NORTH LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Pilot Jeffrey Lustick knows the value of air traffic controllers.
"I've been in the situation where I've had an in-flight emergency, and the air traffic controllers make a difference," he said. "They help you get to the ground safely. They alert people that you need help. They summon emergency [responders]. And air traffic controllers save lives."
And that life-saving work continues, even as the government shutdown stretched into its 37th day.
So Lustick and some of his fellow pilots in the North Las Vegas airport Hanger Owners Group decided to respond to the emergency that controllers are experiencing.
Twice now, including on Thursday, pilots have driven a caravan to the North Las Vegas airport tower with food and other supplies for controllers, many of whom have small children at home.
For Lustick, helping the people who help pilots all the time was a natural.
"The relationship between air traffic controllers and pilots is one of trust, and you know, air traffic controllers look out for us, and they make the sky safe," Lustick said. "Just imagine having to do this job for a month and not getting paid. We see the need, and we want to support our controllers and it's not political at all. It's just the fact that they have to be able to survive and we want them to stay here and continue to provide support to our community."
Lustick said pilots develop a relationship with controllers, at least over the radio. "They may not know our faces or our names, but they certainly know the tail numbers of our airplanes, and in this tower, they've always been really friendly," he said. "And it's really beneficial to have a relationship with the controllers, because they understand what we need, and we understand what they need."
Lustick said he worries that a prolonged shutdown would cause some controllers to leave.
"There's going to come a breaking point, because I already know that some air traffic controllers are picking up extra jobs, some have started driving and delivering for Uber, some are working in the evenings as a side job, and some are not even reporting to work and some are quitting," he said, "So in a sense, what we have is a crisis and we want to avoid that."
But no matter how long the shutdown continues, Lustick said he and his fellow hangar owners would continue delivering food and other essentials to controllers.
If you want to help, you can drop off non-perishable food to a drop box in the terminal building of the North Las Vegas airport at 2730 Airport Dr., North Las Vegas, NV 89032. And you can find out more on the hangar owners' group website, at VGTHOG.org/atc.
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