Personnel at Air Control Tower was ‘not normal’ according to FAA: Report

An internal preliminary report from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) allegedly showed that the number of employees working in Air Control Tower in Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) in Arlington, Virginia, was “not normal for the time of day and volume of Traffic.

On Wednesday night, an American Airlines aircraft and an army helicopter near Reagan National Airport collided outside Washington, DC, and all 67 people on board are believed to have died.

The Associated Press Obtained a report showing that an air traffic controller worked two positions at the time of the crash.

Typically, the two tasks are divided between two air traffic controllers.

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“The position configuration was not normal for the time of day and traffic volume,” the report said.

Despite the report that said the staff was “not normal,” a person who was familiar with the case, Fox News Digital, told the staff in the control tower at DCA on Wednesday night was at a normal level.

The person explained that the positions are combined regularly if air controls are to go away from the console for breaks or if they are involved in a change of change. Controllers may also have to go away when air traffic is slow, the person explained and speaks on condition of anonymity to discuss internal procedures.

Supervisors have the ability to combine roles, which was the case on Wednesday night, although the person who was familiar with the case could not say why. When asked about air traffic and previous reports that it was heavy on Wednesday night, the source said it was moderate.

The Air Control Tower in Reagan National has been understaffed for years with 19 fully certified controllers from September 2023. However, staffed target set by FAA and Controllers Union calls for 30.

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FAA’s lack of air traffic controller is nothing new to Reagan National or most of the country’s flight control facilities.

Last year, Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle appeared at Fox Business Network’s “The Claman Countdown” and warned that deficiency could cause problems during the summer season if they were not addressed.

Biffle explained that although technology could help solve the problem while promoting greater efficiency in air travel in the long term, the air traffic controller contributes to delays and cancellations.

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“There are opportunities to improve the technology that is the kind of backbone in air traffic control,” Biffle said. “For example, if you look at Europe, there are some options that we could adopt here that would be much more effective – you would burn much less fuel, get there faster and so on. It’s a great opportunity.”

“At the same time, it doesn’t lapse the problem that I think we’re 3,000 controllers cards right now. And so it just causes when you have a weather event just makes it be there to be more delays,” he explained. “And in the end, as we have seen over the past few days, these delays then become cancellations because crews Time Out and so on. (I) really want to see that staff are being resolved. Technology is probably a longer solution. “

The FAA’s National AirSpace System (NAS) Safety Review Team established in April 2023 after several close lane penetrations during starting or landings at busy airports, decided that year that the agreement of several challenges such as air traffic management, staffed crunch, insufficient financing and outdated technology ” Results in an erosion of security margins to be addressed urgently.

“The current erosion of the NAS security margin caused by the confluence of these challenges makes the current level of security unsustainable,” the team’s report said.

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The reason for the defect has been attributed to employee turnover and other factors such as tight budgets, and in the end it has resulted in many controllers working 10-hour days and as many as six days a week, the New York Times reported.

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report.