FAA Says Preliminary Inquiry Confirms Four Planes Rerouted Near Savannah

This story brings a new -- and frankly disturbing -- tilt to the term "on-the-job training." The FAA is looking into claims made by a controller in Jacksonville, FL that several airliners were rerouted Saturday to test the skills of an ATC trainee, bringing those planes perilously close to area thunderstorms in the process.

The Associated Press reports a preliminary investigation by the agency shows four flights bound for Orlando International Airport (MCO) were indeed rerouted into airspace near Savannah, GA... but beyond that, the situation breaks down to the typical "he said/she said" common of stories involving the FAA, and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

Dave Cook, NATCA representative for the Jacksonville Air Route Traffic Control Center, claims the aircraft were rerouted inland near Wilmington, NC Saturday, on orders from an FAA supervisor, to test the skills of a trainee handling traffic into MCO.

Besides taking the planes at least 60 miles off course, Cook asserts the vectoring also placed the four aircraft -- a Delta Air Lines B757, a Virgin Atlantic B747 and two Southwest 737s -- in danger from nearby thunderstorms.

The FAA denies thunderstorms were present in the "Alma sector," but Cook says the passengers and crews onboard those planes were in danger... and that the aircraft had to "zigzag" around the storm cells.

"In my 20 years as an air traffic controller we had never done anything like what they just did," he said.

Cook adds the supervisor also ordered a veteran controller to "stack" the four flights in holding patterns above 30,000 feet, so the trainee could then vector them down for the approach into MCO. At one point, Cook maintains, the supervisor also told one of the pilots to report an incorrect altitude, to see whether the trainee would catch the error.

As ANN has reported, the training of such newly-hired controllers has been one of the many bones of contention between controllers and the FAA, since the agency declared an impasse in contract talks during the summer of 2006. Since then, controllers have worked under a contract imposed on them by the FAA... a situation the union maintains has proven untenable to many veteran controllers, prompting them to seek early retirement.

The FAA admits it is facing a glut of controller retirements... but maintains it expected many controllers to leave their jobs, as those hired shortly after the 1981 PATCO strike are approaching retirement age. Furthermore, the agency has taken steps to recruit new controller trainees -- albeit through some rather unconventional channels.

When asked for comment by the AP, the FAA said it "has strict training guidelines which do not permit rerouting flights nor inconveniencing pilots or the flying public." Representatives with the three airlines involved in last weekend's alleged aerial adventures either declined to comment, or said they were not aware of the incident.

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.natca.org