Two trainee controllers, on duty by themselves, at Lehigh International Airport cleared a a Mesa Airlines CRJ700 to take off while a Cessna 172 was still taxiing on the runway. The regional jet missed the Cessna by 10 feet.

The NTSB says the CRJ had 60 passengers aboard. The airline says there were 43 souls on-board. The CRJ had hit 120 knots on its take off roll when it spotted the Cessna ahead and aborted takeoff. It was a "save" by the CRJ crew who had been set up to die by the trainee controllers.

According to the Controller Union, it is symptomatic of what ails our ATC system today. The union president said:

"The FAA is so desperate to staff its towers they are forced to work trainees by themselves without adequate numbers of experienced controllers there to work with them. This has exposed the inexperience of our new workforce. It's unfair to these trainees and should be unacceptable to the flying public."

Until we see the burning Jet-A and bodies strewn on an airport somewhere ... it will just be another day for the FAA, an agency that takes no actual responsibility for the dangerous environment it has helped create. Never has there been a part of the transportation sector begging for privatization more than this one.