From the Wright brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk to NASA’s putting the first man on the moon, America has been a beacon of aviation excellence and ingenuity for decades. However, America’s aviation infrastructure and air traffic control technologies need a substantial upgrade after a serious decline of our once cutting-edge, illustrious industry into an antiquated, dilapidated system.
Air traffic control towers are plagued by a severe staffing, training, and funding crisis. Ninety percent of towers nationwide are understaffed — a deficit that cannot be met by the country’s one operational training facility. This crisis is exacerbated by the antiquated technologies that air traffic controllers are forced to rely on, such as floppy disks and eroding copper wire communications systems.
Overworked, undertrained air traffic controllers using outdated technology have become increasingly problematic. This technology impairs the communication and calculations necessary for air traffic controllers’ split-second, high-stakes decisions. The recent collisions at major airports around the country serve as a striking reminder that high-quality, modernized air traffic control systems are not a luxury but a necessity.
Allowing this to continue is reckless. What makes these collisions the most tragic is that they were likely preventable; if there had been streamlined communication, rigorous training, and proper staffing in our air traffic control towers, those lost might still be with us today.
Thus, advancing our air traffic control systems as soon as possible is a security imperative and governmental duty. While American passengers are safe to fly, they need to know they can trust their pilots, aircraft, and control systems to operate well into the future. To restore trust and aviation excellence, our air traffic control systems and regulations need a complete overhaul.
Thankfully, the current administration is poised to do just that. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s new plans to bolster American air travel’s safety and efficiency are a promising sign that reform is inbound. He recognizes that a quick fix with increased funding and updated technology doesn’t go far enough since there is a systemic need for long-term funding and more highly skilled air traffic controllers, a number that requires more academies, rigorous training, income incentives, and merit-based, efficient hiring policies.
Congress should pass an emergency funding package so the Federal Aviation Administration can modernize the most essential technologies as soon as possible, such as replacing our radar systems and transitioning outdated communications systems to fiber, wireless, or satellite technology.
To create lasting improvement in modernization and innovation, Congress must pass long-term, multi-year funding plans. These plans will allow the FAA to proactively invest in cutting-edge technologies and eliminate years of backlogged upgrades.
This forward-looking action includes streamlining the training and hiring process for future air traffic controllers and investigating how technologies such as artificial intelligence could aid in air safety and collision mitigation, as Duffy has suggested.
Ultimately, it’s imprudent and irresponsible for the government to keep putting these much-needed reforms off when lives are on the line. The quality of our air traffic control systems directly correlates to our passengers’ safety. Thus, it is the government’s responsibility to ensure that standards are top-of-the-line and up to date.
In addition to the security imperative of overhauling our air traffic control system, it is also a smart financial investment to rejuvenate it sooner rather than later, as the more dilapidated and outdated it becomes, the more it will inevitably cost to overhaul.
Further, we must ensure that the life-or-death air traffic control operations, which urgently need modernization, are not swept up into overly zealous budget cuts. The government’s first duty is to protect its citizens’ well-being.
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It’s incorrect to lump together funding for aviation safety technology with the billions of federal dollars lost to fraud, waste, and mismanagement. Federal funding should further Americans’ safety and flourishing, and right now, that means bolstering the safety of air travel, a necessary expense for a worthy cause.
Duffy is right: We don’t have a choice about updating our airline infrastructure. To ensure American excellence in aviation and, more fundamentally, safety in the skies, our air traffic controls and airline systems must be revolutionized. It’s time to empower air traffic controllers with the training, equipment, and staffing they need to keep passengers safe and restore the golden age of American aviation.
J. Kennerly Davis is a former deputy attorney general for the Commonwealth of Virginia whose responsibilities included transportation.