Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 2, 1994 TAG: 9401020068
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The required aircraft separation distances were breached 757 times in the 12 months that ended in October, the agency found, a 5 percent increase compared with the preceding 12 months, when 720 were reported.
"Operational errors" is the FAA's term for mistakes made by air traffic controllers who fail to keep aircraft separated by the required distance. That distance, on average, is three miles laterally or 1,000 feet vertically; sometimes both buffers are required and sometimes the separation distances are larger.
Some operational errors have been "relatively close," said Bill Jeffers, the FAA's deputy associate administrator for air traffic control. Dangerously close encounters between aircraft are called near-collisions.
The controllers attribute the increase in plane-separation errors to increased air traffic, overburdened airports and overworked controllers.
But federal officials say air traffic increased by only 1 percent this year, to about 7 million departures, and they contend that busy airports are adequately staffed by the controllers.
Jeffers attributes the increase to "human error and communications error" on the part of controllers.
Whatever the reason, FAA officials say there is no cause for alarm. "Just because operational errors may be going up, you can't say that the quality of safety in the system is going down," said spokesman Robert Buckhorn. The number of collisions and near-collisions, he pointed out, has steadily declined.
Air traffic controllers were blamed for a February 1991 runway collision between a USAir jetliner and a Skywest commuter plane at Los Angeles International airport; 46 people were killed.
Two months later, Sen. John Heinz of Pennsylvania and six others were killed when the senator's chartered plane collided with a helicopter over a Philadelphia suburb.
Air traffic controllers had given permission for the helicopter to fly near the plane to inspect it.
Despite the increase in operational errors, the FAA reports a reduction in the number of near-collisions in the air, to 292 in the 12 months that ended last October. That is down 7 percent from the 315 reported for the year ending October 1992; 363 were reported for the year ending October 1991.
Federal officials note that the last fatal accident involving a major airline occurred in March 1992, at New York's LaGuardia Airport, but there have been several fatal accidents involving commuter planes and private aircraft.
Federal officials say several operational errors occurred near New York City on Nov. 28, when an air traffic controller allowed several jetliners approaching New York's airports to fly too close together.
The controller, who was relatively new, had asked for assistance, but his supervisor had denied the request even though help was available.
Jeffers said, "None of the planes had less than a two-mile separation. We consider the error critical, but I do not believe that the safety of the airplanes was compromised." A supervisor was suspended after the incident, officials said.
In October, a jet came perilously close to a private plane at Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C., an error also attributed to faulty air traffic control.
More controllers are needed, particularly at the busiest airports, said James C. Morin, general counsel for the National Air Traffic Controller Association of the AFL-CIO.
In August, the Clinton administration lifted the ban on rehiring the air traffic controllers who were fired by then-President Reagan when they went on strike in 1981.
The FAA contends there is no shortage of controllers; it plans to hire 200 to offset attrition. But the controllers association estimates 2,000 to 3,000 hires are needed.
The FAA says it has nearly 18,000 air traffic controllers, of whom 12,000 are at the full-performance level. That means they can handle any job assigned.
In 1981, when the strike began, there were 16,200 controllers, 13,000 of whom were at the full-performance level. Since then, air traffic has increased from 5 million departures annually to 7 million.
Despite a handful of recent incidents of aircraft mechanical problems, it is 21 months since a passenger on a major airline has died in an accident, one of the longest such periods in aviation history.
by CNB