Summary
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed that air traffic control staffing was “not normal” during the Washington, DC, mid-air collision that killed 67 people.
A government report found Reagan National Airport’s tower was understaffed, with one controller handling both planes and helicopters.
Investigators are examining factors including airspace procedures and the Black Hawk helicopter’s low altitude.
The crash highlights chronic FAA staffing shortages, with over 90% of facilities below recommended levels.
ATC staffing is at “not normal” levels quite a lot of the time. For as much money as this country has, and how “life-and-death times several hundred” important it is, it’s a sign of a very profound type of dysfunction that’s been going on for as long as it has. Simply put, the problem is that no one with the ability to fix it gives a shit.
Much like another critical life-or-death field, healthcare, understaffing is normal and accepted.
These workers need to be paid more for the very stressful and undesirable job they do.
Many of them are actually pretty passionate about their work so unfortunately they will always be exploited because capitalism punishes people who do something they care about or otherwise enjoy.
Teachers, nurses, etc. Passion professions get fucked regularly.
In Davis Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs he describes a sort of cultural belief that these jobs should be low-paying, because that’s how we know people are in it “for the right reasons” and not “just for the money.”
Apparently there was just another plane crash in Clearwater Florida?
