Highlights Chronic Problem, Article Says

Sylvia Adcock, who writes for Newsday.com, has filed a story that might scare a lot of folks. She says that a Delta 767 and a Sunjet MD-80 nearly merged in the sky on April 27, and that the union told her that "...the controller was distracted by other duties and that the mistake was human error that stemmed from inadequate staffing levels."

The FAA says the union may be grandstanding, using a controller screw-up to wrest more money out of the system. The union was reported as having said that the controller, working alone at the New York Air Route Traffic Control Center in Ronkonkoma, just ran out of buffer space in the ol' noggin, and had a momentary lapse of concentration, that let the MD-80 slip through. That lapse, the case is being made, was due to work rules and pay.

The radar system in the center alerted the controller, who instructed the Delta flight to make appropriate corrections. Neither pilot filed a report; the planes passed more than 500 feet from each other, technically disqualifying the incident as a "near miss." (At 600 feet and a mile-plus, it didn't qualify; but it was close enough to make the union's point.)

Adcock noted, "The FAA said staffing was not an issue in the mistake. Rick Ducharme, manager of air traffic for the FAA's eastern region, said the controller was handling only six planes, a relatively light load. He said the controller didn't ask for help, and with several controllers on break, one could have been pulled in to help." In fact, traffic was about to double, and another controller was on the way, when the slip-up occured.

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