On page A2 of yesterday's (Schenectady) Daily Gazette was an article talking about an incident that took place at Reagan Airport in Washington. The incident involved an Air Traffic Controller who was working solo at the airport, who was found to have fallen alseep, leaving landing aircraft to fend for themselves. Luckily, two aircraft who were trying to reach him did, indeed, land safely.

I'm pretty sure that there are many folks whose immediate reaction is that the guy should be fired. Maybe he should, and maybe he shouldn't; I'm certainly not in a position to say. What I can say is this: The position of an Air Traffic controller is way too important to have it being run solo, late at night.

Think about this: We don't let pilots fly alone: most flights, if not all, have a co-pilot. Air Traffic Controllers are almost as critical as good pilots, and like pilots, should not be allowed, never mind required, to operate alone.

It is my belief that we have a management problem here, but also, we appear to have a staffing problem. In short, there aren't enough people doing this job. From the conversations I have had with former Air Traffic Controllers, you would have to be insane to take this job unless you didn't know what you were in for.

The job is a very high-pressure job. You are simultaneously required and forbidden to do the same things (such as spacing planes too closely). Whatever you do, don't make a mistake, because people can die.

I find it especially interesting, however, that this happened at Reagan airport. Why? Because I blame the airport's namesake for the current state of affairs. It was Ronald Reagan who essentially made the Air Traffic Controllers' union impotent by firing all of the strikers in the 80's. In doing so, he took away the only tool the union had at its disposal to get decent working conditions. Combine that with the fact that the FAA is the only employer for Air Traffic Controllers, and you have essentially a dead job market.

Even now, however, Reagan's party is trying to cut funds even further to the FAA. I swear they won't fix this until an accident touches them personally. I really hope I'm wrong about that.