Jonathan Stewart, an air-traffic controller at a local Terminal Radar Approach Control facility, prevented a collision between two planes near Newark, New Jersey, writes Andrew Tangel for The Wall Street Journal.
Stewart recently opened up about his close call and the other factors that led him to take a stress-related trauma leave during an interview at Main Line Armory in Malvern.
These kinds of public remarks are rare, as air traffic controllers seldom speak to the media without supervision from public affairs officials.
A business jet departing Morristown Airport and a small plane that was taking off from nearby Teterboro would have nearly collided midair if he had not reacted just in time. The incident left Stewart badly shaken.
Shortly afterward, he sent an email to Federal Aviation Administration managers sharply criticizing their leadership.
“I take my job very seriously, as I do the safety of the flying public, and take pride in my performance,” he wrote.
Since then, he has spoken out about the ongoing issues of understaffed air-traffic facilities and frequent failures of critical technology.
“I don’t want to be responsible for killing 400 people,” he said.
Read more about Jonathan Stewart speaking out after stressful factors as an air traffic controller in The Wall Street Journal.
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