NATCA Opposed Plan Starts Sunday
NATCA is on the warpath... again.
Their latest FAA attack asserts that, 'Despite vocal opposition
from a bipartisan Florida Congressional delegation to the Federal
Aviation Administration's ill-conceived plan to separate radar and
tower functions at Orlando International Airport, the FAA still
plans to move forward this Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009. That means (two)
more days until the tower operation becomes staffed with less
experienced controllers, the radar operation becomes unable to
staff without forced overtime for fatigued controllers and overall
training programs are degraded to a level that does not conform to
DOT Inspector General recommendations.'
NATCA reports that among those opposed to the plan are House
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Ranking Member John
Mica, R-Fla., Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., Congresswoman Corrine
Brown, D-Fla., and Congressman Jeff Miller, R-Fla., as well as 11
other members of the Florida Congressional delegation. NATCA adds
that the opposition is being joined by two of the newly-elected
members of Congress soon to be sworn in; Alan Grayson and Suzanne
Kosmas.
Representative-elect Grayson is quoted as noting that, "The
FAA's move to deconsolidate the air traffic control facility at MCO
is part of a disturbing trend at the FAA to impose such actions
unilaterally, without due consideration of the views and interests
of air traffic controllers and other FAA facility stakeholders.
This, in turn, has led to contemplated Congressional action like
H.R. 2443, which should not be necessary, and would not be
necessary, if labor-management relations were better. The ultimate
concern of the air traffic control system is not economy, but
rather, safety. In the spirit of cooperation that President-elect
Barack Obama is trying to evoke, I call on FAA management to shun
confrontation with employee representatives, and to find ways to
work cooperatively for the benefit of the flying public."
A statement from Representative-elect Kosmas opines, "The
public's safety should always be the highest priority of our air
traffic control system. I urge the FAA to delay its decision until
there is an official deconsolidation process in place so impact on
safety can be more fully examined."
In the bipartisan Congressional letter earlier this month,
addressed to FAA Air Traffic Organization Chief Operating Officer
Hank Krakowski, NATCA reports that the delegation aired its
objections and asked that the agency postpone deconsolidation plans
until Congress had full chance to complete work on an FAA
reauthorization bill.
The gist of NATCA's beef is this: Splitting a busy facility such
as Orlando involves separating the tower portion of the facility
from the radar portion, or TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach
Control). The tower is primarily responsible for ground control and
clearing aircraft for arrivals and departures. It depends greatly
on the TRACON, the portion of the facility primarily responsible
for sequencing aircraft in the airport's airspace to land and for
aircraft departing from the airport hand-offs to an air traffic
control center responsible for higher-altitude traffic. Both
portions of the facility depend highly upon one another and air
traffic operations are improved by controllers with experience in
both areas. Under this foolish FAA plan, controllers will no longer
have that dual experience.
When deconsolidating the tower could cause such a drastic
separation and degradation of air traffic controller experience, it
begs to be asked: why is the FAA moving forward with no regard
whatsoever to the overwhelming opposition it is facing?
One theory comes from NATCA Southern Regional Vice President
Victor Santore: "Splitting Orlando is only being done to give the
illusion that the FAA is converting trainees into instant air
traffic controllers. Orlando is very poorly staffed and by
requiring those trainees to be certified to only work tower or
radar operations creates the image of a properly staffed facility
overnight. The FAA is using fuzzy math to give the flying public
false reassurance. Splitting tower and radar functions at Orlando
will be detrimental to the safety of the flying public. Air traffic
controllers realize this and so does Congress."