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Comment by ck2 | Hacker News Reader

So is someone making jokes of our reality? No really, think about it:

RONALD REAGAN AIRPORT has a disaster because of decades-long crisis of too few air-traffic controllers available?

Reagan fired thousands upon thousands of ATC because they dared to ask for proper wages.

That seems like an odd place to put his name.

(oh and this had nothing to do with DEI, just like all attacks on DEI are ridiculous and just people being trolls for entertainment)

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What about the meta-metaphors of a literal "american airline" full of civilians minding its own business and following the rules and then literally t-boned by an american war machine. Also, they were leaving Dwight D. Eisenhower airport in Kansas. Eisenhower, the supreme commander of allied forces in WW2 who warned against the "military industrial complex". Wichita has so many air-related industries there that it was once known as the "Air capital of the world" and it's still its primary industry.

There's probably also something there about the fact that the plane was a Canadian one (Bombardier) whose name means "the guy releasing the bombs in a bomber". And also, the Bombardier company was started by a guy just trying to get people around (mass transit) in the winter time (via the first good snowmobiles B7, B12 - powered by american-made engines from Ford/Chrysler). And the helicopter was from a US company started by a Russian immigrant (Sikorsky) who immigrated to the US to escape the Russian Revolution after making bombers (that hold bombardiers) in WW1. And the helicopter crashed into a river, Potomac, named after the Algonquian word for a native american city and was itself named after a native american war chief (Black Hawk) that fought alongside the Canadians/British in the war of 1812 (where the white house and capitol were set on fire) to "push away white settlers". The helicopter left a fort (Fort Belvoir) named after a former slave plantation. The airfield it departed was named after a WW2 aviation engineer (Davison) and where Army One, the helicopter that carried Eisenhower, used to be based. In addition to the Black Hawks, the airfield is also home to 4 cessnas used in civilian air patrol - made in Wichita.

The air traffic controller union was asking for a 32-hour work week and a $10,000 a year raise. The counter offer would give them salaries higher than the private sector, but keep the work week at 5 days instead of 4. So they went on strike.

After the workers disobeyed a Federal judge's orders to return to work, they were fired.

EDIT: It's so funny that if you make any comment that doesn't tow the left wing narrative here on HN you're down voted. I'm not right or left, but find it kinda sad.

There are privately-employed air traffic controllers?

The salaries were in comparison to the private sector. TBH I'm not sure what jobs & ages they chose to compare Federal salaries to the private sector. Seems kinda arbitrary. Perhaps it was in comparison to private sector union workers?

Yes, a number of smaller airports are staffed by contract tower controllers.

Do the reasons for firing them (looked it up, over 11,000 !) even matter?

Because the remainder and future employment prospects for ATC simply looked at how they were treated and how they had absolutely no options and decided to NOPE NOPE out of that profession.

And so here we are:

naming airports after people whose actions eventually led to the specific reasons for the disaster

You said "Reagan fired thousands upon thousands of ATC because they dared to ask for proper wages." All I did was correct you, and I didn't do so rudely. The rational reaction would be, "Huh, this issue is more complex than I initially thought. I should learn more about it."

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