America’s New Air Traffic Control Crisis: An Instructor Shortage

The shortage of air traffic controllers keeping watch over America’s skies prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to embark on a massive recruitment drive.

Now, the FAA has another problem: There are not enough instructors to teach all those new recruits the ropes.

Teachers at the FAA’s training academy in Oklahoma City, mostly retired former controllers in their 60s, are increasingly required to work from 7 a.m. to midnight, powering through with endless cups of coffee they pay for themselves. With a $60 housing allowance, many live in a down-market apartment complex located near an infamous strip club in a neighborhood where gunshots are not uncommon.

Although a new labor contract has boosted instructors’ pay and ...