Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 05/16/2025 5:24:18 AM PDT by Red Badger
MALVERN, Pa.—Jonathan Stewart was into his fourth hour overseeing the planes flying near Newark, N.J., when he noticed two aircraft speeding nose-to-nose on his radar scope.
A business jet that had departed the Morristown airport was heading toward another small plane that had taken off from nearby Teterboro, a hub for corporate flying. A midair collision was potentially seconds away with planes flying at the same altitude.
The veteran air-traffic controller had been scribbling callsigns for the planes and flight information in a notebook, worried that radar and radio communication might fail as they had days earlier. After recognizing the unfolding conflict, he instructed the pilots to turn the planes away from each other, which they did.
But Stewart, 45 years old, was badly shaken. Hours after the May 4 incident, he fired off an email to Federal Aviation Administration managers, criticizing their leadership. “I take my job very seriously, as I do the safety of the flying public, and take pride in my performance,” he wrote.
For years, the FAA has struggled to fully staff air-traffic facilities and keep critical technology running. Frustrated with the current work situation and his own close call, Stewart took stress-related trauma leave, a benefit available for controllers.
“I don’t want to be responsible for killing 400 people,” he said in an interview.
Controllers rarely speak to the media publicly, especially without the supervision of public-affairs officials. Stewart said he wanted to set the record straight about controllers who he said had been demonized in news coverage.
Jonathan Stewart said the controllers who manage Newark airspace need more resources to effectively do their jobs.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
A human or two adjuncts to keep an eye on things is all that would be necessary........
Elon?.........................
AVIATION PING!...................AI ATC?...........
Seems to me AI cannot correctly direct my phone call to the right place when I call my doctor's office. Not sure I'm ready to trust AI to manage air traffic control.
And what happens when AI fails, just like the current computer failures?
AI in this case would be managing data from the radar, its sole purpose would be to keep two dots on the radar screen from colliding or even coming near to each other........................
They aren’t currently even using GPS. They have systems that require the use of floppy disks.
Do you think they are going to implement AI?
“Stewart, who isn’t in the controllers’ union, said he is on track this year to earn over $450,000, including overtime.”
I knew the were well paid but that is really well paid.
That’s a close second to self-driving autos. Thanks, but no thanks. Computers suck when they get cranky. AI isn’t ready for prime-time infrastructure duties.
Is permanently destroying your health in that ultra high stress job worth it?
I wonder what the average tenure is in that job and how many break down mentally.
A shame so many tax dollars are stolen by the greedy corrupt political class...that and DEI.
AI lands planes now. But there has to be a human when things go wrong. Right now Full Self Driving for cars has killed a few people. Which is deemed acceptable because humans kill people too. But this is a plane load of people. And humans have gone decades without killing people. So AI may not be ready for this. Its in the plane now and has been for years. But there is also two pilots and air traffic controllers as well.
By the way. The lack of good air traffic controllers, has more to do with the number of qualified applicants and not saving money. They are having a hard time finding qualified people.
They aren’t currently even using GPS. They have systems that require the use of floppy disks.
++++++++++++
Serious question. How do other super busy airports elsewhere in the world manage ATC? Dubai is supposedly 2nd busiest on the planet. Are they using floppy disks? Of course they are not.
Seems to me that this out of date technology ATC scenario and the systems we stubbornly use at the major cargo sea ports (Long Beach, Los Angeles) are consistently behind the technology curve. There seems to be a common “union mentality” lurking underneath the radar.
No they haven't. They have struggled to keep out qualified applicants while favoring DEI hires. It's a different "struggle."
Bump
I wouldn’t want anything to do with NY Metro airspace at any price.
I presume that someone is archiving all this in oppo research against buttheadegieg...
Never trusted Teterboro.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.