Brien Gillette

@Pinarello_Pete @Cessnadriver50 @patgagnon_75 Oooooh right because all air traffic controllers work off of the same set of rules

@b_gillette @Cessnadriver50 @patgagnon_75 NAVCAN. That worldwide, universal manual for air traffic controlling. Not.🙄

Ftr, i'm not a flight safety investigator, but I do have experience as a former R.C.A.F technician on flightlines. Here's what we know. 1. The aircraft was cleared to land well before the approach. 2. Landing aircraft have priority above all else. 3. All vehicles on the flight..

@tonyver45 @_Zeets This is not true.

@_Zeets Ask Sec'y of Transportation Sean Duffy. When DOGE rampaged through DC they fired 3,000 ATC trainees which could have helped alleviate these shortages.

It’s normal for LaGuardia to have one person working air traffic control? Is that not insane?

@Cessnadriver50 @patgagnon_75 I'm an actual controller that has actually read the rules in place for controlling aircraft.

@b_gillette @patgagnon_75 How many hours in Canada do you have as a commercial pilot? I have a nice pile.

@CalltoActivism Light staffing at the time of the accident is normal. The number of ops is lower so the amount of controllers needed is lower. It's perfectly normal for one controller to be working combined positions when traffic warrants it.

🚨BREAKING: Sean Duffy just addressed the deadly collision at LaGuardia Airport and denied the "rumor" that the FAA control team was understaffed. But analyses of the released ATC audio paints a darker story: The tower likely had fewer controllers on duty than they would have. You can hear the controller wave the fire truck on and then desperately say, "Stop, stop, stop, stop. Stop, Truck 1, stop. Stop, Truck 1, stop!" and later admit that he was distracted, "We were dealing with an emergency earlier. I messed up.” The fire truck was responding to a United Airlines flight with a “odor” on board. According to the transcript, a man stated that flight attendants in the back of the plane were feeling ill due to the odor. Aviation experts have warned that the FAA is dangerously understaffed - and Trump made it worse, firing hundreds of FAA employees and cutting parts of the system controllers rely on. This is what happens when a strained system gets pushed past its limits by inept leadership.

@JillSweden1 You should no that "air traffic" isn't any position inside a control tower.

Air Controller who was giving the go ahead for Air Canada to land was doing two jobs. Air traffic & ground traffic. This was due because of Trump He fired a lot of people. What's a fire truck doing over a landing strip? The two should not even been close to each other.

@TrueNorth_wawas @leftcoastbabe Oh I read it. These positions were not eliminated. People were let go due to redundancy and overstaffing. If you have 10 people doing the job of 5, the smart thing to do is cut the excess. None of these positions were eliminated completely.

@b_gillette @leftcoastbabe If you actually read the screenshots I attached from Grok you would have a better understanding. HR is not mentioned.

Stunning how many MAGA trolls on Twitter today saying we should not make tragic Air Canada - fire truck collision political. Same trolls who blamed everything transportation related for four years on Pete Buttigieg. (there were no fatal commercial air accidents on Pete's watch)

@deelo190 @Turbinetraveler You're only wrong about the controller shortage. There is, but it didn't have an impact on this. LGA probably already turned to mid (overnight) ops so there's a much lower number of controllers on the shift. There is a shortage, but it doesn't factor in this scenario.

