The air traffic control tower at New York's Laguardia Airport REUTERS/Ryan Murphy
New York’s Laguardia Airport amid the U.S. government shutdown
(New York, NY) — Last week’s deadly crash between an Air Canada jet and and a Port Authority fire truck on the runway at LaGuardia airport, has some fliers again questioning what really goes on in an air traffic control tower and how are those workers screened and trained.
Inside that “cab”—the glass-enclosed room at the top of the tower at LaGuardia—sits a small team of controllers who manage one of the most complex and tightly packed airspaces in the world. The team watching the skies and runways are split into three distinct groups. Local controllers who manage active runways, clear planes to land and take off. Ground controllers direct aircraft vehicles such as fuel trucks and tugs through taxiways. Clearance delivery workers control IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) which handle flight plan clearances, and start-up, and pushback authorizations for aircraft.
LaGuardia is considered “well-staffed” control tower compared to other facilities, it operates with roughly 33 certified controllers. But during the overnight hours there are two workers watching the skies, something that NTSB investigators leading the charge in the recent crash say may not be enough.
The heads of the air traffic controllers union (NATCA) say their workers are stressed out and are asked to do too much. Most work six-day weeks and 10-hour days to cover gaps. That has airlines worried the workers may at times lack mental sharpness to make important decisions and suffer from exhaustion.
Leaders at the FAA readily admit they could use a larger crew of trained air traffic controllers, but they are quick to point out that fliers are safe. They point to an aviation system that is designed with layers of defense that mean a single mistake rarely ends in tragedy. Union leaders says those layers have been slowly eroding over the years by the pressure put on workers who have to deal with technology that badly needs to be updated.
Some pilots report “close calls” and miscommunications with the tower at LaGuardia, but nothing chronic. Leaders at the Port Authority, the agency that runs the airport say thankfully crashes have been rare there and say flying remains statistically the safest mode of travel. But they continually call on the federal government to modernize the systems in the tower to take some of the stress off control tower workers.
