EAST ELMHURST — LaGuardia’s air traffic control tower recently provided a group of wide-eyed Catholic students the opportunity of a lifetime.

The student council from St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Academy in Astoria got a tour of the control room on Oct. 24, courtesy of the Knights of Columbus, where they learned how the room operates. They observed air traffic controllers managing ground traffic and learned how they prevent collisions and guide pilots during takeoff and landing.

Sixth grader Valentina O’Toole said she was excited to be a part of the learning experience and see how knowledgeable the workers have to be when on duty. She hadn’t realized how integral they are to the airport.

“We learned the people who work there need to have a really good [understanding] of a wide variety of maps, how the plane takes off and lands,” Valentina noted, adding that when she’s older, she is looking forward to telling her grandchildren: “Hey, your grandma went there when she was a little kid.”

The student council, consisting of nine sixth- to eighth- grade students, was joined on the tour by Mario Massa, grand knight of the Knights of Columbus Council #11449 and Commodore John Barry Assembly 712.

Massa, who describes himself as an “aviation fanatic,” said he has been deeply involved with St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Academy for over a year. With the air traffic tower just a few miles away from the school, Massa said he called a connection he had at the airport to take “the opportunity to engage students’ minds.” Just like the students, he left impressed with the facility. His favorite part of the experience was learning of the tower’s direct line to the White House.

Massa said he wanted students to learn how the tower controls the planes. “You have to know what’s going on there — it’s a very stressful job they have,” he said. To stay sharp on the job, air traffic controllers typically work shifts of less than eight hours. However, research shows the demands of the job often make these hours feel longer due to the mental focus required. Because of this, flight control officers can work in intervals, such as two-hour blocks, followed by 30-minute breaks.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics defines air traffic control as “stressful,” and, given the job demands, there is a mandatory retirement age of 56. Students were greeted by Air Traffic Control Manager Jim Hayden, who conducted the tour and answered student questions.

The student council went to the top of the control center, 16 floors above the tarmac, where they gained a whole new perspective on flying. The day ended with students creating thank you cards and drawing posters for the air traffic controllers and other staff, showing their gratitude for their time in hosting them.

“The tower guys took our posters and put [them up],” Massa said. “You can see how much they appreciated the
kids for what they did.”

Seventh-grader Christian Duran said he learned a lot about the runways at the airport — there are four, each roughly 7,000 feet long — and the main positions — tower and ground controller — and recalled being able to hear the air traffic controllers give out directions to the pilots.

“They tell you where to take off from and where to land, and ground control will move you to whatever gate or terminal you have to go to, which is pretty cool because when we were up there, we got to see them tell the [planes] where to go,” Christian said. “There was also a big TV that showed all airplanes going to different places.”

Eighth-grader Emma Gomez noted she sometimes flies out of LaGuardia with her family. She said she and her father have always wondered what the inside of the tower looked like, so she was excited to tell her father about the visit. “It was awesome because barely anyone gets to go up there besides the workers,” she said. “I told my dad about [the trip], and he said, ‘In my 40 years of life, I’ve never been there.’ ”

“I told him that it was awesome seeing what everyone is doing, and when you are up there, you don’t understand [everything going on],” she added, “but you could see that what they are doing is working.”