New Routes And Procedures Threatened By "Inadequate Training And Staffing"

Be prepared for trouble. That was the ominous message conveyed by Patrick Forrey, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, hours after the announcement of new procedures to be put in place by the government to combat flight delays and congestion along the East Coast of the United States.

As ANN reported, DOT Secretary Mary Peters announced Wednesday a series of measures intended to combat delays and cancellations affecting the nation's largest airports. Most of the new intiatives will not go into effect until March 2008, and will apply to New York-area airports... but in the short term, new departure procedures and route changes in New York and Philadelphia airspace went into effect moments after the new plan was announced.

The problem, according to NATCA, is that controllers were also notified mere moments before the changes took place. Noting the union was "completely shunned by the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration on the final development and implementation of new headings, routes and procedural changes in the New York and Philadelphia airspace," NATCA says the new procedures were "jammed down [controllers'] throats by FAA management with wholly inadequate training and staffing, leading to mass confusion and new concerns that the FAA is compromising safety."

"Controllers do not feel prepared to add this new workload to their already overstretched limits. What we have now, courtesy of the FAA, are all the ingredients for an aviation catastrophe and it both saddens and infuriates me," NATCA President Patrick Forrey said. "The men and women who actually know something about air traffic control in these regions -- the controllers -- were unceremoniously shoved to the side by the FAA and DOT on this initiative while foolish decisions were made in their absence. Ultimately, however, it is on the backs of these very same overworked, understaffed and fatigued controllers that that the FAA has placed this extra burden."

The controllers union -- locked in a bitter struggle with the FAA over a new contract for over a year -- say controllers at Newark were given a 20-30 minute face-to-face briefing on new "fan" headings for departing aircraft called for by DOT, and a facility notice was issued by the facility FAA manager. "This is less time than it takes to order and receive a delivered pizza," NATCA said.

The bigger story, Newark controllers say, is the potential for conflicts between the aircraft on the new headings and the small private aircraft flying near Linden Airport, which is five miles to the southwest, and right in the path of the new headings. NATCA says the FAA has failed to warn these small aircraft; the Newark FAA manager told controllers no NOTAMS (Notice to Airmen) were issued.

The union adds controllers in Philadelphia were caught unawares by the new plan, as well, as the procedures and headings were changed from what controllers had originally trained for -- "so the training is completely inadequate."

NATCA also states a safety concern exists because the new headings aren't yet on charts used by pilots -- putting the burden on controllers to advise pilots of the new headings.

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