As the government shutdown drags on, air traffic controllers are feeling the stress and frustration of not knowing when they’ll stop working for free.
On Friday, controllers received a partial paycheck. The shutdown started at the tail end of the last pay period. So, this paycheck was two days short for most people.
Joel Ortiz is the Western Pacific regional vice president for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, which represents controllers here in Arizona.
He says Phoenix is one of the busier towers and is supposed to have 40 certified controllers.
"And I think out of the 40 they're supposed to have in the tower, they have about 33 to 34," Ortiz said.
"Due to a stark shortage of air traffic controllers. And this shutdown doesn’t help. Especially if there's the chance of not getting another paycheck for a while."
So that stress weighs on them heavily and you don't want controllers going into work with additional stress and additional things that preoccupied their minds other than the job at hand," he said.
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