Controllers Say Bulbs Are Exploding, Sending Glass All Over The
Place
The projectors in an en route center
display system that gives controllers important real-time
information are failing at a high rate and have been marked by
instances of lamps exploding, sending glass shards out of the
units, according to documents uncovered by the National Air Traffic
Controllers Association. This, as NATCA continues to negotiate a
new contract with the FAA in a process marked by contention.
In each of the 21 air route traffic control centers, there are
typically between four and eight control areas and each has two
Enhanced Status Information System (ESIS) projectors. They display
not only a picture of all airborne aircraft in the country, called
a Traffic Situation Display, but also give controllers the latest
information on air route and flow restrictions, instructions on
special spacing requirements between planes on certain routes and,
most importantly, the very latest weather and satellite
information.
But in the 12 centers surveyed by
NATCA, 65 of the 164 ESIS projectors –- 40 percent -–
are not working. Only four of the 13 ESIS projectors at Denver
Center are working, according to Facility Representative Mike
Fellows, which is causing exceptional problems during this, the
annual season of thunderstorms.
"It's critical this time of year to know where the thunderstorms
are and where they're going and right now, this system is just not
working," Fellows said. "Here at Denver Center, we especially use
this system on our arrival routes. When it shows weather over a
particular route, we can quickly see whether we can move aircraft
to another route. When the projector doesn't work, it means
individual deviations for aircraft and a lot more manual
coordination. It's a much less efficient way to move the
traffic. Bottom line: More delays."
The other centers surveyed were Albuquerque, Boston, Cleveland,
Fort Worth, Jacksonville, Minneapolis, New York, Oakland, Salt Lake
City, Seattle and Washington.
According to a document uncovered by
NATCA, called "ESIS Issue Paper #2," dated Jan. 12, 2005, in May
2004, several centers experienced numerous instances where ESIS
projector lamps exploded, with glass shards ejecting from the
machine's front air vent, "resulting in a critical safety issue."
The document states, "To mitigate the safety aspects of the issue,
the manufacturer, Optoma engineered a positive air-flow screen
housing to prevent glass shards from ejecting out of the units. In
the interim, since air traffic had declared this system critical to
air traffic control, some sites had already began to install
locally modified screens to contain the glass shards, which
inadvertently, voided the manufacturers warranty."
The current issue, according to the report, is that, "as new
bulbs are being installed, and operating as designed, the modified
protective screens are now causing the projectors to over-heat,
tripping the temperature protection circuitry, and causing the
projectors to shut down. Recently, these failures have begun to
increase across the NAS, with the result that the ESIS projectors
at many of the ARTCC's are out of service."