Posted on 05/05/2025 5:53:06 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
Air traffic controllers who lost communication with aircraft at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, leading to hundreds of delays for more than a week, are taking special government leave for traumatic situations to recover from the stress.
The controllers in Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control, which coordinates planes arriving at Newark, “temporarily lost radar and communications with the aircraft under their control, unable to see, hear, or talk to them,” on Monday April 28, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said in a statement shared with CNN.
The connectivity between Federal Aviation Administration radar and the frequencies that air traffic controllers use to manage planes flying in and out of the airport “completely failed,” a source with knowledge of the situation said.
At least five FAA employees took 45 days of leave as a result of the incident, sources tell CNN.
On Monday, the FAA acknowledged that the agency’s “antiquated air traffic control system” is affecting its workforce.
“Some controllers at the Philadelphia TRACON who work Newark arrivals and departures have taken time off to recover from the stress of multiple recent outages,” the FAA said in a statement. The FAA also said it is updating its automated system to be more resilient and is working to safeguard telecommunications equipment in the New York area.
The staffing chaos has pushed into an eighth, and unprecedented day, resulting in delays and cancellations for thousands of customers.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Here’s a good thing to have a series of Congressional Hearings about.
“… At least five FAA employees took 45 days of leave as a result of the incident, sources tell CNN.…”
*********************************************
The power went out and five employees are SOOOO… TRAUMATIZED that they had to take 45 days of free paid leave.
You can’t make this stuff up.
If only Joe was still president, or better yet Kamala; then this would have never happened! 🙄
I miss R. Lee Ermey.
Philly radar approach is covering Newark’s traffic? Newark doesn’t even have any of it’s own people?
The woke and transgender controllers were clearly a fat, blubbering mess.
This is so silly it has to be BS.
45 days leave over a communications issue, and their absence is resulting in delays and cancellations for thousands of customers.
If this is true, they need to be on permanent unpaid leave.
Exactly... New York TRACON use to provide approach control but they moved it to Philadelphia. Advanced Tom Foolery in place for a designated timed attack on Trump. Maybe that is why the large amount of VP’s in ATO took the buyout to get out of Dodge. Hmmm.
“The power went out “
Stupid comment
“communications issue”
I take it you know nothing about air traffic control
It would take a lot more then that to traumatize me.
Those employees should just be told to take the rest of their life off from that job.
“Philly radar approach is covering Newark’s traffic? Newark doesn’t even have any of it’s own people?”
Approach is handled regionally. Approach hands off to the local tower.
Fire them...
Give them lots of time to recover...
Need pictures...
The power went out and five employees are SOOOO… TRAUMATIZED that they had to take 45 days of free paid leave.
……………………………………………………………………………
Not just the power; they could not communicate with the airplanes to keep them from crashing. Yes, that traumatized them!
***************************************************************
Yes, I understand the full matrix of problems they’ve been having. ATC positions can be stressful periodically. People hired for those jobs should be the type of people who can actually handle that stress. Judging by your user name I suspect you may have some knowledge of Air Force Combat Controllers and their training. Others may not be aware that they not only are trained in Air Traffic Control but are also trained Special Operators. To achieve their positions they must successfully pass very tough screening criteria and I can attest that if they can’t handle MAX stress, they will not succeed in that training. What you may not know is that for many years now the FAA intentionally largely avoided hiring veterans who were Special Operations Combat Controllers… primarily because they were male and mostly white.
What the FAA ended up with in their efforts to recruit DEI candidates has been a workforce containing some unknown percentage of what I’ll generously call NON-HACKERS.
Bfl
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.