Passengers sit at the waiting area at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, on May 7.
Photographer: Kena Betancur /AFP/Getty Images
Newark Flight Chaos Shows the Crisis Rocking Air Traffic Control Jobs
The path to alleviating a shortage of air traffic controllers runs through a training academy in Oklahoma City.
Not everyone is suited to a job protecting thousands of people from a gruesome death every second of the working day, when a single mistake can mean catastrophe.
That’s why a third of the aspiring air traffic controllers who attend the Federal Aviation Administration’s specialist academy in Oklahoma City don’t make the cut. But still they arrive — all required to be US citizens younger than 31 and physically fit — enticed by a career that can pay well into the six figures without a college degree. The FAA says less than 10% of applicants are accepted into the training program.