Summary
The fatal collision between an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter near Reagan National Airport has renewed concerns over aviation safety and air traffic controller shortages.
The crash, which left no expected survivors, follows a rise in near misses, with 1,757 runway incursions recorded in 2024.
Experts blame staffing shortages, outdated systems, and increased flight volume for heightened risks.
The FAA is short 3,000 controllers, and training new hires takes years.
Officials, including Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, believe the tragedy was preventable.
They can still strike. They just need to collectively decide to do it. Just because a law says they can’t, doesn’t mean shit. No one else can do those jobs without years of training. Trump can threaten to throw them in jail but the end result will be the same. Fascist have no answer to true worker solidarity.
It could be done safely too. Stop giving takeoff clearances and wait for everybody to land. Then go home.
Like everywhere, I’m sure that the shortage is a pay shortage.
There’s been at least a few stories even on the mainstream news talking about about how the airport is far outside it’s designed capacity of traffic. So maybe they are short on controllers, but also it sounds like each controller is doing more than they should have to because the airport is busier than it was designed to be.
Someone also posted here that Delta somewhat recently increased that yet again after lobbying for additional flights Just looking for a source I see one that talks about these efforts and a small amount of additional flights added last year. Looks like only 5, but from the original story I saw on the news they’re already WAY (thousands) of flights over the design capacity. source for recent flight increase: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/01/30/safety-delta-lobbyists-reagan-dca-flights-congress-crash/78059396007/
So why is the focus on the FAA when the military is the one flying a helicopter into a high volume domestic flight path? Why wouldn’t the focus be on military controls, training, conditions of soldiers, accountability in their opaque system, etc.?
Uhhhhhh they are supposed to communicate with the FAA about their activities and flight paths. I’m guessing the department that works closely with the military so shit like this doesn’t happen was understaffed that day. The FAA controls nonwar military mission flights as well. Pilots in the military aren’t just taking off without 10,000 other steps that needs to be done. One of those tasks is ensuring the FAA knows about all aircraft in the sky! Otherwise, you’ll have widespread panic inside aircraft control centers everytime a military aircraft takes off.
Sure, 100%, and no doubt staffing levels for ATC, and FAA, etc. could have played a causal or correlative role, my point is that there is little digging into the other half of the accident, which for me is pretty strange since a collision involves two parties, systems, processes, etc.
Musk bullied the head of FAA to quit shortly before this.
“Reagan national” the name says it all.
