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One of the long-term effects of the panic the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention created in government was to virtually wipe out the training of air traffic controllers for almost two years. Could that explain the crash at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport?
On June 21, 2023, the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General issued a report that COVID-19 led to training pauses over a period of nearly two years — significantly increasing controller certification times. It said: “FAA will not know the full impact of the training suspension on certification times for several years because training outcomes vary widely, and it can take more than 3 years to train a controller. Due to these uncertain training outcomes, FAA cannot ensure it will successfully train enough controllers in the short term.”
Carol R. White
Makiki
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