Most jobs have a level of stress associated with them. That’s a routine part of the work world, no matter what the occupation.

However, when measuring and comparing levels of stress, the job of air-traffic controllers stands out as being high up in the degree of most stressful. That’s because of the many lives dependent on flawless, precise performance, even under the most difficult circumstances –and, indeed, almost routinely, there are many difficult situations controllers must navigate on virtually a moment’s notice and with no “window” for second-guessing whatever other available options there might be.

Oftentimes, there are many difficult situations occurring simultaneously and, no matter the hour or the volume of air traffic in nearby skies, controllers must be performing at what can be described best as their peak operational level.

One error could result in the loss of many lives in virtually an instant, and no controllers want such a tragedy haunting them for the rest of their own lives.

Meanwhile, it’s the job of the Federal Aviation Administration to ensure that, no matter the situation, it is handled correctly, within the parameters of existing rules and regulations.

Most of the time that expectation is achieved but, nevertheless, there exists cause to ask a serious question about FAA officials’ own performance and, beyond that, that of members of Congress, all of whom should be cognizant of what is happening within the FAA — the agency itself.

Judging from a lengthy report in the Wall Street Journal’s April 25-26 edition, suspicion is justified about whether members of Congress really demonstrate enough interest in the goings-on at FAA — and even whether many members of the House of Representatives and Senate ask any FAA-related questions at all.

Perhaps the Journal report in question will “open” some lawmakers’ eyes. The fact is that it should.

According to that report, headlined “Air-traffic controllers struggle silently,” suicide is a troubling reality within the controller ranks.

According to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association labor union, an estimated 12 controllers died by suicide in 2024 out of roughly 10,700 fully trained controllers — a rate eight times as high as the national suicide rate of 13.7 per 100,000 people, based on provisional data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That estimate reportedly excludes retired controllers and trainees.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the FAA, which tracks suicides based on applications for benefits from relatives of the deceased, told the Journal that the agency is aware of nine controllers who died by suicide between 2022 and 2024.

“In recent years, controllers say they have grown increasingly frayed and fatigued due to chronic staffing shortages and frequent equipment outages,” the Journal reported. “Last fall’s government shutdown left employees working for weeks without pay,” multiplying their level of concern and stress.

The FAA has medical disclosure requirements and regulates the medications controllers can take for certain conditions, but some current or former controllers with whom the Journal spoke indicated they were fearful about talking with mental-health professionals because they were fearful about losing their jobs.

It is alleged that, for some controllers, suicide eventually became the “solution.”

All of which raises the question of whether the skies really are as safe as air passengers believe.

Congress as a whole needs to make a deep probe into the situation upon which the Journal’s article focused — immediately, not “whenever.”