US hires over 2k video gamers as air traffic controllers

there are similar campaigns in Canada for NavCanada hiring ATCs as well

their ads have been targeting busy waiter/waitress staff, as handling a bumping restaurant floor gives the multi-tasking skills needed, or so goes the thinking

leroy_jenkins.wav queued up on the Discord soundboard.

Movie watchers and food eaters, too.

If the medical school put out adverts like this and specially asked "gamers" to apply then it is okay to focus on it: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/10/us/politics/air-traffic-c...

yes many of them also play video games and they were specifically focused on this recruitment drive. it wasn't a side effect that just happens to correlate

That's because this article is PR fluff for Sean Duffy to make it seem like they are on top of the air traffic controller problem.

"US hires over 2000 people who eat tacos as Air Traffic controllers"

When you look at what a video game is defined as it includes: mobile games that are just microtransaction driven only & gambling on any kind of electronic machine.

> No mention of what games they're playing?

According to Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, people typically play video games about controlling traffic in the air? Or the quote was just completely butchered to be something completely else than what was said:

> "A lot of what they do playing games ... is what they do ... controlling traffic in the air," Duffy told CBS News

Probably this:

https://airport.apunen.com/

Angry Birds, of course

Not sure - but I know there's a really serious community of folks who do ATC virtually on VATSIM: https://vatsim.net

I feel like those folks would already have been candidates for air traffic controller jobs though.

It shouldn't really matter. If you have the proclivity to sit on your bum for hours monitoring many parameters at a time and making decisions you're a much better fit to be trained up for ATC than someone picked at random.

GTA 5 online, probably.

It seems like they probably just ran recruitment ads targeted to people with an interest in gaming, right? The article actually doesn't say anything about how they went about recruiting gamers.

>No mention of what games they're playing?

Indeed, that's the interesting part that remains missing. I don't think Farming Simulator 26 is going to be on their list, but that is an assumption; where is their ad targeting data?!

"Weird, this always worked in GTA V..."

I think I read a different article than the one from CBS that got posted here, but I can't remember where it was (sorry I can't be more specific, but it's been a busy week for me and it's gone clean out of my head). Anyway, I remember that that article quoted one of the new hires saying that he had always enjoyed flight simulator games, so applying for an ATC job seemed like a natural fit.

I don't know if he was typical or cherry-picked, but it does seem likely that the people who would respond to that kind of campaign would be people who were already interested in aviation, so my guess would lean towards "typical" rather than "cherry-picked".

Again, sorry my memory is vague about an article I read several days ago so that I can't link to the source. I almost didn't post this, but I figured another data point (even a vague one) would be handy.

As trying things go, it doesn’t seem that crazy of an idea. I imagine air traffic control would even make for a pretty fun video game.

Put the AI to it. Clod can do a better job anyway /s

I got my PPL a few years ago. VATSIM and flight sim were huge tools.

I would, literally, fly my training flights a few times using full VATSIM and then show up IRL to do the same thing. It made a massive difference.

My instructor even said it makes his job so much easier. He had to do nothing with me.

I was able to cut my rental time over half. It paid for itself a dozen times over. Like literally it saved me $5k or so.

I recently gifted my yoke and controls to my GF who is getting her commerical cert. She is so excited. She is already flying her training flights using it. It's so helpful.

The planes will just respawn after disappearing from the radar, right?

I wonder if that happened to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volodymyr_Yezhov as well, FPS games represent you as a Superman, there's a big gap between games and reality. That being said I want my air traffic controller to be good at cooking mama.

The US Army did a bunch of recruiting to teenagers like this, successfully. Work for us, it's just like Call of Duty! They had their own branded FPS even.

For anyone contemplating the same, go play paintball for half a day. You don't just get killed every other round like in Arma, the "death" it's somewhat painful, you get out of breath and start valuing any semblance of cover very much (and get killed from and unexpected direction anyway).

