NYT: IT’S NOT AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER'S’ FAULT THAT THEY’RE DRUNK, HIGH OR SLEEPING ON THE JOB!
They're exhausted.
[This has nothing to do with the recent crash, about which we know NOTHING. I just happened to come across this Dec. 2023 New York Times article and I love the blame-shifting.]
One air traffic controller went into work drunk this summer and joked about “making big money buzzed.” Another routinely smoked marijuana during breaks. …
In the past two years, air traffic controllers and others have submitted hundreds of complaints to a Federal Aviation Administration hotline describing issues like dangerous staffing shortages, mental health problems and deteriorating buildings, some infested by bugs and black mold.
There were at least seven reports of controllers sleeping when they were on duty and five about employees working while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
But it’s not their fault they smoke pot during breaks or show up to work drunk! They’re exhausted.
Yet the conditions for many controllers are far from ideal. A nationwide staffing shortage — caused by years of employee turnover and tight budgets, among other factors — has forced many controllers to work six-day weeks and 10-hour days.
The result is a fatigued, distracted and demoralized work force that is increasingly prone to making mistakes, according to a Times investigation. The findings are based on interviews with more than 70 current and former air traffic controllers, pilots and federal officials, as well as thousands of pages of federal safety reports and internal F.A.A. records that The Times obtained.
Read the whole thing here.
As an aviation insider, I've been tracking the decline of the FAA, professional pilots, and ATC for years! "Where DEI goes to die! (and maybe kill you too!)" Flooding the critical roles of aviation, with low IQ idiots, because of "diversity" is already DEADLY! Air Traffic Controllers that don't have the wits, focus, determination, clarity of mind, and spatial understanding to do the job well, has resulted in countless "near miss" incidents over the past few years. Add DEI pilots, and you've got a recipe for death and destruction!
If they want to corrupt the DMV with incompetent diversity hires (nothing new), well, that's one thing, but doing it in the life or death industries of aviation, healthcare, nuclear power, steering ships, etc., that will have disastrous consequences!
Yesterday's mishap is 100% on the H-60 pilot though!
As a physician I have to laugh at working 10 hour days six days a week. They get a day off?