Does the controller shortage demand rapid hiring and retraining?

Back in January, there was a tragic incident where an American Airlines flight collided with a military helicopter near Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC. A few days after the crash, we published a special report on the incident. About a week later, we published a deep dive Friday edition about the crash, trying to make sense of how something like that could happen. And one of the people who I spoke to was David Soucie, who is CNN's air safety analyst. He's a former FAA safety inspector and the author of a book called Safer Skies, which is about the past and the future of airline safety. So overall, he is an expert on these questions. 

He provided a lot of invaluable insight into the crash when we spoke back in January. But I hadn't heard from him since then. We hadn't had a chance to reconnect. That is until this week when he reached out to me over email to let me know that he had some information about the impact of the government shutdown on the air safety space and the way that it was impacting airlines. So I jumped at the opportunity to speak with him. We had a really interesting conversation about some of the reports that have come out this week of air traffic controllers allegedly taking sick days to get out of work when they're not being paid. And also, more broadly, about whether air safety is actually being impacted by this government shutdown and how it could be impacted if the shutdown continues for days or weeks more. 

I'm sure this is a topic that's top of mind for anybody who is planning to fly in the near future. But also if you're just somebody who flies in general, David and I talked about some of the changes that have been made to the air safety infrastructure since the DC crash nine months ago, how he feels the overall infrastructure is in the United States right now, and whether the government shutdown could exacerbate any existing issues. So if you've read any of these reports from airports across the country experiencing flight delays and cancellations because of significant air traffic controller shortages, and you've wondered, it safe to fly right now? David offers a great perspective on where we're at and the level of concern that you should have.

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