<story><title>‘Confirming we are cleared to land?’ Who said what at Austin</title><url>https://fallows.substack.com/p/as-bad-as-it-gets-without-body-bags</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>SQueeeeeL</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not sure how many people know this, but one of the first instances of &amp;quot;union busting&amp;quot; ever committed by the US federal govt was against air traffic controllers. The job used to be extremely competitive and prestigious, but overall lower wages and security has made it way harder to attract as many highly talented individuals.&lt;p&gt;And with how many rules there are in that pdf, it&amp;#x27;s shocking we don&amp;#x27;t see multiple accidents a year.</text></item><item><author>zackbloom</author><text>Just to give a little context as a pilot: It is the job of the tower controller to decide who uses the runway when. There are often multiple planes waiting to take off, and multiple planes nearing the airport to land. It&amp;#x27;s not uncommon for a tower controller to allow a plane to takeoff while another is approaching the runway. The theory is, of course, that the flight will depart in plenty of time.&lt;p&gt;In this case, the controller failed to tell the departing flight to hurry (the references to &amp;#x27;no delay&amp;#x27; or &amp;#x27;immediate&amp;#x27; in the blog post), AND frankly timed things pretty close given the weather. Without the ability to actually see the approaching plane, or perhaps even the plane on the ground, it will probably be found that timing a departure that close at all was reckless. That said, I feel for these tower controllers, it&amp;#x27;s not common for many planes to get stacked up waiting to depart, and it is their job to get them out. What may have worked just fine on a clear-weather day simply became too dangerous on that day.&lt;p&gt;The official manual for air traffic controllers in the US is the FAA Order JO 7110.65W [1], if anyone cares to review it.&lt;p&gt;1 - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.faa.gov&amp;#x2F;documentlibrary&amp;#x2F;media&amp;#x2F;order&amp;#x2F;atc.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.faa.gov&amp;#x2F;documentlibrary&amp;#x2F;media&amp;#x2F;order&amp;#x2F;atc.pdf&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>JackFr</author><text>Police unions improve the lives of police officers but do little to improve policing.  Teachers&amp;#x27; unions improve the lives of teachers but have little effect on student outcomes.  It&amp;#x27;s not obvious to me that a powerful air traffic controllers&amp;#x27; union would do anything to improve safety.  In fact if other public sector unions are informative, the result of a strong ATC union would be to protect and insulate poor performers.</text></comment>
<story><title>‘Confirming we are cleared to land?’ Who said what at Austin</title><url>https://fallows.substack.com/p/as-bad-as-it-gets-without-body-bags</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>SQueeeeeL</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not sure how many people know this, but one of the first instances of &amp;quot;union busting&amp;quot; ever committed by the US federal govt was against air traffic controllers. The job used to be extremely competitive and prestigious, but overall lower wages and security has made it way harder to attract as many highly talented individuals.&lt;p&gt;And with how many rules there are in that pdf, it&amp;#x27;s shocking we don&amp;#x27;t see multiple accidents a year.</text></item><item><author>zackbloom</author><text>Just to give a little context as a pilot: It is the job of the tower controller to decide who uses the runway when. There are often multiple planes waiting to take off, and multiple planes nearing the airport to land. It&amp;#x27;s not uncommon for a tower controller to allow a plane to takeoff while another is approaching the runway. The theory is, of course, that the flight will depart in plenty of time.&lt;p&gt;In this case, the controller failed to tell the departing flight to hurry (the references to &amp;#x27;no delay&amp;#x27; or &amp;#x27;immediate&amp;#x27; in the blog post), AND frankly timed things pretty close given the weather. Without the ability to actually see the approaching plane, or perhaps even the plane on the ground, it will probably be found that timing a departure that close at all was reckless. That said, I feel for these tower controllers, it&amp;#x27;s not common for many planes to get stacked up waiting to depart, and it is their job to get them out. What may have worked just fine on a clear-weather day simply became too dangerous on that day.&lt;p&gt;The official manual for air traffic controllers in the US is the FAA Order JO 7110.65W [1], if anyone cares to review it.&lt;p&gt;1 - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.faa.gov&amp;#x2F;documentlibrary&amp;#x2F;media&amp;#x2F;order&amp;#x2F;atc.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.faa.gov&amp;#x2F;documentlibrary&amp;#x2F;media&amp;#x2F;order&amp;#x2F;atc.pdf&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>srge</author><text>Air trafic controller strikes have plagued our country (France) for many years and I see no indication that it makes our flight safety better</text></comment>