The Shutdown Is Pushing Air Safety Workers to the Limit

It hasn’t been a good year for federal aviation safety workers. January saw the worst US commercial airline disaster in decades, quickly followed by sudden layoffs , staffing shortfalls , major technology glitches at one of the nation’s busiest airports, and short timelines to rebuild the systems that govern national airspace. It somehow got worse this month, when a stalemate between congressional Republicans and Democrats led to a government shutdown.

Now, even employees deemed “essential”—including air traffic controllers and transportation security officials (also known as TSA agents)—are working without pay, balancing their usual daily stress with new chaos stemming from the government shutdown.

One Federal Aviation Administration engineer who works on air traffic systems