A preliminary Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report obtained by AP News noted that air traffic control staffing at Reagan National Airport was “not normal” during Wednesday night’s midair accident in Washington D.C.
In the Oval Office today, the President of the United States of America was asked by a reporter if he planned to visit the crash site. POTUS was unequivocal.
“I have a plan to visit,” he said. “But you tell me, what’s the site? The water? You want me to go swimming?”
Such a kidder, our great leader.
As almost thirty bodies lie still in that cold, dark water tonight waiting for recovery, and millions of people mourn the tragedy, it should be said that all the speculation of causes on these threads are simply moot.
POTUS has revealed the underlining subtle, damning reasons - with precision timing - that due to the past policies from President Biden, Obama, Democrats and all sympathizers in all ships at sea to DEI efforts, two aircraft collided and plunged into the Potomac river, killing every soul on board.
Tangible evidence of as soulless a man as the human race has ever produced.
As the blog points out the FAA said the situation in the tower was ‘not normal’ at the time of the accident with overworked controllers and scheduling problems.
All things considered, evidently ‘not normal’ is becoming the ‘new normal.’
May the families and loved ones of all affected be surrounded by love and mercy of the highest order.
Unlikely that DEI had anything to do with the crash. Controller staffing was below what it should have been to handle that much traffic in a difficult night environment. Hiring, training and retaining competent controllers is tough. It’s a high stress job with life-or-death responsibilities and a complex environment. Not a lot of people want to do it or stay in the job long. The pay isn’t that great and the retirement benefits take many years to realize. There’s a hiring freeze on now so the staffing problem won’t improve for a while. Meanwhile the amount of air traffic continues to increase. The solution is to limit the amount of air traffic allowed into the airport to what the controllers can handle, remove the hiring freeze for air traffic controllers, fund additional positions and the associated training. Remote assistance from other towers with less traffic might help if cameras and audio/video/data links can be established more quickly than the lengthy hiring and training process.
Those controller stats are not unique to Reagan. What is unique to Reagan is the aerodrome has been operating WAY beyond it’s maximum capacity for years. That in itself is a major risk. Five pounds of crap goes into a five pound bag but yet we keep trying to exceed that. There should be some type of measure used by the regulating bodies, and is immune to politics, that is implemented to limit or stop expansion when maximum capacity is reached.
That article can just be a cut and paste. It has been replayed year after year for as long as I can remember. It never changes. Play it again for many, many airports at this moment.
And to say staffing was “not normal” is total BS. They are now and are always well below authorized or required staffing. So, in spite of the BS statement, they are actually totally normal with what they always do have. Might wish that wasn’t “normal” but it sure isn’t.
Calling a pilot or controller “a DEI” implies that that person was hired based - at least partially - on filling a quota. And if that was the case, and if I was one of “those families”, I’d care very much.
As vayuwings sarcastically said above (without being “flagged by the community”, [quote]POTUS has revealed the underlining subtle, damning reasons - with precision timing - that due to the past policies from President Biden, Obama, Democrats and all sympathizers in all ships at sea to DEI efforts, two aircraft collided and plunged into the Potomac river, killing every soul on board.
[/quote]
And if POTUS actually did something about it (like submitting a budget that paid them the same hourly rate as, say, orthopedic surgeons) something might change. “Air Traffic Controller” is the poster-child of a demonstrated-ability hire.
My deepest sympathies are with the families and friends of those who lost their lives in this tragic midair collision. May they Rest in Peace. We owe it to them, and every traveler who trusts on aviation safeguards, to demand a thorough investigation free from political interference.
If the White House stays out of the NTSB’s work, we should get a fact-based report explaining what went wrong and why. The strength of that report will depend on how deeply they investigate, how honest they are about mistakes, and whether the truth is allowed to stand without political interference clouding it.
Dragging DEI into this tragedy is manipulative and sickening. Blaming diversity hiring is absurd, there’s no evidence DEI had any bearing on the accident. Suggesting otherwise insults grieving families and dodges critical questions, like why ATC was chronically understaffed and why this problem was allowed to fester.
The NTSB must stay focused on the facts and block out political distractions. Their job is to find what failed and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Anything less dishonors the lives lost, and we can’t allow that.
I was heartened to find this measured, articulate insight into not only the tragic collision (particularly the issue of one controller covering two sectors), but also a day-to-day perspective of the ATC profession. When everyone wants an immediate answer, sometimes, “I don’t know,” is the sagest response.
Aviatrexx - Did you happed to forget that the National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees (NBCFAE) helped black applicants cheat on the examination to apply for a position as an air traffic controllers, according to a 2016 Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General report? Nobody was ever prosecuted to my knowledge. So its reasonable to assume these kinds of shenanigans are still going on.
Absolutely correct, Raf. Additionally, the NTSB just released its final report on the “mid-air on final” accident, two and a half years ago at North Las Vegas Airport. In its conclusion, it cites the FAA’s “insufficient staffing of the facility, which required excessive overtime that did not allow for proper controller training or adequate recovery time between shifts.” It found that controllers at the North Las Vegas tower were averaging 400 to 500 hours of overtime per year—at a facility that the FAA deemed to be “fully staffed.”
Reagan’s primary raison-d’etre is to serve congress-critters. Perhaps if some of them had been aboard AA5342 instead of a bunch of figure-skaters, we’d see some action on the FAA’s budget for ATC.
So are you implying that a DEI (black, gay, women, different ethnicity) pilot or controller who has been schooled in their profession are some how inferior ?
No matter how you cut it, the Blackhawk should not have been anywhere near short final approach of any aircraft. The Blackhawk should not have been there period.
It happens all the time MrMilkshake, as it must in order to handle the workload. There are four dimensions: latitude, longitude, altitude, and time. As long as two aircraft do not share the same coordinates in all four of those dimensions, there’s not a problem.