"Our nation is experiencing an aviation safety crisis," said Senator Tammy Duckworth, Illinois.
The Federal Aviation Administration says there were 23 serious close calls in the past fiscal year. That's more than double the amount reported a decade ago. Back in February, an air traffic controller, working on an overtime shift, cleared a cargo plane to land on the same runway where a Southwest Airlines jet was departing. It was a foggy morning and the controller didn't have radar technology to see that the aircraft came within about a hundred feet of each other, according to investigators.Lawmakers are warning that the whole aviation system is under stress.
"Finally, I wanna stress the need to avoid a government shutdown which would have a catastrophic impact on the national airspace system." Last month, the FAA got a new administrator, Michael Whitaker, who says he is ready to tackle the near misses.The FAA says it will have meetings at over a dozen airports, including Reagan Airport in Virginia, to work on reducing risks.