00:00The FAA has just made a decision that aviation safety experts are calling deeply alarming.
00:05It is slashing the number of air traffic controllers it plans to hire.
00:09The agency says it can keep American skies safe with significantly fewer controllers
00:15than it previously believed necessary.
00:17But pilots unions, aviation safety researchers, and former controllers are pushing back hard,
00:23saying this is the wrong decision at the worst possible time.
00:27The United States has been in a chronic air traffic controller shortage for years.
00:31The FAA itself has acknowledged the gap.
00:34Training a new controller takes years, not months.
00:37In 2023, near-miss incidents at U.S. airports hit a decade-long high.
00:42That trend has not reversed.
00:44Orchestrated from above, these cuts are part of broader federal workforce reductions.
00:49The FAA is not alone in being asked to do more with less.
00:52But air traffic control is not an area where margins of error can be compressed without consequences.
00:59For the 45,000 Americans who fly every single day, this is not an abstract budget debate.
01:05It is a direct question about whether the people watching their flight are stretched too thin.
01:10It is a direct question.
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