2025 has been a year of plane crashes, whether on the ground or in the sky, and it’s had people begging for a return to DEI — and with it, stability — in the Federal Aviation Administration. Air traffic controllers, though, tell a slightly different story: Their view of the world of aviation is far, far worse than ours, and it’s only through their diligence in the face of ever-worsening work conditions that things haven’t all gone to hell.
One air traffic control supervisor out of Philadelphia, Jonathan Stewart, told the Wall Street Journal as much in an interview. Stewart told the Journal that air traffic controllers are overworked, over-stressed, and doing the best they can with what few resources they have to prevent air travel from falling apart. But the job takes its toll, and as more controllers take stress-related leave, the staffing problem only gets worse — adding further stress to the remaining controllers, and causing the issue to snowball.
I don’t want to be responsible for killing 400 people
The equipment failures, the blame from airlines, it all adds up. Stewart talked about post-traumatic stress disorder arising from the job, but his descriptions sound closer to complex PTSD — constant, repeated exposure to trauma, from a situation that can’t be escaped. CPTSD is an incredible mental load to bear from what should be a simple job — a traffic cop for the skies — and it’s made the position unreasonably difficult even for those who can hack it.
Stewart’s full interview with the Wall Street Journal is worth a read — plus a few minutes spent wondering what the WSJ’s photography budget is — to hear the damning quotes in their full context. Stewart paints a picture of a job that’s absolutely necessary for air travel to function, yet wears down those who do it to the breaking point — a breaking point that, in 2025, is rapidly accumulating a body count. So, next time you fly, keep the folks directing your air traffic in mind. And for pilots, before you buzz the tower, remember what’s going on with the people inside it.
