Aero-News: Quote of the Day

ANN's Quote of the Day usually derives from current news, though we reserve the right to pick quotes out of history that have a bearing on the day's events and issues.

Sometimes, you'll find them timely and in keeping with the content of the day's news... and sometimes, they'll just be thought-provoking.

Reader suggestions and comments are welcome... and if particularly intriguing, timely, or poignant, may themselves become future Quotes of the Day.

Let us hear from you, folks!

Aero-News Quote of the Day

"This is an unacceptable way of doing business," NATCA Director of Safety and Technology Doug Fralick said. "Why did the FAA spend millions of taxpayer dollars to develop a system that has the capability to fall back to ARTS in the event things don't go as planned and then steadfastly refuse to use it? The FAA is experimenting in Detroit with untested adaptations, putting the system on Emergency Service Level to install the adaptations, then waiting to see what happens with live traffic. It's unbelievable. Detroit has a fully functional Electronic Target Generator lab, which would allow the FAA to see if its proposed fixes will work. Why not use it?"

Source: NATCA Director of Safety and Technology Doug Fralick, angry that the FAA is testing bug fixes on its Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) in Detroit (MI). Aircraft departing off the end of the runway are often not receiving correct data tags indicating their flight information, such as speed, altitude and heading. Some departures are not showing up at all on controllers' radar scopes, while other departures are receiving data tags that belong to aircraft on arrival to the airport. In addition, at times, the data tag flies off in a direction not associated with the actual radar location of the flight, and there have even been reports of STARS not tracking some aircraft at all until several miles from the airport.

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