Senator Cries Foul as FAA Blames Cuts for Closing 149 Control Towers

[BlueGin]

FAA to close 149 air traffic towers, senator calls for using untapped research money to save them.


The Federal Aviation Administration announced Friday that it will close 149 air traffic control towers, in a move one lawmaker said was akin to "removing stop lights and stop signs from our roads."

That lawmaker, Republican Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran, also claims the FAA could save the towers by tapping into millions of dollars in unspent FAA research money.

Yet the FAA moved forward Friday with plans to shut down the air traffic control facilities, describing them as a necessary cutback due to the sequester.

"These were very tough decisions," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a written statement.


The cuts will affect small airports starting April 7. The closures will not force the shutdown of any of those airports, but pilots will be left to coordinate takeoffs and landings among themselves over a shared radio frequency with no help from ground controllers under procedures that all pilots are trained to carry out. The FAA decided to keep open 24 towers that were on the original list of possible closures.



Read more: FAA to close 149 air traffic towers, senator calls for using untapped research money to save them | Fox News

 

[chikenwing]

Being broke sucks doesn't it?

 

[BlueGin]

Shocking. Something this administration does is "short-sighted" and "dangerous" (say it ain't so). I mean... it's not like it didn't already do away with border agents in border towns or anything. How could anyone possibly think this administration doesn't think things through.

"The administration's decision to shutter these air traffic control towers is short-sighted and dangerous," Moran said in a statement "Closing control towers is equivalent to removing stop lights and stop signs from our roads. It is clear that this administration is putting its top-line message, that spending cannot be cut without severe consequences, before the safety and well-being of Americans."

 

[hortysir]

$50 million down.....how much more to save?

 

[Katzndogz]

The money for obama's lavish lifestyle has gotta come from someplace. Those parties cost a bundle and a half million dollars per day for Biden's travel have gotta come from someplace.

 

[Mad Scientist]

The cuts will affect small airports starting April 7. The closures will not force the shutdown of any of those airports, but pilots will be left to coordinate takeoffs and landings among themselves over a shared radio frequency with no help from ground controllers under procedures that all pilots are trained to carry out.

Thankfully most Americans don't know that that's called "G Airspace" and has been in operation since I don't know when.
I learned to fly in mostly G Airspace, soloed out of Thermal California, 1993!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airspace_class_(United_States)

"Oh No! Planes are gonna' fall out of the Sky! We're all gonna' die! F*ckin' TEA Baggers!"

 

[BlueGin]

The cuts will affect small airports starting April 7. The closures will not force the shutdown of any of those airports, but pilots will be left to coordinate takeoffs and landings among themselves over a shared radio frequency with no help from ground controllers under procedures that all pilots are trained to carry out.

Thankfully most Americans don't know that that's called "G Airspace" and has been in operation since I don't know when.
I learned to fly in mostly G Airspace, soloed out of Thermal California, 1993!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airspace_class_(United_States)

"Oh No! Planes are gonna' fall out of the Sky! We're all gonna' die! F*ckin' TEA Baggers!"

Of all the crap research studies and guppy saving projects that they have that they could cut...this is where they start? Air traffic controllers? Really?

 

[hortysir]

The cuts will affect small airports starting April 7. The closures will not force the shutdown of any of those airports, but pilots will be left to coordinate takeoffs and landings among themselves over a shared radio frequency with no help from ground controllers under procedures that all pilots are trained to carry out.

Thankfully most Americans don't know that that's called "G Airspace" and has been in operation since I don't know when.
I learned to fly in mostly G Airspace, soloed out of Thermal California, 1993!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airspace_class_(United_States)

"Oh No! Planes are gonna' fall out of the Sky! We're all gonna' die! F*ckin' TEA Baggers!"

Of all the crap research studies and guppy saving projects that they have that they could cut...this is where they start? Air traffic controllers? Really?

Naah...it's just the first, most scary, thing they could come up with.
There will be more