America s Air-Traffic Control System: An International Disgrace
We still don t know how many mistakes led to the collision of a helicopter with an American Airlines passenger jet making its descent at Reagan National Airport last week. But one thing has been clear for decades: America s air-traffic control system, once the world s most advanced, has become an international disgrace.
Long before the Obama and Biden administrations quest to diversify staff in control towers, the system was already one of the worst in the developed world. The recent rash of near-collisions is the result of chronic mismanagement that has left the system with too few controllers using absurdly antiquated technology.
John Tierney.
This makes me scared of flying.