Flight delays become more common as air traffic controllers go without pay during shutdown

"Not only are controllers worrying about how to pay for their mortgages and groceries, but Daniels said some of them are also grappling with how to pay for the medicine needed to keep their children alive. Duffy said he heard from one controller who had to tell his daughter she couldn't join the traveling volleyball team she had earned a spot on because he couldn't afford the cost during the shutdown."

""Air traffic controllers have to have 100% of focus 100% of the time," Daniels said Tuesday at a news conference alongside Duffy at LaGuardia Airport in New York. "And I'm watching air traffic controllers going to work. I'm getting the stories. They're worried about paying for medicine for their daughter. I got a message from a controller that said, 'I'm running out of money. And if she doesn't get the medicine she needs, she dies. That's the end.'""

Air traffic controllers will miss their paychecks Tuesday because of the government shutdown, amplifying financial strain for an already understaffed workforce. Increasing numbers of controllers are calling out sick, and flight delays are becoming more common nationwide as the Federal Aviation Administration was already short on controllers before the shutdown. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and National Air Traffic Controllers Association president Nick Daniels say staffing and morale problems are likely to worsen the longer the shutdown continues. Controllers report difficulty paying mortgages, groceries and essential medicine for their children, including instances where lack of funds threatens health. The FAA restricts takeoffs and landings when controller shortages threaten safety, producing hours-long delays at major airports.

Read at ABC7 San Francisco