It hasn’t been a good year for federal aviation safety workers. January saw the worst US commercial airline disaster in decades, quickly followed by sudden layoffs, staffing shortfalls, major technology glitches at one of the nation’s busiest airports, and short timelines to rebuild the systems that govern national airspace. It somehow got worse this month, when a stalemate between congressional Republicans and Democrats led to a government shutdown.
Now, even employees deemed “essential”—including air traffic controllers and transportation security officials (also known as TSA agents)—are working without pay, balancing their usual daily stress with new chaos stemming from the government shutdown.
One Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) engineer who works on air traffic systems says the shutdown has left them overwhelmed and worried about their colleagues. The employee doesn't believe the system is less safe or reliable, but says it makes their office’s work less efficient and might slow down repairs. “One person can only answer, troubleshoot, and resolve so many problems at once,” the employee says. Prior to the shutdown, the FAA announced plans to furlough some 11,300 workers, who help maintain airspace design, infrastructure, and technology.
Longtime air safety workers describe this month’s shutdown and funding lapse—the fourth in the last two decades—as familiar, but more unsettling than shutdowns past. There’s the usual anxiety of missing paychecks, which will hit some employees as early as this weekend, and others mid-next week. “They don't take IOUs at grocery stores, gas stations, daycares,” says Johnny Jones, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1040 and a transportation security officer with the Transportation Security Administration at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. “There’s definitely a different tone in the workforce. People are confused and concerned.”
Employees still working through the shutdown are already doing without the support of their furloughed colleagues; some projects have simply stopped. Air safety workers are afraid that the situation could get even worse, and the contractors who support vital functions could still be furloughed. “We feel undervalued and unappreciated as we work to keep the National Airspace System safe,” says one employee of FAA’s Air Traffic Organization, the agency’s operational arm that includes Air Traffic Control, who has so far been classified as essential but fears they may be furloughed soon.