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The Federal Aviation Administration is sending a “stress management team” to meet with air traffic controllers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and making other changes after a rash of recent incidents. The “Critical Incident Stress Management” team, which offers “confidential support for staff following stressful events,” will visit DCA in early April, the FAA announced in a statement. The agency will also conduct regular “wellness checks at the facility.
” Reagan Airport has had a string of incidents since the start of the year, including January 29 when a US Army Blackhawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet collided in the air , killing 67 people. Thursday, a fight in the control tower ended with a 39-year-old controller arrested and charged with assault and battery. The FAA says he has been placed on leave.
On Friday, a close call occurred after an apparent breakdown in communications ultimately led to a Delta Air Lines plane taking off and T-38 jets from an Air Force flyover coming dangerously close. “The air traffic center that controls air space around DC notified DCA about the flyover. That should have led to halted traffic,” Sen.
Ted Cruz said in a congressional hearing Wednesday. “This serious communication breakdown is just the latest in a string of missteps that signal that the air traffic organization is under extreme stress.” The FAA also increased the number of operational supervisors at the airport from six to eight and is reviewing controller staffing.
At the time of January’s collision one controller was handling two positions , the National Transportation Safety Board noted. While that is allowed in certain circumstances, the preliminary report shows they did it for more than five hours, which was not abnormal. The most recent data from the Federal Aviation Administration shows that across all airport towers and terminal approach facilities nationwide, only about 70% of staffing targets were filled by fully certified controllers as of September 2023.
The FAA will also evaluate the rate at which planes are allowed to arrive at the airport each hour. The number of hourly arrivals was reduced to 26 after the January collision when some runways were closed for the investigation, but they have since been increased to 30 – still fewer than the 32 arrivals per hour allowed before the January accident..
