Against the Wind - National Air Traffic Controllers Association

Brands corporate jet and a Piper Archer over Cliffside
Park, New Jersey, which killed six and injured
several others.
Controllers were not initially implicated in any
of the accidents, but “Nightline” called into question
President Reagan’s actions in 1981. * Reporter Jack
Smith noted that the ranks of journeymen controllers
had dropped by 5,000 since the strike yet they
were handling 1,000 more flights a day. Reported
near misses had soared an alarming 65 percent. Inexperienced
controllers were training others and sick
leave was being denied because there weren’t enough
replacements.
In a taped interview, Joe O’Brien said employee
relations committees had failed because FAA management
simply took the groups’ recommendations
“into consideration” and did nothing more. FAA Associate
Administrator Quentin Taylor brushed off the
problem, contending the complaints came from “an
extreme minority” of controllers.
FAA Administrator Donald Engen, New York
Republican congressman Guy Molinari, and Barte
appeared live on the program. Barte spoke from
ABC’s studios in Boston. When a technician attached
a microphone to his lapel, he could hear his heart
thumping in an earpiece. His nervousness vanished
as he listened to Taylor’s assessment.
Barte noted that 2,500 controllers had signed a
petition to form a new union, even though organizers
5
Dec.
MEBA President Gene DeFries invites Howie Barte to Washington,
D.C., to discuss organizing, and agrees to Barte’s request to include two
other controllers: Joe O’Brien and Dan Keeney, representing Eastern and
had not reached all parts of the country, and said,
“Management within the FAA, in reality, has not
changed at all since 1981.”
“Nightline” also ran a video clip of Engen in
Congress—one week after the strike—testifying that
the FAA did not need more controllers. “I’m full up.
I have everything I need right now,” he said. “If I had
more controllers today, I literally couldn’t use them.”
The clip prompted a spirited debate about continuing
staff shortages between Engen, Barte and Molinari,
who said he planned to give President Reagan a letter
signed by seventy members of the House urging that
he rehire some of the fired controllers.
During commercial breaks in the Boston studio,
Donna Gropper jumped excitedly in the shadows
behind the cameraman while flashing Barte a
thumbs-up sign.
On the way home in a rented limo, courtesy of
ABC, they decided to stop for a drink to watch the
program, which had been taped an hour beforehand.
While they searched for a tavern, Barte schemed that
he’d tell the bartender he was about to appear on TV,
then wager for a free round, figuring the bartender
wouldn’t believe him. As the minutes ticked down to
broadcast time, they found a bar at last. Barte, Gropper,
and the driver rushed inside, only to discover it
had no television.
The broadcast piqued the interest of many air
travelers and galvanized controllers who watched
Chapter 3: A Long and Winding Road
Southern regions, respectively. DeFries asks Barte to serve as national
coordinator, but he declines and recommends John Thornton, who accepts
the job.
69
The ranks of
journeymen controllers
had dropped by 5,000
since the strike yet
they were handling
1,000 more flights a
day. Reported near
misses had soared an
alarming 65 percent.
* In its accident report issued in May 1987, the
National Transportation Safety Board cited a
breakdown in coordination among Teterboro
Tower controllers as a contributing cause to
the midair collision. Several controllers were
also named in a civil lawsuit, leading NATCA
to lobby for immunity from tort actions.