You're absolutely right to push back, I should have landed that plane before it ran out of fuel. Would you like me to explore options for funerals?
this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2026
218 points (97.8% liked)
Technology
88221 readers
3708 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
The fuel is the load bearing component of the equation.
Worth stating plainly: arrival at the airport is gated on the fuel quantity being more than zero.
Or at least being within glide capability. Would you like me to calculate a glide ratio for your current flight configuration?
I generated a letter to the loved ones. Let me know if you want it to be less personal:
I hope this letter finds you well. Yesterday's plane crash wasn't just a terrible accident—it was a horrible mistake...
load more comments
(1 replies)
"You were right to push back - that runway was in fact occupied"
So a quick search suggests air traffic controllers make around $75,000 annually. $875 million would pay the salaries of 11,666 air traffic controllers for a decade at that wage.
Even considering inflation, training, medical, etc that $875,000,000 could pay for thousands of hired Amemricans for a decade. Republicans are literally the worst.
$75,000 annually
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports about double that as the median pay ($148,080).
I still agree with the rest of your math and think the investment is worth it, but just clarifying the number.
the other issue is aparently it's hard to get people to do that job.
I do believe its considered top 2 most stressful jobs, not hard to see why
I know someone who’s atc. He described it as “very very slow Tetris, but when you misplace a piece someone dies.”
I was listening to live ATC broadcast this evening for O'Hare ground control.
Jesus tapdancing Christ, no idea how they do it.
All you hear is a steady stream of instructions like "j1234, approach 10L and hold, then sierra sierra golf tango tango alpha" which are "directions" for pilots to taxi to a gate.
They are ripping them off at hyperspeed, no mistakes. The audio quality of some pilots is just terrible but somehow they know wtf they said. They have dozens of planes on the ground at a time, organizing the chaos of them all without blinking. In the hour I listened, I heard one dude doing it all, though I think there are two different ground controllers.
Planes blocking taxiways, pilots misunderstanding instructions, someone is taking too long to push back from the gate and they're making changes and adapting on the fly.
Holy shit y'all.
Listen for yourself and try to figure it out. Audio: https://www.liveatc.net/play/kord1n2_gnd_in.pls Ground mapd: https://www.flightaware.com/resources/airport/ORD/APD/AIRPORT+DIAGRAM/pdf
Good luck.
This touches on an interesting point: relying solely on radio for route instructions is archaic and we desperately need to overhaul it with a digital alternative. Why can't we take some of that budget to modernize ATC?
The audio quality of some pilots is just terrible but somehow they know wtf they said.
That is in my experience highly dependent on what kind of radio/antenna is used to record the live broadcast, it's orientation and it's location.
I have an Icom IC-R6 radio scanner, even at the airport with line of sight of the infrastructure you can still get a terrible reception if the angle of the radio is wrong, the antenna is wrong or you have parked in the wrong spot.
People might reconsider if we give them a 30hr work week, but still pay the full salary. Some jobs are just harder and time worked doesn't equal effort. I've had 2 day stints that should have paid me more than the entire preceding month!
What I'm trying to say is that the people who run America are unwilling to pay to do it right.
load more comments
(1 replies)
It's hard to find people with the requisite skills who can tolerate the shit working conditions and occasional extended periods of intense stress. I had a job that required me to interact with a group of controllers. Almost all had the cork in too tight. I met several who later died of heart attacks in their late 40s or early 50s.
I bet they could get more to do it if they paid more. You could give out a lot of raises with $875 million.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(3 replies)
$875 million would pay the salaries of 11,666 air traffic controllers for a decade at that wage.
You're off by a factor of 10 here. It's either a year of wages for 11666 controllers or 10 years of wages for 1166 controllers.
Ah dammit, ty
The problem is finding qualified people to be controllers. IiRC, something like 3000 apply for certification per year and only 150 make it.
This position should really pay alot more than it does
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
Absolute worst possible use of an LLM: something safety-critical.
I'm sorry, you're right. I should not have directed that plane to the runway with the two planes that have already crashed into each other.
It's fine the first two have obviously canceled each other out leaving the runway clear.
No, no, it's sorting the crashes. If it had directed the planes to other runways, then there would be more crashes to clean up.
This is an Air Traffic Control system, once it’s on that a ground traffic control system.
Ah yes, the same technology that was used to kill 123 Iranian school children
load more comments
(1 replies)
I don't see ANY comments in here where it's clear that people read the fucking article.
"Har har, AI and ATC, I'll make a funny joke about flying will be unsafe". Yes, it's expected, but if you actually read what this is - it's going to issue predictions about how busy particular times are, basically.
ZERO use of the AI in the tower by ATC to control aircraft in any way.
Sure, they might try to introduce such a thing - at which time your jokes will actually apply!
it’s going to issue predictions about how busy particular times are, basically.
and for that it's somehow worth $875M.
load more comments
(5 replies)
I think they should test it out on the private jets first. Ya know, to make sure it all works great.
load more comments
(1 replies)
because we havent had enough air disasters in the past 2 years.
900 million could just hire a lot of skilled engineers and air traffic operators that can be well paid but that doesn’t sound as cool and futuristic as AI
8,750 salaries worth of money betting AI can do this with no actual evidence it can.
I guess the next time I want to travel internationally I'll take a train to Canada and fly out from there.
Well, here's hoping they are in charge of Air Force One.
Welp, I'm never flying again. And fuck my house is in a main flight path.
If you're in a main flight path you will be safe.
"It looks like I may have confused the available freeway lanes for a designated runway. Did you know I405 contains 523,000 times more asphalt than LAX? I will work on securing an additional freeway for future landings and I have prepared a list of new flight paths."
What an absolute slap in the face for the underpaid and overworked ATCs. Been bitching about more money for years?
Naaah how about your boss is now a clanker
FAA describes the SMART system
The media and old boomers are going to love talking about this system the moment a plane crashes.
load more comments
(2 replies)
We’re fucked.
In theory, an automated system should be able to outperform humans at a rote task like this under the right conditions. However, I don’t imagine throwing LLMs in the mix without redesigning the whole system for automation is going to end well.
view more: next ›