The Inner Preliminary Report of the Federal Air Force (FAA) Federal Directorate allegedly showed that the number of staff members working in the air control tower at the Ronald Reagan National Airport Arlington, VirginiaIt’s not “not normal for the time of day and the amount of traffic.”
On Wednesday night, an American Airlines Air and military helicopter collided near the National Airport of Reagan outside Washington, DC, and all 67 people on board of both aircraft are assumed to be dead.
AND Associated Press It received a report that showed that one air traffic controller was doing two positions at the time of the collision.
Usually, two tasks are divided between two air traffic controllers, not just one.
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A general view of the National Airport of Reagan in Arlington, Virginia on Thursday, January 30, 2025, a flight American Airlines from Wichite, Kansas, collided with Black Hawk helicopter as he approached the airport last night for landing. (Leigh Green for Fox News Digital)
“The position configuration was not normal for the time of day and the amount of traffic,” the report said.
FAA did not immediately answer Fox News Digital questions asked for a comment on the issue.
The Air Control Tower at Reagan Airport has had enough staff for years with 19 fully certified controllers since September 2023. However, the goals of the staff set by the FAA and the controller’s union call 30.
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Emergency units are evaluated by aircraft wreckage in Rijeka Potomac near Ronald Reagan Washington Airport on January 30, 2025 at Arlington, Virginia. The Wichite Airlines Flight, Kansas, collided with a helicopter as he approached the National Airport by Ronald Reagan. (Andrew Hardik/Getty Images)
FAA air traffic controllers are nothing new to Reagan National or most air traffic control facilities in the country.
Last year, the CEO of Frontier Airlines Barry Biffle appeared on the “Claman countdown” Fox Business Network -A warned that the lack could cause problems during the summer season if they did not solve them.
Biffle explained that although technology could help solve the problem, while promoting greater efficiency in air travel for a long time, the lack of air traffic controllers contributes to delays and cancellation.
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Rescuers on board, in addition to the Black Hawk helicopter wreck at the scene after colliding with the American Eagle Flight 5342, approaching the National Airport by Reagan Washington and collapsed in the Potomac River, outside Washington, USA, January 30, 2025. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
“There are options for improving the technology that is the type of backbone control of air traffic,” Biffle said. “If you look at Europe, for example, there are some options that we could adopt here would be much more effective – you would burn much less fuel, get there faster and so on. This is a great opportunity.
“At the same time, this does not deny a problem that I think we are currently a short 3,000 controllers. And so it only causes, when you have a time event, it just causes more delays to come,” he explained. “And finally, as we have seen in the last few days, these delays then turn into dismissals because the crews of time and so on. [I] I really would like the staff to fix. Technology is probably a longer solution. “
AND FAA The National Air Force Security Review (us) created in April 2023. After several close incursions in runways during take -off or landing in traffic airports, he found that the match is a few challenges such as CRUNCH for air traffic control, insufficient financing and financing Obsolete technologies “results in the erosion of security margin that must be addressed urgently.”
“The current erosion in the security border in us -in the mouth of these challenges, makes the current level of security unsustainable,” the team report said.
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The cause of the lack of employees and other factors such as tight budgets was attributed to the traffic of employees, in the end, this resulted in many controllers worked 10-hour days and even six days a week, the Times reported.
Louis Casiano Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
