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The Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Inspector General has announced the decision to investigate the root causes behind the high failure rate of air traffic control (ATC) trainees in the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) program. The inspector general said that the failure rate was more than 30% among trainees in 2024 and is exacerbating the long-standing staffing shortages at airports across America.
The United States’ Congress approved the hiring of 2,500 new controllers earlier in 2025, according to the Straits Times. The FAA has received 10,000 applications, of which roughly 600 were accepted to the training program, however, the 43-day government shutdown saw between 400 and 500 trainees simply drop out. Now efforts are renewed to fill about 3,500 open ATC positions around the country.
An Ongoing Crisis
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy aimed to ‘supercharge’ recruitment of ATC trainees in 2025, yet little to no progress has been made in resolving the national air controller staffing crisis. The IG audit aims to evaluate training, including instructor availability, facility capacity, and trainee outcomes, according to AVweb.
The FAA is aiming to hire nearly 9,000 new air controllers by 2028, but this plan has been hampered by retirements, training washouts, and other attrition. Statistics from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) show that the FAA has received over 200,000 applications over the past several years, but staffing levels remain critically low.
The DOT Inspector General gave this statement regarding the status of the ATC training program, which has prompted the investigation:
“The training academy is facing considerable challenges with training, including a shortage of qualified instructors, training capacity limitations, an outdated curriculum, and high training failure rates.”
No Short-Cut To Safety
Following the January 2025 mid-air collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), the DOT’s IG launched an investigation into FAA oversight of the airspace management around the extremely busy hub near the nation’s capital. The tragic crash resulting in 67 fatalities came after over 85 near-misses were reported in the three years leading up to the crash. National Transportation Safety Bureau (NTSB) findings revealed that a single controller at DCA was managing both airplane and helicopter traffic simultaneously, a task normally split between two people.
The NTSB concluded in January 2026 that the crash was very likely preventable, attributing it to deep systemic flaws rather than a single pilot error, as NPR reported. The lack of air controllers resulted in a number of other major operational choke points over the last year. including in October 2025, when the FAA triggered over 20 staffing alerts in a single day, leading to ground stops at major hubs like Los Angeles (LAX). Shortages also forced severe capacity reductions at Newark (EWR), where arrivals were slashed by over half
The IG Investigation is targeting simultaneously why training has not produced a sufficient number of controllers to resolve the Staffing crisis, but also to evaluate whether measures to accelerate training have compromised the quality of instruction for trainees. Specifically, the IG is examining if the FAA’s efforts to shave four months off the hiring process have compromised the rigorous screening required for these safety-critical roles.
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Burning Out The Control Tower
The staff shortage has also had a significant impact on the air controllers who are working due to grueling schedules, which not only increases attrition but also hurts performance as fatigue steadily compounds. Controllers at high-volume facilities in New York, Dallas, and Atlanta are routinely working mandatory six-day workweeks and 10-hour shifts. The reliance on overtime has been cited by the NTSB as a primary risk factor for human error.
Repeated funding lapses in late 2025, primarily due to the longest government shutdown in US history, and early 2026 also forced essential controllers to work without pay, leading to a surge in sick calls and further thinning already fragile staffing levels. Sean Duffy’s DOT even launched what could be considered a punitive bonus system. Having a mixed result on morale after the shutdown, only controllers and technicians with perfect attendance records were paid $10,000 cash.
