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America desperately needs more air traffic controllers

The US air traffic control system has been stretched nearly to its breaking point by a decades-long staffing shortage. It’s causing problems not just for the air traffic controllers that remain but the flying public at large.

The cause of the crash between an American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas, on final approach for landing at the busy airport, and a US Army helicopter has yet to be determined. “It is not sustainable,” said Michael McCormick, the head of the air traffic management program at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, which is helping to feed potential controllers into the system. Despite the shortage, air traffic controllers all got the offer that went to federal employees last week, to pay them through September if they would resign now, an effort by the Trump Administration in its early days to cut government spending.

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