Control tower furlough and Two Airplane crash

I just had a thought and question about the 2 airplanes that crashed, one in SFO (Asiana Airlines) and the other one in LGA (Southwest Airlines).

I remember sometime April 2013, there were news about the furlough and closing of over a hundred control towers and limiting the amount of airplanes that can fly in one day. The Airline industry lobbied against this and Obama signed something to where the amount of flights will not be limited.

I'm wondering if the furlough on control towers actually happened yet the amount of flights were not limited despite the lack of enough people in the control towers? And if so, could this be the reason why we have 2 airplane crashes already right in the airport or is this just a mere coincidence?

Does anyone know if there had been any control tower employee lay offs since the talks about the furlough?

reply to post by boniknik


Furloughs began but only happened a week. So technically half of the FAA workforce (including not only controllers but technicians and safety inspectors; I know because I took a furlough day) had a forced day of unpaid leave. That ended under political pressure and did not contribute to any airline incidents.

Actually, during that time politicians were clamoring on about "delays" but a large portion of the delays were not due to manpower shortages; rather due to weather.

ETA: The furloughs actually began the second week of May and ended by the end of the week.

Originally posted by boniknik
I just had a thought and question about the 2 airplanes that crashed, one in SFO (Asiana Airlines) and the other one in LGA (Southwest Airlines).

I remember sometime April 2013, there were news about the furlough and closing of over a hundred control towers and limiting the amount of airplanes that can fly in one day. The Airline industry lobbied against this and Obama signed something to where the amount of flights will not be limited.

I'm wondering if the furlough on control towers actually happened yet the amount of flights were not limited despite the lack of enough people in the control towers? And if so, could this be the reason why we have 2 airplane crashes already right in the airport or is this just a mere coincidence?

Does anyone know if there had been any control tower employee lay offs since the talks about the furlough?

It's amazing the lengths to which some people will go to point fingers. Asiana hit the ground because the pilots selected a FLCHNG mode on the autopilot which caused an abnormal sink rate and idle throttles. It's a well known "trap" on that model of Boeing and is talked about in training. At least in our training. So let's see. Your theory, I guess, is that the furloughed controller, had he been there, could have, in the last 1.5 seconds of Asiana's flight, run down the stairs of the SFO tower, run the mile and a half to the threshhold of the runway, leapt into the moving cockpit and while pushing both thrust levers forward could have pulled back on the yoke?
Andin the SWA LGA landin,. The pilot flying, according to the DFDR, "wheelbarrowed" the landing, hitting the nose gear first, breaking the downlock structure and collapsing the nose gear. What could a controller conceivably have done about that???

In both cases it was not a control tower related incident. Southwest had a nose gear collapse (mechanical failure) and the other due to pilot error. So not the towers fault or lack of controllers. Sometimes you just have a bad day.

reply to post by F4guy


Thanks for the info. I just thought it might be related but then again I don't really know how these things work. I guess it is really a pilot error or faulty airplane then.

reply to post by boniknik


The better info is that regardless, there were no furloughs taking place at the time of these incidents. The whole of the FAA was working as normal. That is the more important info in my thought regarding your question.