Given recent plane crashes and the power outage at Newark Airport, HBO’s John Oliver decided to dedicate Sunday’s edition of Last Week Tonight to the state of air traffic control, where he turned back the clock to 1981 to declare former President Ronald Reagan to be the main villain.
Introducing a news clip from 1981, Oliver declared, “And one major challenge for controllers today is that there simply aren't enough of them. We've actually been short-handed for years now, and, as with so many things on this show, at least some of the blame lies with Ronald Reagan. In the early 1980s, as air travel was booming, the air traffic controllers' union was pushing for improved staffing levels, benefits, and technology. They backed Reagan as a candidate, because he'd promised to deliver on that—but once he took office, he failed to follow through, and they went on strike. And in response, Reagan hit back, hard.”
The clip showed Reagan at the White House with Transportation Secretary Drew Lewis and a soundbite from a striking controller, who had a distinct mustache:
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