Veteran Air Traffic Controller Speaks Out on Trump-Era Safety Crisis
A veteran air traffic controller has revealed shocking details about the ongoing safety crisis plaguing the U.S. travel industry, which he attributes to staffing shortages and outdated technology exacerbated during the Trump administration.
In an exclusive interview with The Wall Street Journal, Jonathan Stewart, a supervisor at the Philadelphia Air Traffic Control Center, shared a recent close call at Newark-Liberty International Airport and discussed the ongoing dangers faced by air traffic controllers, particularly due to staffing shortfalls at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
“It’s like playing a videogame, but a 3-D chess game at 250 miles an hour,” Stewart explained. “We are the ones guiding your pilots home.” He emphasized the immense responsibility, adding, “I don’t want to be responsible for killing 400 people,” noting that the FAA’s staffing issues are hindering their ability to safely manage the increasing volume of air traffic.
Stewart, who is currently on trauma leave, filed an internal safety report following a near miss on May 4, when two planes were heading towards each other at the same altitude. Stewart successfully directed the pilots to change course, but his concern for the safety of the system was evident, particularly after another equipment failure.
“The situation has been and continues to be unsafe,” Stewart wrote in the report. “The amount of stress we are under is insurmountable.”
He revealed that controllers should ideally only work traffic for a maximum of two hours at a time, but before the May 4 incident, he had been on duty for three hours straight, contributing to the stress and risk. Despite making over $450,000 this year (including overtime), Stewart acknowledged the personal sacrifices required for the job. “You give up nights, weekends, holidays, birthdays—everything else,” he said. “Your mental and physical health take a toll.”
He explained that, while incidents like the May 4 near-miss may not seem stressful at the time, the cumulative effects of close calls contribute to PTSD. “For every time you have an incident—say a close call, a near-midair, God forbid—all of these things are cumulative.”
While FAA officials and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy have pledged immediate action to address the issues of outdated technology and low staffing, Stewart remains cautiously optimistic. “For the first time that I’m aware of, they are throwing money at the problem,” he said.
However, Stewart is not alone in his concerns. Earlier this month, another air traffic controller warned travelers to “avoid Newark at all costs” due to the increasingly frequent failures within the air traffic control system.
The issue is not isolated to Newark. Denver International Airport also experienced a transmitter failure on Monday, which lasted up to six minutes, causing another disruption and prompting an FAA investigation. Just a day earlier, Secretary Duffy had warned of similar issues happening at other airports, citing outdated technology and subpar oversight as contributing factors.
“What you see in Newark is going to happen in other places across the country,” Duffy said in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press. “It has to be fixed, and so what we’re having is some telecom issues, but we’re also having some glitches in our software,” Duffy added. “As the information comes in, it’s overloading some of our lines, and the system goes down.”
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Sources: AirGuide Business airguide.info, bing.com, yahoo.com, NBC’s Meet the Press, The Wall Street Journal