"Not normal": Air traffic controllers were stretched thin during D.C. crash, per report

Staffing issues may have played a role in a deadly crash at Ronald Reagan National Airport (DCA) on Wednesday night.

An internal Federal Aviation Administration report claimed that one air traffic controller in DCA's tower was manning both helicopter traffic and the airport's takeoffs and landings at the time of a collision between an American Airlines flight and a helicopter. Per the FAA report obtained by the New York Times, staffing at the D.C. aviation hub was “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic.”

That doubling-up involved communicating with airplane and helicopter pilots on two separate radio frequencies, the Times reported. Per a 2023 Air Traffic Controller workforce plan, which has seemingly been pulled from the FAA’s site since December, the D.C. airport was 11 controllers short of a target of 30 staffers.

At a Thursday press conference focused on the crash, National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman said the agency had yet to review the FAA internal report, but said it would be part of the investigation process.

A 2023 report determined that over 99% of American airports lacked critical air traffic control staffing. Aggressively recruiting qualified employees was a top priority for transportation officials under President Joe Biden, but policy reversals last week pumped the brakes on hirings.

Some have pointed to a federal hiring freeze and buyout offers for nearly all federal workers from the Trump administration as an intensifying factor in the staffing woes plaguing air traffic control towers. 

“Trump gutted the Aviation Safety committee last week. Air traffic controllers - already understaffed - got Trump’s “buyout” this week with a 1 week ultimatum to decide,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said on X. “It’s not DEI - it’s him. And Elon too.”