Stories About Flying
Stories About Flying
While aviation certainly has its ups and downs, it's an industry chock full of exciting adventures at every turn. In this podcast, award-winning aviation journalist Rob Mark shares stories about the people who make the industry work, as well as the safety lessons each flight can teach us. He'll pull stories from the archives of his 50+ years of flying for the airlines, corporate, charter, and as a flight instructor, as well as his previous life as a tower and radar air traffic controller for the FAA and while in the US Air Force. He'll also share some of the terrific tales he's gleaned from other respected podcasters.
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July 31, 2026

ATC: 45 Years After the PATCO Strike

ATC: 45 Years After the PATCO Strike

August 3 is the 45th anniversary of the infamous PATCO strike that cost 11,435 air traffic controllers their careers after they called a strike against the FAA.

Nearly five decades later, the nation's air traffic control system remains short of enough controllers to keep the system humming like it did before the strike. And since August, 1981 air traffic numbers have tripled.

Join Rob Mark as he blends a bit of aviation history with the realities of what the FAA is doing to make the ATC system work safely in 2026.