JOEL ROSE, HOST:
Federal aviation regulators have taken a big step in response to the crash at LaGuardia Airport in New York City earlier this year. Two pilots were killed when an Air Canada jet crashed into a fire truck in March. Six others were seriously injured. And now, as the Wall Street Journal first reported, the Federal Aviation Administration is moving to fire two air traffic controllers who were supposed to be on the job when the crash happened, but they weren't, according to multiple media outlets because they had left work early, a longstanding practice known in the industry as an early shove. NPR has not confirmed that reporting.
There were only two controllers in the tower at the time of the crash, and one of them was dealing with a separate emergency on the ground, according to safety investigators. So what do these latest headlines reveal about the workplace culture in this crucial profession? We'll put that question to Tom Lintner. He spent 30 years working in aviation safety at the FAA, including as an air traffic controller at LaGuardia. Welcome to the program.
TOM LINTNER: Thank you, Joel. Thank you.
ROSE: I want to start with this practice of taking an early shove. How much does this happen, and does it affect safety?
LINTNER: Well, Joel, it's not an uncommon practice or an unknown practice. It's one of those things that - you know, that has evolved through the culture of air traffic. It's a niche group of people who are doing a very stressful job. It's a strange and difficult environment. And although I don't know the details of this particular event at LaGuardia at that particular time, I can say it's - the headline comes as no surprise to me.
ROSE: Why would a manager at a tower like that decide to send the air traffic controllers home early?
LINTNER: A lot of it has to do with the schedule of how much time a controller is actually on duty, plugged in, working traffic versus, you know, breaks away from that. It's one of those jobs that you cannot do for eight hours. And the general criteria right now is no more than two hours on the position, a break, two hours on, a break, and so it goes. And occasionally, the way it works out - normal break time concurrent with the end of the shift. So it makes it easy to justify, if you will, why, OK, go ahead and take your break on the road.
ROSE: There has been mounting tension lately between the Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and the air traffic control workforce. Duffy blamed controllers calling out sick for delays at some big airports recently. Are controllers likely to see this latest move as an escalation, do you think, by the administration?
LINTNER: What you are faced with between the Department of Transportation and the FAA and within the FAA - the organization that actually provides air traffic control service - you have a federal government organization that is responsible to be a regulator to regulate the industry and ensure safety. And it's the same organization that's charged with the responsibility of providing a service. In fact, FAA is regulating itself. There's that natural tension and friction within the organization that goes well beyond the relationship between the secretary and the controllers.
ROSE: The air traffic control system in this country has been chronically understaffed for years. Some air traffic controllers say they feel like they're being scapegoated for larger problems in the system. Do you think that they have a point?
LINTNER: I think their point needs to be taken seriously, yes.
ROSE: How so?
LINTNER: Blaming controllers or controller shortages for delays - what we also need to do is look at the artificial demand, if you will, that's created by airline schedulings. You know, I know controllers - and I'm one of them - who will say there is very, very few times that a delay is actually caused by air traffic control. It's caused by weather, and it's caused by the amount of traffic that the airlines are trying to put into airports at specific times for economic reasons. It's a balance. They're all related.
ROSE: The FAA is making a big push to modernize the air traffic control system, and part of that involves using AI and predictive analytics. Do you think that's going to work?
LINTNER: It's promising. I work with AI almost every day, and the capabilities are huge. Now, how you apply that to some of the complexity of air traffic control, which is flexible and rigid at the same time - incorporating that into the current system is going to be a bit of an experiment. But the other thing we have to be cautious of is every time you incorporate new technology into the system, technology can make positive change, but also technology can bring in additional risks by making the system so dependent upon it. And whether the balance is increased efficiency but at a higher risk is something that needs to be looked at very carefully.
ROSE: That is Tom Lintner. He is a former air traffic controller at LaGuardia Airport in New York and now an aviation industry consultant. Thank you for your time.
LINTNER: Thank you, Joel. Appreciate it. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
