Experts Question Agency Choices

Natalie Heck and Francis Copes want to know why they don't have jobs with the FAA yet.

The pair are graduates of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's air traffic management degree program. In fact, they graduated last year and have been sitting on their hands ever since.

The part that's really frustrating for them is they've been told the FAA will likely face a massive shortage of controllers next year, when roughly 25-percent of some 14,500 controllers are eligible for retirement.

Next year marks twenty-five years since President Reagan fired the entire striking controller force. Controllers are eligible to retire at twenty-five years, or at age 50 if they have twenty years.

So what's the hold up with Heck and Copes? No one knows, that's part of the problem says NATCA, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

NATCA chapter president Mark Coon told the Cincinnati Business Courier the FAA hasn't prepared for the coming controller exodus, noting it takes 3 to 5 years for a new hire to get certified.

The FAA claims it has over 4,500 applicants. It says 1,100 are being vetted for hiring right now.

But industry experts question the qualifications of some of those 1,100. Three were former members of PATCO, the union representing controllers fired by President Reagan.

Also among the eleven-hundred possibles are nearly three-hundred retired military controllers. Those military retirees have all completed at least twenty years in the service.

Considering the FAA has an age cap of 56 for controllers, experts question the decision to hire individuals who will only serve a few years.

The FAA says fears of a controller retirement frenzy are unfounded. NATCA says the contract FAA forced on them last year will make retirement eligible controllers run for the door. Who's right?

Heck and Copes say they're not really concerned about all the in-fighting. They're not worried about the new contract. And they don't really care why things are moving so slowly, they just want a job.

Heck said, "If you are in it only for the money, then you're in it for the wrong reason. I will be a faithful employee."

FMI: www.faa.gov