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Houston<\/strong> – As the federal government shutdown stretches on, Houston\u2019s aviation community is rallying to support air traffic controllers working without pay.<\/p>\n Houston: Campaign for Hobby air control workers <\/p>\n Local perspective:<\/p>\n At William P. Hobby Airport, where between 200 and 300 flights are tracked daily, roughly two dozen controllers and support staff are continuing to work long hours despite missing their first paycheck this week. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association President Nick Daniels reported some controllers have logged more than 120 hours without pay during the current shutdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n Former air traffic controller and pilot Mack McBurney, who once worked in Houston\u2019s airspace, has launched a GoFundMe campaign<\/a> to help the local tower crew. He said many are taking on second jobs \u2014 doing food deliveries to make ends meet.<\/p>\n What they’re saying:<\/p>\n “You can\u2019t do a mortgage, you can\u2019t put food on the table for your family, so you have that stress,” McBurney said. “I don\u2019t want those guys stressing from that stuff while they\u2019re sitting in the seat, keeping metal apart.”<\/p>\n McBurney\u2019s goal is to raise at least $2,000 to provide groceries and financial relief to Hobby Airport\u2019s control tower team \u2014 though he hopes donations could reach $10,000 or more.<\/p>\n Despite growing pressure, McBurney said he still considers air travel safe, emphasizing that controllers remain dedicated to maintaining safety in the skies. However, he warned travelers may begin seeing more flight delays or cancellations if the shutdown continues.<\/p>\n McBurney said he has reached out to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and state Sen. Mays Middleton for assistance, but has not yet received a response.<\/p>\n Flights at Hobby Airport continue as scheduled while workers await word on when they\u2019ll be paid again.<\/p>\n The Source:<\/b> Fox 26’s Sherman Desselle spoke with Mack McBurney for this story.\u00a0<\/p>\n Houston<\/a>Travel News<\/a>U.S.<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston – As the federal government shutdown stretches on, Houston\u2019s aviation community is rallying to support air traffic…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":344865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[4345,50,358,18900,3187,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-344864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-houston","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-texas","11":"tag-travel-news","12":"tag-tx","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115467147667946384","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}