Elon Musk Pleads For Retired Air Traffic Controllers To Come Back To Their Awful Jobs
The shortage of air traffic controllers has been a problem for several years, and it horrifically led to the fatal mid-air collision at Reagan National Airport in January. Elon Musk hopes to solve what several presidential administrations couldn't, by simply asking on social media.
President Trump's bumbling billionaire special advisor posted on X:
"There is a shortage of top notch air traffic controllers. If you have retired, but are open to returning to work, please consider doing so."
However, the FAA's mandatory retirement age for air traffic controllers is set by law. Even if the option were available, meanwhile, it's highly questionable that retirees would voluntarily return to the terrible working conditions they experienced during their careers.
The stresses placed on air traffic controllers are incredibly severe. To compensate for understaffing, personnel can be required to work overtime and 6-day work-weeks. Unsurprisingly, reports emerged in 2023 that controllers were falling asleep on the job or showing up to work drunk.
Musk doesn't know anything about air traffic control
The post only illustrates how uninformed Musk is about the FAA. If air traffic controllers don't retire by choice, they face mandatory retirement after their 56th birthday. It isn't just an FAA guideline but a legal requirement. The only way to circumvent the law is with a special exemption granted by the Secretary of Transportation, which is approved on an employee-by-employee basis. Even then, the exemption only pushes back mandatory retirement to the controller's 61st birthday.
The only guaranteed way to end the air traffic controller shortage is to invest in the FAA by fully funding the facilities used for training, and making the positions more appealing to young people. Other legal requirements already limit the pool of potential candidates. Applicants can't be older than 31, and must pass an eye exam with 20/20 vision without corrective lenses or a history of eye surgery.
With Musk cutting as many jobs for the FAA as possible–while funneling taxpayers' dollars to his businesses–it's highly unlikely that he would ever approve spending a dime on training new controllers. If he can't force retired FAA employees to return to service, the public will simply have to live with a level of danger in commercial air travel that hasn't been seen for decades.