Plane Crash Highlights Exploitation of Air Traffic Controllers

Oliver Wells

Details regarding the fatal air crash near Reagan National Airport have emerged highlighting how the imperialists’ militarization and heightened exploitation took the lives of 67 people. Investigators have confirmed that all 64 people aboard the passenger jet from Kansas and three US soldiers aboard the Black Hawk military helicopter have been killed after the American Airlines jet had to make an emergency landing and collided with the helicopter.

Though transportation secretary Sean Duffy initially stated both aircraft were on their usual routes, a report by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) found that the helicopter veered off its training route for unknown reasons, flying half a mile off route at the time of the crash.

The FAA report also found that the single air traffic controller monitoring the situation was taking on two roles during a time that there should have been two people, bearing the responsibility for directing both plane and helicopter traffic.

Staffing was “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” according to an initial FAA investigation.

This is not unique—over 90% of air traffic control sites are understaffed according to the FAA’s own targets. A 2024 NYT investigation found that there were over 500 air traffic control lapses deemed as “significant” by the FAA in the fiscal year ending in September 30, 2024—a 65% increase compared to the year before.

The same investigation also found deteriorating conditions for air traffic controllers across the country, including insects swarming and biting workers, unregulated temperatures, and poorly-maintained facilities.

Airline monopolies and airports seek to maximize the number of flights in order to maximize the turnover of capital and realize more profits faster. They aim to move more, faster, and for less to realize the most profits. This translates to more possibilities of crashes and malfunctions midflight or at airports run by fewer and more exploited staff.

Over the last few years, Delta airlines has been successfully lobbying the government to increase the number of flights going into Reagan National Airport, where the top airline monopoly holds a lucrative share. The flight from Wichita, KS to Reagan National Airport was added just last year.

Chronic understaffing combined with an increased density of flights has led to an ongoing mental health crisis among air traffic controllers, with many documented cases of drug use and panic attacks on the job. Air traffic controllers are often forced to work ten hours a day, six days a week, with many of the lapses attributable to what amounts to enforced fatigue. To make matters worse, FAA employees also avoid therapy, as it might jeopardize their jobs—reports of receiving talk therapy even for mild anxiety or depression can result in barring workers from their jobs as it would threaten their medical clearance.

Since the mass firing of over 11,000 striking air traffic controllers in 1981 by former President Reagan, who were protesting low wages and long hours, conditions have continued to decline.

While decades ago Reagan used the workers’ strike as an excuse to carry out mass layoffs, Trump has dropped the pretext and uses the carrot and the stick in his own way. In late January, after instituting a return to office mandate, his administration sent out emails to thousands of federal workers—including air traffic control workers—encouraging them to quit in return for 8 months compensation. Behind this, as reported by federal workers themselves, is a veiled threat that it might be the last chance to quit before mass layoffs are implemented without the added “benefit”.

Though the Trump administration has since claimed that air traffic controllers are not eligible for the deal—something that was never “clarified” until after the crash— it is worth remembering both tech billionaire Elon Musk and Trump promised to make cuts to the federal workforce across the board.

So far, federal unions have done nothing more than advise workers not to take the deal.

The struggle runs all the way to the top bureaucracy of the FAA. During the presidential election campaign, Elon Musk demanded the FAA administrator Michael Whitaker resign after the latter fined Musk’s company SpaceX $600,000 for safety violations. Whitaker resigned the day before Trump’s inauguration, leaving the administration under temporary leadership at the time of the crash.

Enforced staffing shortages are combined with a refusal by the capitalists to implement necessary security measures to protect against crashes. For example, the vast majority of airports do not have warning signals installed for when airplanes fly too close together. This extends to the construction of the planes themselves, with several accidents and malfunctions happening on planes last year that resulted in over 100 deaths. With each monopolist concerned with the maximization of their own profits, the lives of the masses simply become a variable in this blood equation.

Photo: Aerial view of Reagan National Airport.

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