He Doesn't Want Anything to Go Wrong Near His Hotel Room

Add to the present flap over the possible contracting-out of 71 control towers, some really stupid remarks, and you can stir it all up again. The FAA, the DoT's Inspector General, even NATCA's own records, point to the fact that 'private' control towers aren't any more accident-prone than 'federal' control towers. The union has been saying, loudly, that 'privatization' will lead to catastrophes, and that the FAA's funding bill (current official funding ceases next Wednesday) will destroy the safety of aviation in the USA.

Alaska's only Representative, Don Young (R-AK, pictured), poured fuel on the fire in a recent interview (sent us by an ANN News-Spy who surfs the web all day at work), when he said, "We were able to protect 94 percent of the control tower's positions. 94 percent will still be under FAA." Just what kind of "protection" he was talking about, seems to have been "protection" from competition, from the private sector's finding some kind of better way to do things.

It's all up for grabs, under the present system.

The man from the House said that the present Bill, under fire from the union, is a heckuva lot better deal than the union has right now: "The present law is you can contract out all of the control towers. That's present law. I said to the administration (that's what they wanted), I said to the administration, 'no we're not going to do that. We're going to, in fact, have, 94 percent of the control towers protected.' The VHS towers were not protected. That's all we're talking about, those that were recommended for possible contracting out. And there were 71 of those."

So far, so good. Then he loses what's left of his credibility:

"Of course the criticism of myself is that I exempted the state of Alaska, and there's a reason for that," he added. "One is the Juneau Field itself is going to be under Capstone next year so it wouldn't be eligible to be contracted out anyway."

Then we get to the crux of the matter: "The Merrill Field is a real complex issue. That's within the city of Anchorage and it really is in direct conflict with the military base which is about a half-mile away. [Merrill Field] has the F-15s, F-16s and the AWACS planes." So? "And we have the main International Airport which is in direct route of the Merrill Field and then we have Lake Hood, all in that mixing bowl. We decided at that time to leave it as it is until we can find out, there's a better way to do it."

...and finally, the real reason:

"Lastly, my hotel room is on the top floor [16] of the Sheraton and the airplanes take right off towards my hotel room every morning I look out -- and there's one coming right at me. It's an interesting experience, and I want to make sure everything is done right in that field."

[Didn't he just spend all this time telling us that there was no safety concern? --ed.]

FMI: www.house.gov/donyoung