Air traffic controllers, Northern State Parkway repaving

Why air controllers must work together

Much has been written about the Federal Aviation Administration wanting to move air traffic controllers from Westbury to Pennsylvania [“FAA moving controllers,” News, May 15]. However, I haven’t read why the approach controllers for Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark airports work in the same room in the same building. Before working together in Westbury, they worked separately at each airport.

In 1960, a midair collision known as the Park Slope (Brooklyn) crash killed 128 on the two planes and six on the ground. It was determined that the two controllers, one at Kennedy and one at LaGuardia, could not make radio contact. If they had been able to, it might have avoided the collision.

The FAA decided that having all three approach controls in the same room would enable the controllers to just walk over to each other, if needed. So, all three approach controls were moved to Kennedy and later to the Westbury facility.

Now, the FAA wants to separate them again by moving the Newark controllers to Pennsylvania.

Does anyone in the FAA realize why all the controllers are working at the same facility in Westbury?

— Anthony Tuccillo, Babylon

The writer was an air traffic controller from 1970 to 1981.

Why the paving gap on Northern State?

As a resident of western Suffolk County, I travel on the Northern State Parkway from Route 110, Exit 40, to Wantagh Parkway, Exit 33. It seems that the state is patting itself on the back for paving the parkway — except for that roughly nine-mile stretch of seven exits in both directions [“Northern State repaving done ahead of schedule,” Long Island, May 20].

What happened? Did they run out of money or asphalt?

Those still unpaved sections have potholes along the seams, some in spots where potholes had not even existed. Drive carefully.

— Bob Andreocci, Huntington