Air-Traffic Controllers Who Can’t Be Fired

Moments before a single-engine plane collided with a helicopter over the Hudson River in August 2009, the New Jersey air-traffic controller who should have been advising the plane’s pilot was chatting on the phone with an airport worker, making crude jokes about cooking up a dead cat. Nine people died. Government safety investigators determined the controller was distracted and partly to blame for the accident, yet two years later he still has a job with the Federal Aviation Administration. Although the FAA wanted to fire him, his punishment was ultimately reduced to a suspension, a transfer, and a demotion.

That’s more common than you might think. More than 4 of every 10 air-traffic workers the FAA tries to fire ultimately keep their jobs or are allowed to retire to avoid being fired, according to government records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The documents detail FAA disciplinary actions from October 2009 to May 2011. In that time the agency sought to fire 140 controllers for various rules violations. (Their names were not included in the papers.) In the end, only 82 were forced to leave. Those who hung on include controllers found to have committed serious violations. The agency began proceedings to fire 27 controllers for drug or alcohol abuse. Eighteen of them—two-thirds—managed to avoid being terminated.