CHICAGO (WLS) — The ABC7 I-Team has been reporting on air traffic controller staffing issues for years, and Wednesday night’s tragic plane crash near Reagan National Airport has highlighted the ongoing issue.
The fiery collision between a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and a regional passenger jet flying for American Eagle killed all 67 people on board: 64 passengers and crew on the jet, and three soldiers on the helicopter.
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“A young captain, staff sergeant and the CW2 chief warrant officer, on a routine annual retraining night flights on a standard corridor for a continuity government mission,” said Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth.
Right now it is not known how many air traffic controllers were in the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport tower at the time of the crash, but an FAA report obtained by the Associated Press says staffing in the tower was “not normal” at the time of the collision.
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“We have not reviewed any specific reports about the controllers. At this time, at least from the leadership team, our investigators are continuing to pull all that information, their personnel records or files, where they were at, whether they were fatigued. All that information will be part of that investigative process,” said NSB Board Member Todd Inman.
The ABC7 I-Team has reported on serious concerns from federal lawmakers about understaffing in the air traffic towers. For instance, in November staffing at Air Route Traffic Control Center in Aurora, where planes across the Midwest are sequenced and separated, was at 82%, according to the union representing air traffic controllers.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association union said air traffic control staffing nationwide decreased by 9% from 2011 to 2023, while flights increased during that same time period.
READ MORE: Black boxes recovered from American Airlines jet that crashed after midair collision; 67 dead
“You work on this job long enough, you come across this stuff, it’s very unfortunate,” said Michael Julius, an air traffic control instructor at Lewis University.
The 32-year air traffic control veteran, who has spent decades in the tower at Midway Airport, now trains the next generation at Lewis University in Romeoville.
“The simple fact of the matter is, it’s, it’s a very serious business that we’re in, and most times it goes by unnoticed,” he said.
Julius said even with numerous technologies used to help pilots and controllers, the work he did for years requires human attention and expertise.
“It’s no different than driving the vehicle down the road, if you sit there and try to drive, staring at your speed. Make sure you don’t break the speed limit,” he said. “You’re not going to see what’s in front of you. You got to get your head up. You got to be out the window. You got to use your technology appropriately.”
The American Airlines flight from Wichita was cleared for landing after a last minute but routine runway change. The Army helicopter was on its routine usual path for a standard night training, but flying at 350 feet instead of 200 feet.
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U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who flew Black Hawk helicopters during her military service, said the Army pilots would have been alert to commercial jets. Audio from Air Traffic Control revealed the military pilot acknowledged he saw the jet approaching the runway.
“That crew would be looking out of the aircraft actively trying to spot a landing aircraft, especially since they had just acknowledged with Air Traffic Control that they were looking for them,” she said.
Thursday afternoon, sources told ABC News the black boxes from the American Airlines plane had been recovered and are on their way to the NTSB lab.
According to ABC News sources when aircraft volume goes down, a supervisor can make the decision to combine two air traffic controller positions into one position. Last night that happened 40 minutes earlier than normal. The combined position handles local arrivals into Reagan and helicopter traffic, which sources say is not normal.
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