Pelosi: Trump 'pushing airspace to the breaking point' with shutdown

[left-of-center2012]

Source: The Hill

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Friday said the news of the FAA halting flights into La Guardia was evidence that President Trump is "pushing our airspace to the breaking point" with the government shutdown.

Link to tweet

The Federal Aviation Administration briefly halted flights into La Guardia airport in New York City as air traffic controllers work without pay amid the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history.

Delays of roughly an hour were also experienced at Newark and Philadelphia airports due to staffing shortages.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/426968-pelosi-says-trump-pushing-airspace-to-breaking-point-with-shutdown

[kimbutgar]

1. If there is an airline disaster the blame should be put squarely upon the orange maggot

He will be responsible for the deaths of innocent people because he is beholden to Putin.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. In reality, slowing down the flights

is increasing safety. It's incredibly inconvenient for travellers, and makes life for the ticket and gate agents hell, but it's exactly the right thing to be doing.

[MyOwnPeace]

4. The absolutely "right" thing to be doing........

is opening up the government and quit holding the United States of America hostage for an idiot's stupid dream wall.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. Well yes.

Meanwhile, people freaking out over cancellations and delays saying this is proof air travel is suddenly less safe, are simply wrong.

[MyOwnPeace]

6. And that is correct also............

at least we have responsible professionals working somewhere!

[Major Nikon]

7. I don't agree

If the FAA is to the point of slowing down traffic it means they have a serious staffing situation. What we are seeing are cracks in the dam.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

8. Yes, they have a staffing situation and the slowing down of traffic is to keep everything safe.

[Major Nikon]

9. Not quite

There are a number of services that controllers provide on a time permitting basis, all of which increase safety. If they are limiting services they must provide on a mandatory basis, it's a safe bet those time permitting services were the first thing to go out the window. I can also think of other reasons why the whole system was less safe than before, but that one is the most obvious.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

10. I think if pilots thought that necessary services were being shortcutted

or left out, they'd have stopped flying by now.

Back in the '70's there was a brief walkout, or maybe just a threat of a walkout when controllers in Quebec wanted to be able to use French with local pilots. American pilots said Absolutely Not!, refused to fly into Quebec, and it ended quickly.

So I think fears that all of a sudden our skies are a whole lot less safe are overblown.

[Major Nikon]

11. Not how it works when you are a commercial pilot

If you have the backing of a union, you might be able to get away with refusing flights for such reasons. For the vast majority of commercial pilots if you refuse work in even marginally safe conditions, you will be out of a job very quickly.

For non-commercial pilots they almost certainly wouldn't even know the services they have been using are no longer available until after they were refused.

You also have pilots who will elect to fly VFR when IFR services are limited, which decreases safety.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

13. I take it ALPA is no longer the powerhouse it once was.

I do recall that language thing fairly well, just not the details, because I was a ticket agent at DCA at that time.

[Major Nikon]

14. They are still quite powerful, but they don't represent most commercial pilots

And they don't represent any non-commercial pilots.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

15. Back in the day they were the only game in town for airline pilots.

Things do change, don't they?

[Deb]

3. Military members are transported commercially. The GOP doesn't give a shit.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

12. One thing that has NOT gotten a lot of news coverage

is the fact that commercial aircraft ARE NOT receiving the normal safety inspections that routinely occur when government is functioning normally. These inspectors have been furloughed. Routine maintenance inspections are also not being undertaken right now. Also, there are several levels of redundancy built into the system that are there for the purpose of safety and safety net. As this shutdown has progressed, these layers have disappeared and so has the safety they insure.

As a retired Air Traffic Controller, I can tell you with certainty that these safety concerns are not frivolous matters. For too long, the FAA has failed to advocate strenuously and lobby Congress for financial upgrades to equipment and keep pace with technology, all across this nation. Our airspaces are overcrowded, frighteningly so. Controllers can only do so much with the gear they have. If it breaks down or fails to detect, or when small private planes fail to file flight plans and wander into an aerodrome's airspace (and this happens more often than you know), situations can deteriorate quickly.

Right now, we have ATCs working 10 hour shifts, six days a week to keep pace with shortages. Some are working overtime to fill in the gaps. How many people could keep pace with that kind of a schedule ? The job itself is not inherently stressful - either you have the ability to compartmentalize the requirements or you don't last in the job - but when you start tampering with the structure that supports the system, problems mount exponentially.

Ask yourself, when was the last MAJOR improvement made to Air Traffic Control in this country ? (All I hear is crickets.) When was the last airport built in a major hub ?

Our ATC systems and the people working them are over-taxed. This shutdown has shown us just how dangerously over-burdened they are.