The Trump Administration Wants Gamers to Step Up and Fill the Air Traffic Controller Shortage

Today, in What Could Possibly Go Wrong? News: The Trump administration has come up with a novel idea to deal with the ongoing shortage of air traffic controllers (ATCs). Let’s guess which of these it is! Is it… a) Diversifying hiring practices, offering improved mental health care and support, removing the requirement for prospective ATCs to move to Oklahoma City to complete their training, and apologizing for trying to convince the nation’s entire air traffic control workforce to resign and go away? b) Creating a flashy YouTube ad to target gamers, the demographic that the government has identified as being perfect to fill the shortage? Because we live in the most asinine possible timeline, the answer is, of course, b). However, the news about the Trump administration’s bold strategy wasn’t the only news this week about America’s air traffic control regime. There was also the release of a report carried out by industry site AviatorDB, which looked into the reasons for the shortage. The research is pretty comprehensive, and even a cursory reading of the document reveals the problem with the “let’s recruit gamers!” strategy, which is that it assumes the root of the shortage is that