The air traffic controller who was on duty during the time of the dealing crash between a passenger plane and a black hawk chopper crash was said to be doing the work of two people.
The incident arose as they were understaffed, the FAA confirmed in a new shocking statement on the matter.
Staffing inside the air traffic control tower at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport was not said to be normal for that time of the day and the volume of the traffic, it concluded.
Understaffing is what resulted in the crash as it put the controller pulling a double-duty stunt. This includes overseeing helicopters and also trying their best to guide arriving and departing planes at that busy airport.
The airport’s air traffic control facilities were said to be understaffed not recently but for years, the preliminary report suggested. There were only 19 fully certified controllers on deck as of September 2023.
In that plan, more discussions arose about how the ATC was committed to hiring more people in the next couple of years to cover up the under-hiring from the COVID pandemic and the lapse in terms of funding for 2019.