Former FAA exec sounds alarm on ‘failing’ air traffic system

Newark has experienced its fourth air traffic control outage in just three weeks. Here's what it means for you.

Transcript

00:00Newark is struggling with a failing communication system.

00:05Essentially, the FAA is still running the best communication technology of the 1980s.

00:12And increasingly, that communication protocol is not compatible with the systems that the

00:19telcos are now managing.

00:21And these outages, which are unscheduled, are occurring more frequently and in more places.

00:27The problems we're having right now are fundamentally technology issues.

00:32The FAA has been crying out for budget for well over a decade in order to replace the

00:38communication system.

00:39And in addition, to put in some temporary fixes so that even as their system is incompatible

00:46with modern telcos, that they would have, think of it as converter boxes that would enable

00:51this ancient technology that the FAA is running still to be able to communicate on modern

00:56telco lines.

00:57And so it's largely a matter of budget.

00:59But I will say that, like most of the technology at the FAA, the communication system consumes

01:06labor.

01:07It is not labor-saving at all.

01:09And so it exacerbates the existing controller shortage, which has been at the FAA since

01:15at least 2020.

01:17The system is at a breaking point from an efficiency point of view.

01:23Our incredibly professional controllers keep the system safe, but they keep it safe at the

01:31expense of efficiency.

01:33And so what I tell my family is the system is still extremely safe, but you might be very

01:40delayed.