hours sleep, shower, eat twice, and commute. Maybe if companies didn’t use legal minimums as SOP there wouldn’t be such a mess…

[imogenharrison]

Considered a safety critical role in the UK. That means 12 hours between shifts minimum, Maximum number of days you can work without a minimum of time off. Also controlled regarding shift rotation and patterns.
Why you tolerate such dangerous practices in the US baffles me.

[worrierqueen]

Big shout out to all ATC's watching this vid. You save countless lives everyday with few thanks but should anything go wrong... A true heroes job.

[jake_]

Ten hour shifts, six days a week with just nine hours minimum between shifts for such a demanding job, makes me feel very, very unsafe.

[edwardbarton]

There's almost never an actual "worker shortage". There are *plenty* of people looking for work. There's a *compensation* shortage. And while pay is a big part of that, it also includes things like work/life balance, work location, and workers' rights. As for strikes being illegal, if they're so "critical" that you can't afford to have them strike, then it's critical that you compensate them enough to not strike.

As the compensation is dependent on the FAA's budget, the FAA needs to set a limit on how much traffic can be handled per controller. Their budget for controller pay and recruitment will go up once airlines start getting told "no ATC capacity today; try again tomorrow"

[TravellingTechie]

I've been an airline pilot for 18 years, this is what I think it is. It's commercial pressure. In every part of the aviation sector (and this is applicable to airlines, air traffic control, suppliers and manufacturers): Cutting costs, cutting staff, reducing safety margins, no investment in infrastructure, more profit, more tight schedules, money money money.

[michaelmartin]

Retired ATC. The FAA has never kept up with future demand for ATC's by hiring during slower periods. They have always used forced OT to meet demand. There were never times when they didn't have qualified applicants trying to get in. They just didn't hire. It's all about budgets and money. Controllers are expensive. So they would rather used forced OT. Then there is the problem of some facilities losing traffic and then they have too many controllers at certain facilities. The FAA could have incentivised some of them to transfer but, again, they don't want to spend the money. If you want a controller to move from a now easy facility, uproot their family, and start the hell of training again, then give them an incentive. The bottom line is, they only need about 15, 000 controllers. Not a huge number in this country. All they have to do is keep hiring with regularity and in anticipation of future retirements. And to those who say raise the mandatory retirement age, I'd say, no way. Controllers lose their edge when they approach 50. In general, younger controllers hate working with older controllers and can't wait for them to retire. Just keep hiring.

[xBris]

22:30 - But Eurocontrol isn't really a _private_ organisation. It's independent from the EU, sure, but it's more of a _public_ organisation, than a private one. It's classified as an international organisation or intergovernmental organisation (IGO), just like the UN, the African Union, or the International Monetary Fund. The permanent commission of Eurocontrol, the body that basically makes all the decisions, for instance is always led by a senior government official of one of the member nations (like Germany), so it's not really it's own private thing. And I bet the idi*ts running the US government want to replace the FAA with an actual private corporation. For shareholder profits. Of course.

[XxJackFrostxX]

It definitely doesn't help that the only ATC training location is out in Oklahoma. I wanted to become one, but I can't move out there for the better part of a year. If they made training centers in more locations in the country it might be significantly easier to hire new controllers.

Not to mention that you can then get stationed anywhere in the US, regardless of where your family or life might currently be. Not a lot of people are willing to be shoved anywhere in the country.

[bearcubdaycare]

It seems to me that commercial aviation is getting overcrowded in America. More and more flights, with a system barely able to handle them.

[fearsomefawkes]

I know this is an aviation channel, but I think zooming out and looking at transportation in general in the US adds important context, especially when talking about regional VS cross-continental flights. The thing that comes to mind for me is the underwhelming rail network and lack of high speed rail. I have to imagine that the lack of good rail also increases the workload for ATC because people that might have preferred rail instead have to choose between driving and flying. So, you have crowded highways and overworked ATC because instead of three viable options for long distance travel you have two.

[xtasy]

I went through the FAA ATC hiring…. Result: Nowadays I am an approach controller in Europe because the FAA training is just bad

[ssmith]

RIP Dr Reason. Thank you for all of your contributions to the field of Human Factors

[erickborling]

Controllers establish a relationship with pilots and carriers. The good ones' vocal idiosyncracies are works of art in communications: clarity and understanding always key.

[eamonnmorris]

Piotr
You have a great facility with hauling more and more information into each video as it moves along, with every piece falling into the right place. Not unlike, dare I say, processing air traffic information in the way these controllers do! I am in awe of both.

[connielentz]

As a US citizen I think you’ve handled the current political situation around the FAA very well. It’s not just technically and financially complex. It’s hard to see how it’s all going to be resolved without more and better paid people, more carefully considered technology and less convenience for the traveling public. I’m not confident that we Americans will rise to the challenge.