Airline pilot here: I’ve made a few posts, for posterity it seems I should combine them so here goes: I guess I should lead with the fact that I know LGA really, really well - And having 1 controller working both ground and tower; late… on a Sunday is straight up normal. Anything you’re hearing about a controller shortage is BS. Should there be 1 guy working? No - But it’s been that way as long as I can remember. Second, if you listen to the audio. You can hear the controller try to stop the truck. Which means a few things. The truck took too long to cross after the initial clearance was issued. In LGA shit happens quickly. If you can’t execute you’re immediately stopped. So looking at the truck. He took too long to cross.. which means that he was either in the wrong position when he first called, or he was going too slow. BOTH are wrong. That’s problematic. So if you listen to the guy IN the truck.. he’s nervous. Classic low confidence read back. What that says to me? He was in training. Let’s investigate that a little further? If the fire department was going to train someone… you’d do it when it’s “quiet” right? Well, LGA is never more quiet than late, on a Sunday - You starting to see it yet? Now, the controller. Was task heavy already (being by himself) working two frequencies in low weather. But again, nothing new there. Especially that guy. I recognize his voice. He’s a rockstar. He can handle it if anyone can. Now… BEFORE the incident with the truck. It’s important to understand the truck was rolling in response to an emergency. There was already a United flight that had supposedly aborted a takeoff due to a fume event on the other side of the field. Usually not something they roll CFR for, BUT if you listen to the earlier audio it’s pretty apparent the United flight crew was basically losing control of the cabin. The flight attendants were running that show. The United pilots, then respond by (incorrectly) pressing the Controller for a gate - That’s important to recognize the United crew was pressing the GROUND controller. Because it’s important to recognize that ground IS NOT in charge of gate assignments… so the United crew was pressing the wrong controller, which then put him (the controller) into a spot of trying to coordinate FOR THEM because apparently they don’t know how to do their jobs. The controller. Went from task heavy to what we call “task saturated.” Add that little fiasco into the truck moving slower than it should’ve been… poor radio discipline on the truck… We’re starting to create a scenario, yeah? Now finally the flight crew. Could they have gone around? Should they have gone around? Now we’re getting into Monday night quarterbacking. Yes to both… in hindsight. The reality is. The weather was low. So maybe they couldn’t visually verify that the truck had crossed. I will say, defacto; a go-around is always an option. Until It’s not. And it’s not once the reversers are out. So to be at 100kts ground speed… the reversers were out. To see what they saw, you’d have to be in the plane with them or re-create it in a sim. I will also say.. the truck. DEFINTELY SAW THE LIGHTS COMING DOWN THE RUNWAY. So, as usual. Multiple things played into it. …it’s never just one thing, right? But… There’s gonna be a lot of focus on the truck -

Here’s CCTV footage capturing the exact moment Air Canada Express Flight AC8646, a Bombardier CRJ-900, collided with a Port Authority fire truck at LaGuardia Airport last night.

@JoelleAdler @MrJoKeR604 There's been a controller shortage for 15+ years. No one has fixed it

@MrJoKeR604 Those are not doge cuts. the last head of this was Mayor Pete who did nothing for 4 yrs. Left the agency with 3000 empty positions because he would not hire white people. Stop blaming trump admin which is dealing with 4 yrs of total corruption from Biden

LaGuardia had ONE air traffic controller on duty at the time of the Air Canada crash. That's ONE person in charge of the sky and ground traffic. Those DOGE/Trump cuts so they can bomb Middle Eastern children and civilians are really working out 🤦‍♂️

@TrueNorth_wawas @leftcoastbabe Tell me how someone working in HR directly impacts how someone controls air traffic. Because that's what "support staff" are. The only people that impact controllers are other controllers, management inside the operation and the people that keep the equipment working.

@b_gillette @leftcoastbabe You said “support staff has little to no impact on critical day to day activities”. My post shows that is incorrect.

@TrueNorth_wawas @leftcoastbabe Nowhere does that say air traffic controllers were let go. Only the staff that support air traffic operations.

@b_gillette @leftcoastbabe Incorrect. See below from Elon’s Grok. In addition, Trump has caused tremendous chaos. The result is two fatal commercial airline crashes already. NONE happened under Biden and Buttegieg.

@leftcoastbabe @TrueNorth_wawas Also, support staff have little to no impact on critical day to day activities of a certified air traffic controller.

@b_gillette @TrueNorth_wawas But many quit and critical support staff were let go. nbcwashington.com/news/national-…

@leftcoastbabe @TrueNorth_wawas There's been a controller shortage for probably 15+ years. This isn't a secret. It's hard to staff when pay is no longer competitive and you can't afford to in HCOL areas.

