[Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Ze’ev Nafte, an airline pilot and ALPA union leader.]

Miami International Airport, late at night: I was sitting at the hold-short line trying to call for clearance, but the frequency was impenetrable. One controller; just one, was working clearance, ground and tower at the same time at one of the busiest airports in the United States. His voice never stopped. Every second was another instruction, another aircraft to move, another conflict to untangle.

Out on final, a Boeing 787’s captain kept trying to request landing clearance. He couldn’t get in either. His calls were swallowed in the constant stream of radio traffic as the lone controller tried to run an entire airport by himself, taxiways, approaches, departures, all of it.

This wasn’t a drama

See Full Page