Two senators are calling on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to work with Congress to increase its funding and staffing in the aftermath of last month’s deadly plane crash near Washington.
In a Wednesday letter addressed to FAA acting administrator Chris Rochelau, Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.) urged the agency to address the “urgent need” of air traffic controllers amid staffing shortages, citing last month’s midair collision at Reagan Washington National Airport that left more than 60 people dead.
“Although this incident was horrifying, it was unfortunately not unimaginable,” they wrote. “In recent years, near-misses at airports across the country have increased — and the incident at DCA has been particularly distressing.”
Late last month, a Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines plane collided near the Washington, D.C. area airport. The jet was carrying 64 people and the helicopter had three soldiers aboard. It’s one of the deadliest U.S. aircraft crashes in the last 20 years.
The incident prompted widespread concern over the staffing shortages at FAA and what could have been done to prevent the crash from happening.
“To be clear, we do not write to imply that understaffing was a primary cause of the collision,” the senators said. “However, in light of the FAA’s preliminary report, it is clear that any response the underlying causes of this tragedy – whatever they may be – must include support for our nation’s dedicated aviation safety professionals and result in significant investments in our [certified professional controllers] CPC workforce.”
After the incident, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association president addressed concerns about staffing shortages, highlighting the need for funding. Nick Daniels said plainly there are “not enough” air traffic controllers and that it must be addressed.
He noted that there is a funding need to uphold the safety standards required for air traffic controllers and highlighted how long and rigorous the training process is.
The senators asked new Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Rochelau to work with the association and with Congress to find funding to “modernize facilities and equipment, expand the FAA training academy’s capacity, strengthen partnerships with aviation schools across the country and other ways to prevent partisan brinkmanship around government funding from shutting down operations.”
The senators also asked that the FAA allow the investigation into the deadly crash to “run its course” before taking more action.
“For the sake of America’s traveling public, we can and must do better,” they wrote.
