The Dive is a free weekly newsletter jointly published by WHQR and The Assembly. You can find more information and subscribe here.
Like the Nation, North Carolina’s Airport Towers Are Understaffed
After a commercial airplane collided with a military helicopter in Washington, D.C. last week, killing 67 people, President Donald Trump immediately blamed diversity initiatives, condemning what he described as loose standards for air traffic controllers that prioritized politics over safety.
That specious argument aside, the incident has certainly highlighted safety concerns amid a chronic air traffic controller staffing shortage that’s been building for decades, including at airports here in North Carolina.
Control towers at the state’s largest airports are short-handed, according to the latest federal data. Vacancies at federally staffed air traffic towers in North Carolina are on par with the nation’s shortage, with both the state and the U.S. at about 72 percent of staffing goals. Congress requires the Federal Aviation Administration to report its staffing data annually, and the latest analyzed by The Assembly is current as of 2023.
Dan McCabe, Southern Regional Vice President for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said that though the data is outdated, it still roughly reflects staffing problems that persist today. “It’s among the shortest it’s been in 30 years,” he said.
McCabe emphasized air traffic controllers undergo rigorous training and described the crash at Reagan Washington National Airport as every controller’s worst nightmare. The nation has about 10,800 working certified controllers but needs thousands more to meet staffing goals. “It has gotten better, but 3,600 bodies short, that’s tight,” McCabe said.
Data shows the state’s federally operated towers had 178 certified controllers as of 2023, which is 57 controllers below the industry agreed-upon goal for the six airports combined.
For The Assembly, Johanna F. Still looks at what the data reveals about the state’s air controller staffing shortage: Like the Nation, North Carolina’s Airport Towers Are Understaffed
A Window of Opportunity
Last week, the North Carolina Supreme Court upheld key parts of the SAFE Child Act. The ruling was directly related to a lawsuit against the Gaston County school board, filed on behalf of students who had been sexually abused by a wrestling coach. But it’s also deeply connected to past, present, and perhaps future lawsuits here in New Hanover County.
The SAFE Child Act, unanimously passed in 2019, had several provisions to help support the victims of sexual abuse. The law extended criminal and civil statutes of limitations and created a two-year revival window for people to file suit, regardless of when their abuse took place.
The bill’s original language was drafted by then-Attorney General Josh Stein and his office. It was written with the understanding that many victims of sexual abuse–especially child victims–need years, even decades, to process trauma and prepare for the rigors of a civil suit, including testifying in court. The law’s final version raised the statutory age limit from 21 to 28; Stein argued for 45.
The window became a key target for attorneys representing the Gaston County school board, which argued it was unconstitutional (specifically the idea that it made institutions liable, not just abusers). The same law firm, Tharrington Smith, made similar arguments defending the New Hanover County school board in a civil suit filed by the victims of Michael Earl Kelly, a former high school science teacher.
Kelly, who pleaded guilty to dozens of sexual abuse charges in 2019, was a former teacher-of-the-year who preyed on students for at least two decades. His crimes helped inspire the SAFE Child Act–according to former state Sen. Harper Peterson, who served New Hanover from 2019 to 2021–although, unfortunately, there are many other time-barred abuse cases that supported updating the law.
Kelly’s years of abuse also triggered a civil suit by his victims; 10 of the 14 plaintiffs would have been time-barred without the SAFE Child Act. For victims’ advocates, the law’s necessity was clear. But it also drew the attention of the school board’s attorney, and more importantly its insurance carriers (mainly Liberty Mutual), who sought to reduce their liability by limiting the number of claims.
Similar questions also paused litigation for the victims of former New Hanover County teacher Peter Michael Frank, who in 2022 was sentenced to over 50 years in prison for abusing students. All three plaintiffs in the civil case against Frank would have been barred without the SAFE Child Act, according to Joel Rhine, a Wilmington attorney who has represented victims of Frank and Kelly for years.
For several years, litigation on many cases has been paused while the Gaston County school board case–specifically its challenge to the SAFE Child Act–made its way through the courts. In the meantime, the Kelly civil case was settled. (There has also been another civil case against Kelly, but it doesn’t rely on the two-year window.)
A lot was riding on the constitutional question in the Gaston case, with numerous groups filing friend-of-the-court briefs, including Rhine and his colleagues, but also organizations that weren’t directly involved–like the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte and the YMCA of Northwest North Carolina, both arguing against institutional liability under the SAFE Child Act.
Now that the state Supreme Court has upheld the revival window, the Frank case can go forward. Rhine said his team is meeting with New Hanover school board attorneys next week to discuss restarting the litigation.
But the ruling also leaves a lingering question: If the revival window was constitutional, could the General Assembly approve opening another one?
Certainly, there are organizations that would lobby against such legislation. But there are also victims out there who haven’t yet had their day in court, in some cases because they’re not psychologically ready.
One day they might be, if they had a window of opportunity.
