Word: faa
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...average about 200 annually. (By contrast, roughly 120 people die each day on America's roads.) Instead, the folks in the cockpits, watchtowers and administration offices moan about the weather disruptions and equipment breakdowns that cause 250,000 delays annually and cost billions of dollars. "We're on the FAA all the time to modernize," says Tim Neale of the Air Transport Association, which represents the industry in Washington. "But it's definitely not a safety problem; it's a cost problem...
Controllers trace the troubles back to 1981, the year Ronald Reagan decided to break their union rather than meet its demands for better pay, benefits and safety measures. The FAA fired all 11,000 striking controllers, then contracted with IBM to deliver a system of high-tech computers that would rule the skies. "Rather than incremental changes, they tried to reinvent the system," says Mike Connor, NATCA's director of safety and technology. "They were trying to computerize everything, but you can't computerize human reasoning or decision making." After investing $2 billion and watching the projected costs balloon from...
...that happens, there are ever fewer people to do the repairs. Many of the technicians acquainted with the 9020E's innards have long since retired. "We are down to two trained technicians specialized in the IBM 9020E in New York Center," says Henry Brown, a power-systems technician. The FAA has tried to hire contract workers. But, says Acadeno, "a contract technician is not going to come to work in a snowstorm." And those who finally do show up are trained to work with microprocessors, not primitive circuit boards...
Experienced controllers are also in short supply. Staffing has become such a problem that major hubs have instituted mandatory six-day weeks. After the FAA decided in 1994 to discontinue incentive bonuses for work in high-stress, high-volume, high-cost areas, many veterans migrated to jobs in low-stress, low-cost areas. Now, as job openings go unfilled for months at a time at major hubs like New York, Chicago and San Francisco, each controller not only carries the work load of three but works mandatory six-day weeks as well. Union officials dryly note that even with...
...FAA insists that current staffing levels are sufficient. "It is much more efficient today than it was several years ago," says Monte Belger of the FAA's Air Traffic Services. NATCA's Krasner counters, "If you have a vision of an air-traffic-control system that 15 or 20 years from now will have fewer controllers, it doesn't really matter if you make these people work longer hours and burn them out. From an economic standpoint, it makes sense. From a human standpoint, it's crazy...