Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR) faced several hours without any air traffic control tower staff yesterday, a glaring symptom of the pressure the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is under amid the latest government shutdown.
Burbank ATC Tower Goes Dark As Controllers Call Out Sick During Shutdown
From approximately 4:15 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. local time, Hollywood Burbank’s air traffic control tower was unattended, forcing flights to be managed remotely by Southern California TRACON in San Diego. The gap came amid rising sick calls among controllers who are working without pay during the government shutdown. Delays averaged between two and three hours, and several flights were canceled. The FAA confirmed the tower staffing lapse, attributing it to controller absences and the need to maintain safety by reducing traffic flow.
What Each Side Is Saying
The Trump administration says the unmanned tower was an unavoidable result of the shutdown. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has indicated that controller staffing is down as many are calling in sick due to financial and morale stress. He defended the use of TRACON remote control and said the agency prioritized safety by reducing throughput.
Duffy emphasized that controllers are essential employees and must continue working without pay, but also acknowledged that the system’s resilience is limited under such strain.
Meanwhile, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) and others warn that this is exactly the fragility they have long predicted. They argue that forcing unpaid workers to show up creates a morale crisis, leading to increased absences that cripple operations. The union had previously cautioned that even small increases in sick leave can exceed the narrow staffing margins that major airports operate under. Some lawmakers and aviation analysts also say the shutdown reveals how brittle the system has become, that one or two callouts can cascade into unmanned towers.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said:
Newsom’s tweet prompted a response from Duffy:
Fund The Government, Now…
This episode at my home airport, just 15 minutes from where I live, offers a window into how little buffer the air traffic control system has today. Burbank is not a mega-hub like LAX, but it handles significant traffic. For its tower to go dark during part of prime evening operations suggests the system is operating on a knife’s edge.
Reliance on remote TRACON control is not new, but it’s usually a backup. In this case, it became the default for hours, and that’s risky. Remote control reduces local situational awareness (e.g. visual cues, ground movement nuances), which can complicate taxi operations, runway transitions, and emergency response. The delays and cancellations that followed are direct consequences of pushing the system beyond its margin.
From a political lens, this puts strong pressure on Congress to end the shutdown. Aviation is highly visible: few sectors feel the public impact as directly as people inconvenienced in airports. The optics of a mid-sunset tower being empty may finally push action. Will we need another life-threatening near-mis or an actual crash for the children to come to the table and fund the government?
Is extending health insurance tax credits the hill Democrats really want to die on when the Trump administration is using the shutdown as a lynchpin to remake the federal workforce? I hate shutdowns and think they should be off the table, period. As an aside, I happen to concur with Winston Churchill, who said:
“The discoveries of healing science must be the inheritance of all. That is clear. Disease must be attacked, whether it occurs in the poorest or the richest man or woman simply on the ground that it is the enemy. And it must be attacked just in the same way as the fire brigade will give its full assistance to the humblest cottage as readily as to the most important mansion…
“Our policy is to create a national health service in order to ensure that everybody in the country, irrespective of means, age, sex, or occupation, shall have equal opportunities to benefit from the best and most up-to-date medical and allied services available.”
But I lament the entire healthcare system we’ve built in this country and find it mind-bogglingly inefficient, yet elections have consequences: I don’t think Democrats will win this fight. Fund the government, now.
It was air travel concerns that ended the last shutdown, and I hope the same is true this time…
CONCLUSION
The Burbank ATC blackout is a stark reminder that our aviation infrastructure is only as strong as the people staffing it, and when the government forces essential workers into service without pay, cracks emerge swiftly. Flights were delayed, cancellations occurred, and an entire control point was left unmanned. We should hope this becomes a watershed moment instead of just a political talking point, but I have no faith in our leaders to come together to do what is right. Let the shutdown continue. Which control tower will be unmanned next?
Unfortunately just a matter of time until one of the resident nasty racist uneducated morons (Douchebag Dave Edwards, Sch*tt Hsuan, Dirtbag Derek) tells us how this is more “winning”.
Douchebag Dave Edwards & Sch*tt Hsuan & Dirtbag Derek, proving with your every (too frequent) comments that your nicknames are absolutely accurate and completely deserved and that you have nothing better to do with your pathetic waste-of-oxygen lives than to post abhorrent and revolting comments here over and over again every single day. Thank you for confirming again that you and other MAGAs are stupid hateful racist cretins. Trolling or not, the extent and frequency of your comments are indicative of severe psychiatric and/or addiction problems. Your insults, undoubtedly projection, speak much more to your lack of character than to anyone you attack. You should crawl back under whatever rocks you crawled out from you SHPOSs.
Current national polls show that MAGA is taking the brunt of the blame from voters for the shutdown. So, at this point it is working in attempting to defend premiums from doubling come (I think?) in November.
Dems have little to battle with these days until the midterms as Project 2025 unfolds rapidly and decimates our Constitution. While there is something to be said for letting voters feel the pain of increased premiums coming to the govt health care system without a fight, that is letting voters devour MAGA in the mid terms, it is risky. At this point if something is not done now to claw back some power, if there is no fight, there is a more serious question of whether mid term elections will also be altered as part of the Project 2025 bulldozer.
Matthew, I get that since this affects your home airport and your healthcare premiums will not be affected, you take the stance you do.
The Democrats hold no power in any branch of government and the healthcare issue is one of the few if not the only point of leverage they have in this fight.
As a public policy position, I am distraught over healthcare in this country…that a middle-class family cannot afford healthcare on their own. It’s pathetic and wrong in the richest nation on Earth. I support the Democrats’ efforts to extend these subsidies and hate the lies about overtly funding healthcare for illegal aliens, which is not the case (beyond the idea that no one should be turned away in an emergency room, because that is not what first world nations do). I hope the GOP pays dearly at the ballot box for its wicked (yes, wicked) “Big Beautiful Bill” which cut taxes for the rich while screewing the working and middle class. Even so, I don’t support shutdowns, full stop.
