Is Flying Getting More DANGEROUS Than Ever Before?

Panic sets in as aviation officials scramble to fix America’s broken aviation infrastructure before disaster comes crashing… again. Welcome to America Uncovered. I’m Chris Chappell. How are you doing? Got any fun travel plans coming up? Me? Not really. I’m too busy with work. Plus… *The aviation world is on fire!* Look no further than Newark Liberty International Airport, which is in its second week of flight-delay chaos! “Already, more than 70 cancellations today. Delays starting to grow as well. United Airlines saying it’s been forced to indefinitely cancel at least 35 roundtrip flights per day.” All this is thanks to a radar failure that left air traffic controllers blind for 90 seconds last week. “No, you do not have a bravo clearance. We lost our radar and it’s not working correctly. Radar service terminates. Squawk VFR. Change approved. If you want a bravo clearance, you can just call the towers when you get closer.” “Okay, I’ll wait for that frequency from you, okay?” “Okay, no, the squawk VFR, look up the tower frequencies. And we don’t have a radar, so I don’t know where you are.” “Go ahead, 1951. Go ahead for 1951. 1951? United 1951, do you hear?” Now, you might think, surely there was something they could do. To which I say, don’t call me Shirley. So what was the spark that caused utter mayhem in Newark? Was it a cyberattack from China? A terrorist attack? A dumb mistake? Nope! It was a single burnt wire! This is the most disappointing, overhyped wire since that show about Baltimore. Years of being told it’s the best show ever, then I see it and… it’s fine? This made Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer ask, “Why are we using copper wire in 2025? Have they heard of fiber?” Leave it up to an old person to remind someone to get more fiber. The whole fiasco once again brought national attention to the US’s “obsolete” air traffic control system. Which has been getting tons of unwanted attention this year after many… Many… Many plane crashes made headlines. I’m starting to think the “Spirit” in “Spirit Airlines” is for the “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” everyone prays to that their flight will actually make it to its destination. But out of all the plane crashes… None got as much attention as the Black Hawk collision near Reagan International Airport earlier this year. The crash raised a lot of questions, with many wondering if the Federal Aviation Administration was to blame. Some thought so, especially after hearing reports that a single air-traffic controller was overseeing both helicopters and planes that night, even though that’s not necessarily unusual. But it also turns out that the pilot of the helicopter, Captain Rebecca Lobach , failed to heed her flight instructor’s command to change course. Though officials also believe both pilots may have accidentally cut off air traffic instructions while they were communicating through their radios, helping lead to the disaster. This also drew scrutiny on the aviation policies of the US Army, which has since adjusted its helicopter tracker policy. But just months after that incident and days after the Newark one, another Army Black Hawk helicopter caused 2 near-misses with airliners at the same airport! Thankfully there were no crashes that time, but again, how could the US military and FAA allow this to happen in the first place? Unsurprisingly, these kinds of incidents have become very politicized, like virtually everything else in the world these days. Many blame the current state of air traffic control on Trump. I mean obviously. Trump’s a racist. Why do you think the only helicopter that got destroyed was a *Black* Hawk. However, air traffic control was exempt from Trump’s federal hiring freeze because of its relation to public safety. On the right, meanwhile, we hear many blame DEI. Partly because they see female pilots and *Black* Hawk and think, DEI? “Didn’t Earn It! But here are the real issues at stake. First, the FAA is about 3,500 short of the ideal number of air traffic controllers. You know how chaotic checkout at Costco gets because there are always way too many people and never enough cashiers? Well, imagine that, but with airplanes… and no cheap hot dogs. The horror. The few air traffic controllers we do have are getting stretched thin with fatigue and mandatory overtime. This is on top of the fact that US aviation infrastructure is just plain old. Like, recommending you get more fiber old. Former President of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association Paul Rinaldi testified that the FAA still uses 1980s and 90s technology. That’s why many are slamming the FAA for still using floppy disks in the year 2025. For you youngsters out there, this is what a floppy disk looks like. Each of these bad boys can hold a whopping 1.44 megabytes! Or one eighth of a Meatloaf song… and also for you youngsters, Meatloaf was a singer who would do anything for love… but he won’t do that. Even the Government Accountability Office is warning that the FAA urgently needs to modernize its systems. It warns that 105 traffic systems—including those critical to safety—are potentially unsustainable. Some of these systems are “as many as 50 years old.” I don’t feel comfortable flying on a plane getting instructions from a system old enough to have seen Meatloaf live in concert. And yet the FAA doesn’t even have near-term modernization plans for some at-risk systems. In fact, many modernization projects take years to complete… Some can take as long as 19 years. You know that saying, “The best time to start was yesterday. The second best time is now?” Turns out the actual best time to start was during the Bush administration! And so the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is proposing a $15 billion modernization plan that would include a ton of infrastructure upgrades and money for more workers… and hopefully some sort of time machine set to 19 years. The Trump administration has its own proposals to modernize the air traffic control system. US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy — also pledged improvements. This includes fast tracking billions of dollars’ worth of air-traffic control upgrades, and increasing the FAA’s budget. As for addressing the FAA’s staff shortage, he wants to give incentives to keep retirement-eligible controllers longer, increase wages for students at the FAA academy, and simplify the hiring process at the FAA. He also announced plans to incorporate AI to identify and take proactive action at hotspots where frequent close encounters occur. Good idea! We need AI involved in air travel. Like some kind of SkyNet . But will any of these ideas, haha, take off? Or will it just crash and burn. That’s less funny. Until then, my advice is to avoid Newark… though that’s always been my advice. What do you think? Leave your comments below, I do read them. And please, help us keep bringing you great episodes like this! Subscribe to our new premium website americauncovered.tv—and you’ll also get exclusive content, live streams, and more. Once again, I’m Chris Chappell. Thank you for watching America Uncovered.