Facing a wall of TV screens in a classroom at State University of New York Schenectady, SUNY Chancellor John King calls out commands to an AI-simulated pilot.
“November 8, Bravo, Zulu, Enter Left, Downwind,” King says into a microphone. “Cleared, touch and go.”
But when he’s three seconds late giving a follow-up confirmation, the plane has to go on a different transport route.
“We’re not going to worry about crashing,” says Barbara Jones, a Schenectady aviation professor, reassuring King as there already are more planes lining up to be shepherded.
Starting this fall, SUNY Schenectady County Community College will join a half-dozen schools nationwide to offer an expedited, two-year air traffic control certificate program. And this will be their classroom.
These schools are being enlisted by the Federal Aviation Administration to bolster training beyond the main academy in Oklahoma City. The FAA’s goal is to train more air traffic controllers more quickly to combat a nationwide staffing shortage.
That reality came into clearer focus after a Black Hawk helicopter collided with a commercial plane in Washington, D.C., in January, killing nearly 70 people.
A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board noted that the responsibilities normally shared by multiple air traffic controllers had been consolidated. Although it’s not yet clear if the staffing arrangement played a role in the crash, the accident highlighted the severe national vacancy rate, and prompted federal officials to fast-track hiring efforts.
“We don’t have enough air traffic controllers in our system, and we have to do something to bring more controllers online,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said after the crash.
SUNY Schenectady announced the Enhanced Air Traffic Collegiate Training Initiative in May, and officials say they are finalizing the headcount for the first incoming class this fall. Schenectady also offers certification courses for private air traffic control tower operators and a pilot training program.
Less than 1% of air traffic control towers meet full staffing levels as set out by the FAA and the controllers’ labor union, according to the research journal Nature. That translates to more than 3,000 vacancies nationwide, forcing existing staffers to work overtime and, in some cases, six-day work weeks.
While standard requirements include lengthy background checks and additional training at the academy in Oklahoma City, the new expedited program at SUNY Schenectady cuts out the in-person training and condenses the background check so that students can gain certification and be ready for work in half the time.
“They get going faster than having to wait for a full four years to complete the program,” Jones said.
Jones, who said the program can have up to 120 students enrolled in the program at a given time, said she’s proud that SUNY Schenectady will now not just be training pilots – but the air traffic controllers that could, one day, help those same pilots bring passengers to their destinations safely.
“It all comes full circle,” Jones said.
