Steve Wallace is an air traffic controller in Miami with 20 years on the job and as he says in this new video from the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA):

I have to be 100 percent, 100 percent of the time.

The video notes that 750 million people fly through U.S. air space every year and that controllers handle more than 134 million take offs, landings and other operations each year. Each day, more than 70,000 flights take off and land safely. Says Denise Spencer, a 17-year controller in Seattle:

My voice is the voice that guides you home each and every day.

The video features several other controllers who speak about their dedication to safety and pride in their profession. NATCA spokesman Doug Church says the video is a response to the negative publicity following the recent incidents with controllers—mostly on overnight, one-person-staffed facilities—falling asleep. He says NATCA’s 20,000 controllers were upset with those who had performed unprofessionally.

This is not the impression that they want the public to have about who they are and what they do for a living.

NATCA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have been working together to address single staffing and controller fatigue. Last month, the FAA eliminated single staffing on overnight shifts and adjusted controllers’ schedules. NATCA President Paul Rinalid says there is more to be done, but:

Here’s the bottom line: It is safe to fly. It has never been safer to fly. Just this week, the NTSB announced that the safety of the system had improved in 2010, with no fatal accidents recorded on commercial flights. Air traffic controllers safely oversee 70,000 flights a day and run the safest, most efficient National Airspace System in the world. You are safer riding on an airplane in this country than riding an escalator.
Air traffic controllers are committed to doing their part to ensure safety and fix the problem.