I think in both cases that while it's far from an equivalent experience, there are some attributes or skills that can transfer across. Not sure why anyone would be particularly keen to bet their life on just that, though.

It’s just a recruitment campaign. It’s not like they’re putting people straight into a control tower because they like to play Microsoft Flight Simulator or something. They still go through a whole training process.

The types of skills from FPS games and real fighting are much further apart than gaming and ATC. A closer analogy would be a coworker who knows Judo is needed for Greco-Roman wrestling. Very different sports with different rules, but the skills in building and navigating a mental map of the environment carry over.

Hm, on one level I'm confused. War seems to be either very stressful, very boring (hurry up and wait) or shit my pants level of terrifying. Video games are usually designed to be none of those? well except slightly stressful because that can be fun

I guess he never heard that the first reaction to combat is to soil oneself. In the Scandinavian military service I did they taught us to go to the toilet as a readiness maneuver.

Why are they "washing out"?

seems like the beaten to death shit jokes like all reddit posts

Steam has screenshots and an English translatio of the publisher's description. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1348390/I_am_an_Air_Traff...

The collision in LGA in March revealed to me that not all objects are tracked.

I remember in the 1980s, when there was an attempt to rewrite the US air traffic control system in Ada. A friend of mine, was on that project.

It did not end well.

It's a very hairy problem, and mistakes are very costly.

On another note: Those video gamers are gonna have some pretty clunky video experiences.

Weather conditions, ground/runway conditions, obstructions, mechanical issues. There are tons of edge cases with huge consequences for error. Same reason self driving is not a solved problem, but with dramatically less tolerance for error.

Unions?

"all of them are tagged with transponders" seems like a very dangerous assumption to base a system on.

I'd suggest looking at Admiral Cloudberg's recent analysis of the Jan. 2025 airliner/military helicopter collision in Washington DC. It's a study in the difficulties of air traffic control in the 21st century and the reality of transponder usage, complicated by an overwhelmed airport and legislative indifference. Transponders aren't universally used, technology and people aren't perfect.

This one is long; I suggest reading the first chapter, then skipping to chapter 7 for the important parts of the story.

https://medium.com/@admiralcloudberg/reaping-the-whirlwind-i...

Consider the ratio of air traffic controllers to the number of people moving through the airport. It's not a huge cost. There's often far more staff moving bags.

It was a problem at very rural airports, and now some people man those remotely.

Uneducated guesses:

My impression is that it's at least partially down to how brittle a fully automated system could be. You want as much of a "manual" backup as possible, and that only be achieved by doing things manually all the time to keep up practice. With the current system, even with enormous degradation (massive power outages, cyberattack, software flaw, etc.) it's possible to get planes out of the sky without much risk. If a fully automated system fails, it's an enormous disaster.

The other problem is that the "worse is better" arrangement where ~everything is done via voice over radio makes automation difficult. Voice is simple, universal, and enormously flexible, but hard for computers to handle systematically. Some two-way protocol and associated pilot UI would be useful... but then you have to decide on that protocol and UI, every manufacturer has to implement it, every airline has to buy it, and every pilot has to be trained. Unless it's very, very clear what the optimal solution is and that the benefit outweighs the cost, that sort of coordination is difficult.

(And remember, the ultimate result of such a change would be a rigid system that is difficult to change, more fragile, and does not save much money relative to the total cost of the airline industry.)

Worked in this area for a couple of years. We have automated collision avoidance systems and have for years. But things can go off nominal fast and you don't want passenger aircraft making drastic maneuvers that fast. Because conditions can change so fast, queueing theory isn't that useful either. It's useful for more strategic as opposed to tactical air traffic control, what we call air traffic flow management. There's been a ton of research in this area for decades, for example at the National Center of Excellence in Aviation Operations Research (NEXTOR) and at NASA's Aviation Systems division. I could say a lot more offline about why, in my humble opinion, progress has been unbelievably slow, but the short answer is that it's government plus modern day academia operating in an environment where funding is low and risk tolerance is lower.

