WASHINGTON - The next time you board an airliner and buckle your seat belt, you are about to fly through a bitter labor dispute between some of the people most responsible for your safety in the skies.
The nation's air traffic controllers and the Federal Aviation Administration that employs them cannot agree whether enough qualified people are guiding air traffic or how safe the airspace is today.
With airline travel rebounding almost to the volume before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, delays on scheduled U.S. flights have reached a record high. In June, nearly one-third of domestic flights were late.
At the same time, the FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association have been unable to agree on a new contract. A year ago, the FAA declared an impasse and imposed a contract. Since then, the retirement of experienced controllers has soared beyond the agency's forecasts.
"In several places, it has created a safety problem where controllers are working 10- hour days, six-day weeks and working combined positions because they don't have enough fully trained bodies," union President Patrick Forrey said.
FAA figures show the number of fully certified controllers dropped to 11,467 in May - the lowest in a decade, the union says. Beside them in control centers are 3,300 so-called "developmental controllers" who are being trained on the job.
"They are pushing the envelope and somebody is going to snap," Forrey warned.
By contrast, FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said, "This is the safest period in aviation history." She said the contract allowed the agency to more easily move staff to meet the needs of a changing airline industry.
FAA Administrator Marion Blakey says the imposed contract "is saving taxpayers $1.9 billion over five years ... to invest in 21st century air traffic systems." The three-year average of fatal accidents on commercial flights has dropped to a record low .017 per 100,000 departures. Fatal accidents on private planes dropped from 354 in 2005 to a record low of 299 in 2006, and Brown says this year is below last year's pace.
The union says these national figures conceal risky situations in towers, terminal approach and at regional control centers.
Some examples cited:
In New York, southern California and Charlotte, N.C., on-the-job training of controllers was temporarily suspended this summer to evaluate a rash of errors.
At LaGuardia Airport on July 5, a trainee mistakenly cleared a 50-seat Comair jet to cross a runway on which a Delta 737 was landing at 150 mph. They missed each other by a few hundred feet.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the LaGuardia incident and five other near-misses at airports this year. Runway incursions were so frequent that Blakey called a daylong brainstorming session at the FAA this month.
"These errors are the calling cards of mental fatigue," said Chicago Center controller Bryan Zilonis, a union vice president. "The FAA is slowly burning out their most experienced controllers due to their inability to properly staff positions at many facilities."
At the FAA, Brown paints a rosier picture of operational errors - those cases where planes en route come within 1,000 feet of each other vertically or within 5 miles laterally, or within 3 miles near airports. The 12 months ending last Oct. 1 saw the first drop in operational errors in seven years, she said. "We're on target to continue the reduction in operational errors this year."
Controllers leaving, errors increasing, union claims
The air traffic controllers union says seasoned controllers have been leaving and operational errors increasing at key traffic control centers since the Federal Aviation Administration imposed a new contract on Labor Day 2006.
Here is the union's description of some control centers:
New York en route center: In one week this month had four operational errors - in which planes fly closer than allowed - prompting local managers to suspend training for 30 days to assess staffing. The center's 251 fully certified controllers also train 66 others.
Cleveland en route center: The nation's fourth-busiest facility has seen 29 retirements, 19 promotions to management and seven transfers, leaving 366 fully certified controllers. Errors this fiscal year have soared to 34, compared with 16 the previous year.
Chicago en route center: The fifth-busiest facility has lost 40 fully certified controllers, leaving 360, and has reported 21 errors this year, compared with 12 last year. - AP
