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Air traffic controllers missed their paychecks Tuesday because of the ongoing government shutdown, raising concerns that mounting financial stress could take a toll on the already understaffed employees who guide thousands of flights each day.
Flight delays are becoming more common across the country as more controllers call out sick because the Federal Aviation Administration was already so short on controllers before the shutdown.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and the president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association Nick Daniels have continued to emphasize the pressure that controllers are feeling. They say the problems are likely to only get worse the longer the shutdown continues.
"Air traffic controllers have to have 100 percent of focus 100 percent of the time," Daniels said Tuesday at a news conference alongside Duffy at LaGuardia Airport in New York. "And I'm watching air traffic controllers going to work. I'm getting the stories. They're worried about paying for medicine for their daughter. I got a message from a controller that said, 'I'm running out of money. And if she doesn't get the medicine she needs, she dies. That's the end.'"
The FAA restricts the number of flights landing and taking off at an airport anytime there is a shortage of controllers to ensure safety. Most of the time that has meant delays — sometimes hours long — at airports like New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport or Burbank airport in California. But over the weekend, Los Angeles International Airport actually had to stop all flights for nearly two hours.
Controllers planned to assemble outside at least 17 airports nationwide Tuesday to hand out leaflets urging an end to the shutdown as soon as possible. Worrying about how to pay their bills is driving some to take second jobs to make ends meet.
The number of controllers calling in sick has increased during the shutdown both because of their frustration with the situation and because controllers need the time off to work second jobs instead of continuing to work six days a week like many of them routinely do. Duffy has said that controllers could be fired if they abuse their sick time, but the vast majority of them have continued to show up for work every day.
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