From the article:

> Duffy added that many current trainees started out as gamers. Only about 25% of controllers hold a traditional college degree, while former controllers note that gaming requires many of the same skills that air traffic controllers use on the job, such as thinking quickly, staying focused and managing multiple sources of information as they guide more than 80,000 flights to their destinations daily.

There is also a rigorous application process to get into the training program that only 10% of applicants pass:

> Among the criteria to become a controller are to hold U.S. citizenship, be under the age of 31 and pass the FAA air traffic pre-employment tests.

> Aspiring controllers must also pass an exam that the FAA says predicts candidates' "aptitude to be an air traffic controller." Within a week, they are notified if they have passed.

> Historically, fewer than 10% of applicants met the FAA's requirements to work as an air traffic controller and gain admission to the agency's training program.

So if gamers on average tend to be younger, and do better on the aptitude test than the general population, I think it makes sense to target them with recruitment campaigns to attempt to increase the number of qualified applicants coming into the funnel. Presumably non-gamers are also still welcome to apply.

And if it doesn’t work out and gamers don’t end up getting accepted at a higher rate than anyone else, then it’s no great loss, either.

I think what has already gone wrong with US Air Command having drone pilots for foreign wars based in shipping containers in Texas. Starts off as surreal/not morally challenging, and then it sinks in, these are real people. Also, I am not on the frontline with my comrades so am I a coward? Can I face my family tonight after this.

It could reduce stress and cognitive load and improve their focus, efficiency, and stamina.

They tried, but the max hiring age is still 31.

Where do you see it taking a week?

> Historically, fewer than 10% of applicants met the FAA's requirements to work as an air traffic controller and gain admission to the agency's training program.

It sounds like they are weeded out before even being accepted.

As noted in a sibling comment, that there is no "in a week" implied in the 10%.

The requirements themselves are at https://www.faa.gov/air-traffic-controller-qualifications

    Individuals must meet the following minimum qualifications in order to be eligible for an Air Traffic Controller position:

    Be a United States citizen
    Be under the age of 31
    Pass a medical examination
    Pass a security investigation
    Pass the FAA air traffic pre-employment tests, including the Air Traffic Controller Specialists Skills Assessment Battery (ATSA)
    Speak English clearly enough to be understood over communications equipment
    Have one year of progressively responsible work experience, or a Bachelor's degree, or a combination of post-secondary education and work experience that totals one year

The medical requirements are furthermore:

    Air Traffic Controller candidates must have the capacity to perform the essential functions of these positions without risk to themselves or others. Candidates must be physically and mentally fit and meet standards for vision, hearing, cardiovascular, neurological and psychiatric health.

(and there's a long list on the site for the specifics for each standard)... for example, the first one under eye:

    Applicants must demonstrate distant and near vision of 20/20 or better in each eye separately. The use of bifocal contact lenses for the correction of near vision is unacceptable.

...

It goes on for the training requirements...

    Entry-level applicants must complete required training courses and spend several months at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City. Applicants are paid while in training. After graduating the academy, individuals are placed in locations across the country and must gain 2-3 years additional training, both classroom and on-the-job experience, before becoming a certified professional controller. This rigorous training includes close supervision and evaluation by senior controllers that ensures controllers are competent, professional, know their airspace environment and can deal with the pressures and high pace of the job. 

And the specifics for that can be found at https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Order/FAA_Order_JO... with is a 285 page pdf.

Sean "DEI Bike Lanes" Duffy?

Sean Duffy? Steers clear of politics?

While their normal demographic might happen to contain a lot of gamers, the article is talking specifically about the results of a recruitment campaign that targeted gamers

I blame the readers. It shouldn’t be that hard to think about it for two seconds and conclude they’re probably not just plopping gamers in front of a radar screen. But apparently that’s too much to ask.