Hello everyone,

I really appreciate those visitors who have reached out to me about the several upcoming projects.  Yes – it is a lot, especially combined with running a business and continuing my coaching and leadership development work.  Sometimes it is exhausting, but I’m inspired by each project.

For my coaching work, I fly a LOT.  Typically I am on a flight 1-2 times a month, and recently there has been a lot of coverage of radar and ATC outages in Newark airport.  Several ATC Controllers have called out sick as a result of these outages, and the general public has not been very sympathetic to their actions. I wanted to offer a different perspective.

The longest outage lasted ninety seconds.  Not long, you may think.  But it’s easy to look at that in hindsight when you KNOW it lasted ninety seconds.  The harsh reality is that the controllers did not know how long it would last. I invite you to try this exercise.

Follow the seconds below.  Don’t rush. Don’t skip.  Allow each line to take 1 second.

I have ten planes on the screen in front of me. 2500 lives. All converging on a single location with closing speeds between 500-1200 miles per hour.

Darkness.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick. “Shit. It’s not back.”. The planes flying in opposite directions have closed 1 mile on each other.

Tick. I cry out. “Who else is down?”. Cries come back “Me too.”

Tick.  Don’t skip reading these seconds.

Tick.  1 mile closer. That’s 2 miles.

Tick. Anyone? What do we do?

Tick. The backup hasn’t kicked in. The radios are dead.

Tick. 1 mile closer. That’s 3 miles.

Tick. 2500 lives.

Tick. 1 mile closer. That’s 4 miles.

Tick. What if someone I love is on one of those planes?

Tick. Even the planes closing at a mere 500 miles per hour have now closed by a mile

Tick. 1 mile closer. 5 miles closer.

Tick. Everyone starts to panic. Planes will crash. People will die. That’s a certainty.

Is it starting to feel unbearable yet?  It is to me.  And that’s just fifteen seconds. Can you imagine that for ninety seconds?

It’s not the certainty that kills you – it’s the “uncertainty.” A major plot line in Diavolessa: Queen of Shadows is the kidnapping of a family member.  It’s not the fear of getting the family member back that kills you – it’s the terror of not knowing what’s happening to them “right now.”

ATC Controllers may not get a lot of praise or kudos.  We all just expect them to “do their job”. But, for me at least, I can start to imagine how stressful that job can be.

Thank you to all the ATC Controllers out there.

David.