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Monday, March 25, 2013
Towers To Close In April
In a bid to save money, the Federal Aviation Administration is closing 149 air traffic control towers starting in April. The towers are located throughout the United States. Most are at small airports. FAA must cut its 2013 spending by $637 million under sequestration. That means furlough days for 47,000 controllers. The affected airports will remain open. Pilots will have to coordinate among themselves on radio to land safely. Airlines haven't said whether they'll keep scheduled service to tower-less airports. FAA administrator Michael Huerta said the agency is considering ending overnight shifts at larger airports such as Chicago Midway.
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7 comments:
You guys have no idea what is coming with this action. I am a controller in one of Maryland's towers that will be closing, you the truth is not pretty. Air safety will be non existent very soon. Closing towers will kill people...paying passengers at that.
Funny how only the non union control towers have been selected for closure.
Funny how with this bloated, wasteful, overpaid government, only essential services get picked for the cutback, where there is no cutback.
As a pilot, I was taught to be able to operate safely at non-towered fields. All pilots undergo similar training. For the most part this change won't be an issue as long as everyone reverts to their training.
The 'make-it-hurt' politics however are the most unethical method to make a politicians point I have ever seen. In the business world, managers are required to provide the same level of service when a cost-reduction model is implemented - the clients should not be able to detect the change. A lot of management in the government was trying to work in this manner and were told - 'show the public the pain' in order to further political agendas. They should have gotten rid of the TSA as it has quickly become so union-bloated as to be sucking money faster than the presses can print...with no additional safety value-added.
Joe, you need to look into the local government waste of taxpayer money in subsadising US AIR ! Yup, Wicomico county pays all of the fees for take-offs and landings of US Air, AND, lets this company have Hanger space RENT FREE ! All this money is picked up by the taxpayers. US Air really needs this, they just bought American Airlines. This tax money could be used for our kids schools, they need loads of upgrades. US Air threated years ago to leave if it had to pay theses fees, the bigwigs here in Wicomico county decided they didn't want the inconveance of having to drive to BWI for a flight so they snuck this in, and wa-la, US Air stayed, but like you have pointed out several times, hundreds of big companies have left the area, so now who is picking up the tab for all of theses fees? The county taxpayer, not those big companies! You are the only one that will go after the truth and make um pay!
It's strange how sequestration affects this but not the 1.6 billion bullets purchased by Homeland Security. In fact, it was just announced they are INCREASING the order by a few billion more!
Good now lets keep on cutting!!
8:59. You have no idea what you are talking about. County taxpayers pay nothing toward the operation of the airport.
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