I thought we got the answer to this question already. Why else? The only reason I’ve been hearing from everyone I’ve talked to today.
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You could have no air traffic controller and you still shouldn’t have helicopters in the flight path. If a person runs across a runway he’s charged with a felony. If you ride your Big Wheel on the taxi path you get a felony. Fly a drone…on and on.
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I read some place the military helicopters have a flight path along the river. Didn’t read what their altitude limits are for the
helicopter path.
It would seem to me that the helicopter pilots had the best chance to avoid the collision. But yeah, we need to let the normal investigation be done.
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I’m just surprised it’s not unusual to have one ATC monitoring 2 towers…
Seems like ATC staffing isn’t where you want to be short staffed…
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FAA Report Highlights Staffing Issues Amid Reagan National Midair Collision - AVweb https://search.app/nkcUVNv7hsFwLcdA9
While the FAA hired more than 1,500 new air traffic controller candidates last year, the agency still faces a shortage of about 3,000 controllers, according to new data. High attrition rates, including retirements and training dropouts, continue to offset hiring efforts, contributing to delays and safety concerns.
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Only about 14,000 ATCs and numbers had been declining for decades. Last year was record hiring but net result was only 106 added due retirements and people quitting.
Sounds like The newly hired will take time to be certified too.
WASHINGTON – Today the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that it exceeded its goal of hiring 1,800 air traffic controllers in 2024, with a final total of 1,811 for Fiscal Year 2024. As the largest number of hires in nearly a decade, this marks important progress in the FAA’s work to reverse the decades-long air traffic controller staffing level decline.
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Sounds like something our government should prioritize… hopefully, that can be a silver lining to this tragedy.
It’s crazy that numbers have been declining but flights have been increasing over that same period.
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Training is up to 2 years and 6 years for full certified CPC. Not going to fix the shortage in short order it seems.
The FAA Air Traffic Controller hiring process and training varies significantly from candidate to candidate and can last up to 2 years. Reaching a Certified Professional Controller (CPC) status can take up to 6 years .
How to Become an Air Traffic Controller: Step-by-Step Guide - JobTestPrep.
Based on what I am understanding of what happened, the helicopter pilots confirmed visual on the wrong aircraft and likely never even saw the aircraft they crashed into.
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Crazy that the FAA is okay with this.
Oh my. Well I’ve never flown into Reagan at night and maybe with all the other lights at or around the 350 foot level , it’s possible to not see the light near you ?
Maybe planes need some type of lighting system that lights up the entire fuselage of the craft so it’s not just point sources. No idea if that’s is feasible or would help in long run.
Having trouble with that link. It seems to be about Tik-Tok ?
LOL…somehow I liked to the wrong article. Fix it in a minute.
Or maybe, we stop flying helicopters that close to runways.
My first thought when I heard a plane and a helicopter crashed was, how was that helicopter even in the planes air space at all, isn’t it restricted and off limits to helicopters?
Then learning, there is a helicopter base just across the river I wondered how an accident like this has not happened before. Now we are hearing they may have avoided a collision like this just the day before.
I have no idea how you could have illuminated the plane to make it easier to see. The same for the helicopter, on military craft you want to light it up as little as possible. The pilots of the plane might not have even seen it until it was too late.
I am sure the investigation will find it was a collection of smaller errors that cascaded in a way that led to the accident.
That setup, with military helicopter base in the area was a disaster waiting to happen. The helicopter is suppose to be limited to 200 foot altitude on that portion of its path, so if crash
happened at 350 feet , it was a bit high. But 150 foot “safety margin” is almost nothing at those velocities and size of the plane. I’d look at moving that base to safer location away if possible.
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According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual wage for an air traffic controller in the United States is $137,380. Includes small, less busy airports.
From Reddit:
ATCs work rotating shifts between late nights, early mornings, and overnights all in one week so our circadian rhythm is messed up. An example schedule at a 24 hour facility goes like this:
Sunday off
Monday 4pm-midnight
Tuesday 2pm-10pm
Wednesday 7am-3pm
Thursday 6am-2pm
Thursday 11pm-7am overnight into Friday morning
Saturday any shift overtime
The minimum rest in 2025 was raised to 10 hours between shifts (in 2024 it was 9 hours) so that will help a little bit if we can figure out how to cover the schedules.
We get a decent amount of breaks throughout the day. We aren’t supposed to work more than 2 hours at a time, so generally we rotate throughout the shift working for 60-90 minutes, then taking a 40 or 45 minute break. You can nap on break, play video games, step out and run errands if your manager is cool.
Despite the high workload the environment is generally really fun with cool coworkers. It’s an enjoyable place for me. Besides the fatigue/mental impact, we don’t really take work home with us. I’m not required to answer my phone or respond to emails outside my working hours. I honestly haven’t checked my work email in more than 6 months.
It’s also a really good salary for a career with very little entry requirements. I feel like it’s one of the only careers you can make $200k with zero education. All you need is 3 years of work experience doing anything at all and they train you from the ground up.
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“Should” should/ought to be a top priority indeed.
To come to this is inexcusable. I fly quite a bit. To find out that there is a lack of air traffic controller explains why so many flights are delayed.
A plane waits to land or wait for a gate?
What does that do?
Seems like a job for AI in the future.
I’ve seen so many reports on this, it was just a series of events that no one could have predicted. Helicopter was on a night training mission with night vision goggles that don’t have large peripheral vision. The airplane was going at least 140mph. One air traffic controller. Helicopter had its transponder off.
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I just heard that a co-worker was good friends with one of the victims. She was a young mother with a 1 year old and a 3 year old at home. Absolutely heart breaking.
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