The FAA has confirmed that one employee at the Washington Reagan Airport tower is no longer working while it investigates an incident in the cab last Thursday. "The employee is on administrative leave while we investigate the matter," the agency said in an email statement to AVweb Monday after rumors swirled about a violent fist fight between two controllers. The Daily Mail first reported the altercation and said the fight ended with blood being splashed on a console in the tower. It's believed the controllers were on duty at the time but the FAA declined to confirm that and did not elaborate on its single-sentence statement.
Totally understandable that tensions and emotions will be high. What happened in DCA would be traumatic for any reasonable human to experience. Iâm sure with the added frustration of knowing how the event could have been avoided, frustration, anger, and other powerful emotions are ever-present. I sincerely hope that the team there can move forward in a constructive way.
IF it turns out that the FAA left the controllers who were on duty that night in place ⌠thatâs unconscionable. They should have been reassigned to lighter duties and given some mental health care, as well.
I came across a 15 minute video yesterday entitled, âWhy the US Doesnât Have Enough Controllers.â In it, they say that manning is about 75% and forced overtime is taking its toll on controllers. It didnât paint a pretty picture of the current situation or the amount of time and effort required to find, cull, train and qualify new controllers. It also outlines the dismal state of the equipment theyâre using. Given the amount of money being spent, this is also unconscionable. While I donât support privatization, it sure seems like âourâ FAA has fallen on its sword. Only a fly on the wall knows what happened here but itâs surely the canary in the coalmine.
The wheels are coming off⌠DCA has been a clownshow for a while now - that isnât new. When there is no accountability for screw-ups, no culture of professionalism, no ATC version of the 6 month checkrides that 135/121 pilots get⌠It is only going to get worse and DCA is but one facility.
"support the mental health of controllers who âhad to sit and watch bodies being pulled out of the river.â
Excuse me, but I think that controllers SHOULD have to watch the consequences of what happens if you fail to positively control aircraft at your airport.
If Iâm not mistaken there was only a single tower controller involved in the incident, yet you think all the controllers who work in that tower should be required to view the dead bodies of the victims? Seems a bit morbid to me.
âyet you think all the controllers who work in that tower should be required to view the dead bodiesâ
Of course the controllers should view the consequencesâŚ
What makes controllers any different from first responders, recovery crews, or even the general public who have a view of the crash site from their offices? Itâs causing a hell of a lot more mental anguish for the public and for the families of the victims so controllers should man up and maybe learn from it.
This thread has totally missed the point. The HR people that crafted the DEI policy at FAA should have been made to retrieve the bodies personally. Remember our President said that was the cause of the accident before the first responders arrived on the scene.
âMan up?â Câmon. Do I really have to explain the difference between air traffic controllers and first responders? Your comparison with âthe general publicâ who might have a view of a recovery site is specious. They have a choice whether to look or not. You are proposing a MANDATE that controllers must view victimsâ remains.
Suggesting anyone has to view dead bodies to âman upâ is macabre. I donât need to see dead bodies to imagine the consequences of mistakes in the cockpit. Iâm sure air traffic controllers can imagine tragedy as well as me.
I canât imagine what the controllers who were in the tower that night have gone through. Instead of âpunishingâ the controllers, what should be mandatory is having all members of Congress watch the recovery efforts in person as a reminder of their continued actions allowing more and more flights out of DCA, way in excess of airport capacity. Interesting that the NTSB chairperson has not pointed that out in her testimony in Congress, instead conveniently blaming the FAA. Imagine the outcry if a general aviation airplane had been involved!
Sounds like they want to scapegoat the Controller. Incredibly unfair.
The low hours chopper pilot should not have been training near the approach path of a passenger aircraft. What else could the Controller do when PAT stated they had the airliner in sight?
Practice night vision away from controlled airspace. Military or not.
If there arenât enough controllers to handle the current workload, then why arenât the number of flights being reduced accordingly? Would that not be a solution to the problem? Would it be a huge inconvenience/problem for people who need/want to travel? Of course it would, but if it means safer air travel, then I think thatâs what needs to happen. Expecting a greatly reduced workforce to continue to keep up with a workload that isnât reduced accordingly is unreasonable and obviously dangerous in this industry! Same goes for pilots and aircraft buliders/maintenance staff too!