Flying: Hazardous to your Health
Out of Time, a reality check on air travel: An air traffic controller sounds the alarm on morale, outdated technology, the lowest number of fully trained professionals serving the country in sixteen years and the spike in runway “incursions” from just one year ago. “We’re left trying to hold the system together like MacGyver — with duct tape and scissors and string.”
In 1991 there was a horrible accident in LA, we — being air traffic controllers — cleared one airplane to land on an occupied runway. We killed 34 people. I was there the next morning, I knew the person that did it. I saw him go out on stress leave. I saw the body bags come out of the airplane, and I can tell you, I’ve got that sinking feeling in my stomach right now that we’re just another day away from another one of those situations. It’s going to break my heart, because we’ve been telling everyone to listen. We’ve been very careful not to be Chicken Little, but we’re at the point of critical mass.