@TrueNorth_wawas @leftcoastbabe No air traffic controllers were fired because of DOGE

@leftcoastbabe Exactly

@gdalton64 @sandibachom No controllers were fired because of DOGE

I think Sean Duffy might have lied about the number of people in the air traffic tower. This is the second fatal crash under the Fox host.

@DavidRau101 @sandibachom Lol air traffic has been short controllers for 15+ years

@sandibachom You know who left the administration short of ATC’s? You know how long it takes to become one?

@Brett_327 @libertarian_ass @aakashgupta Lol what are you talking about. It's the ground controllers literal job to taxi you, on taxiways or across active runways to wherever you're trying to go.

@Brett_327 @libertarian_ass @aakashgupta So so wrong

The air traffic controller cleared the fire truck onto the runway. Seconds later, the same controller screamed “stop, stop, stop.” The plane was doing 93 to 105 mph. Both pilots are dead. Everyone will frame this as controller error. One controller was simultaneously managing a United flight that aborted takeoff after an anti-ice warning, dispatching a fire truck across an active runway, and sequencing an inbound Air Canada landing at highway speed. At 11:40 PM. On a mandatory overtime shift at a facility that has been understaffed for years. A system that assigns one person that workload will produce exactly this outcome. The only variable is when. The FAA is short approximately 3,000 controllers. The headcount dropped 13% from 2010 to 2024 while flight volume rose 10%. Over 40% of the FAA’s 290 terminal facilities are understaffed. The New York TRACON, which manages the most congested airspace in America across LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark, has been chronically below target. Newark was operating at 59% of its staffing goal. LaGuardia handles 900 flights a day. The hiring pipeline is broken at every stage. Only 2% of applicants complete the full process. Training takes up to 6 years. The FAA Academy in Oklahoma City is a bottleneck, with roughly 35% of trainees washing out. Congress blocked legislation to build a second academy. In one recent hiring cycle, the FAA brought on 1,512 candidates and lost 1,300 in the same window. Net gain: around 160 controllers for an entire country. Three things need to happen and everyone who can make them happen has known for years. Congress needs to fund and authorize a second FAA training academy. One facility in Oklahoma City cannot produce enough controllers for 900 million annual passengers. Members of Congress from Oklahoma have actively blocked this. That needs to end yesterday. The FAA needs to cut certification time. Six years from application to fully certified controller is absurd. The agency’s own data shows tower simulators reduce certification time by 27%. They’ve installed them at 95 facilities. That should be every facility, and the simulated hours should count toward more of the certification requirement. The FAA needs to stop plugging staffing gaps with mandatory overtime. Controllers at understaffed facilities are working six-day weeks rotating between morning, mid, and night shifts. The NTSB has flagged fatigue repeatedly. The controller last night was managing overlapping emergencies during a nighttime operation. Overtime is not a staffing plan. It’s a countdown to the next runway collision. The controller said “I messed up” to a Frontier pilot who watched the whole thing. The pilot responded “No man, you did the best you could.” One of them is right. The answer determines whether this happens again.

@CrazySlayzee @aakashgupta They've had plans for a 2nd training facility. The problem is that the state of Oklahoma doesn't want to lose all the money that comes with it so it's blocked in Congress.

@b_gillette @aakashgupta Definitely would require massive incentives, for temporary reassignment, while new controllers are spun up. All of this isn't necessary though, we could just cut air traffic, and inconvenience people until they pressure Congress to enact real change/open a new training facility.

@CrazySlayzee @aakashgupta The FAA could barely get 15 controllers to move from long island to philadelphia but you want to uproot hundreds of not thousands of people. Definitely sounds feasible.

@b_gillette @aakashgupta It's literally been done before.

@Cessnadriver50 @patgagnon_75 Some airports may have that as a rule at their specific airport but in no way is this law.

@b_gillette @patgagnon_75 x.com/Cessnadriver50…