@Matthew … I question your casual use of the word “wicked” , which is hyperbole .
I am derek, not that other guy Derek.
Those ATC are doing an illegal strike sickout.
All of them will get back pay. They are jealous that federal office workers are told to stay home but will eventually get paid. So it’s better to be considered non-essential!!! See how bad government policies work?
Or they are protecting their families in trying make some cash by doing gig work on these “sick days.” The ones who get to stay at home are able to find other work on the side as they wait to keep food on the table. If I was ATC I would call in sick as well and drive an Uber for a few days to make sure I can keep afloat.
Thanks for thinking of this, great idea for the Government to do an easy cross check of gig employees work records with those calling off under the guise of being “sick”. A
Good opportunity to fire a few liars abusing their benefits.
You’re a vile cruel person. No one cares what you think. Just go away.
“A government shutdown falls on the president’s lack of leadership. I mean, problems start from the top and they have to get solved from the top. A shutdown means the president is weak.”
Donald Trump – 2013
Duffy looks pretty silly clapping back at a governor. Duffy heads the FAA, and is the ultimate decision maker for all ATC. Newsom is the governor of California, holds no federal office, and is literally 0% to blame for any of this.
Duffy was on the real world. This is what happens when people “stop being polite, and start getting real”.
I look forward to his successor, Johnny Bananas
Western Sydney airport is being built with no onsite air traffic controllers, all of the ATC services will be done remotely, It doesn’t seem terribly unsafe to have remote controllers at any airport and with AI this really shouldn’t be that big of a deal. If nothing else this seems like a good test. Maybe it isn’t great 100% of the time, but surely this is a pretty good backup for smaller airports to be able to provide reliable ATC services not dependent on local labor.
Or was I supposed to make a comment purely based on politics? I guess I forgot to read the room.
Western Sydney airport, as you say, “is being built for this.” Big difference.
U.S. airports like Burbank (which is one of the trickiest airports in North America) was not. As well, BNA, which announced a five hour peak evening period today with no ATC was not built for it. For most every airport this is duct tape on a leaking dam. It’s going to cause an accident if it continues.
Generally, I agree with Matthew in that government shutdowns should not happen. The money has been appropriated by Congress, and should be funded. However, we are in a different time with a administration that sees no limit to their power and gratuitously cuts funding as it chooses, and ignores congressional appropriations. More importantly, congressional members of it’s own party passively allow the executive branch to ignore it’s power and authority as they sit back and do nothing. So either the Democrats sit back and allow the current administration turn our democracy into a autocracy they must do something immediately. Currently, the only weak card they have to play is to not play along with this fast moving coup.
Besides drawing attention to the federal government being shut down, this also continues to draw attention the the horrific bill the Republicans pushed through congress last summer. This bill will continue to haunt the Republican party until they lose the house and most likely the senate in 2026. The effects of this bill, as well as the ridiculous tariff policy Trump has implemented will begin to hit American pocket books over the next 6-9 months and will be ugly. Add on top of that a recession and you will understand why Trump and his corrupt, uneducated cabinet are so aggressive with implementing any scheme they can think of before adults are in control of the house and senate and stop this madness.
Trump and his crooked administration know they do not have support for what they are doing but continue to do it because the cowardly republicans in the house and senate don’t have the balls to tell them no. You don’t need to use force and threaten to use the military when you have support.
Re: “I am derek, not that other guy Derek.”, nice try moron. Names are capitalized regardless of the fact that you are too f—ing stupid to know that. Makes no difference, derek or Derek, still a nasty stupid hateful racist cretin.
Re: “All of them will get back pay.” Wrong again moron. Your hero just threatened no back pay for many workers and the GOP congress and GOP Supremes will always back him, regardless of how destructive it is to the entire country.
But Dirtbag Derek good to know you care about what I write, I own you.
Re: “I question your casual use of the word “wicked”, which is hyperbole.” No, no hyperbole. Healthcare is just 1 way MAGA and today’s GOP are wicked and evil. No other way to describe denying healthcare coverage for MILLIONS, vindictive DOJ prosecutions, years of fruitless investigations, etc., etc.
Douchebag Dave Edwards & Sch*tt Hsuan & Dirtbag Derek, proving with your every (too frequent) comments that your nicknames are absolutely accurate and completely deserved and that you have nothing better to do with your pathetic waste-of-oxygen lives than to post abhorrent and revolting comments here over and over again every single day. Thank you for confirming again that you and other MAGAs are stupid hateful racist cretins. Trolling or not, the extent and frequency of your comments are indicative of severe psychiatric and/or addiction problems. Your insults, undoubtedly projection, speak much more to your lack of character than to anyone you attack. You should crawl back under whatever rocks you crawled out from you SHPOSs.
Curious…have controllers actually missed a paycheck yet?
Re: “ … casual use of the word “wicked”, which is hyperbole.” Disagree. MAGA and today’s fully enabling GOP (and SCOTUS) are indeed wicked as well as morally, ethically, philosophically and ideologically bankrupt. Fascism, kakistocracy, oligarchy, plutocracy, totalitarianism, dictatorship, kleptocracy, authoritarianism, kraterocracy, banana republic, nepotocracy, racism, bigotry, evil; all are applicable to MAGA, which is diametrically opposed to the Constitution and Rule of Law. “Wicked” is actually a mild descriptor.
MAGA might work well in Russia or North Korea or Cuba, it should NOT be embraced in the USA. If it wasn’t for lies, deceit, hypocrisy, stupidity and racism, the GOP would never win another election in the USA.
Agreed.
It’s a shame nothing happened.