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FAA Changes Course; Speeds Release of Pilot Guidelines After Airport Errors

Posted on: Saturday, 24 May 2008, 15:00 CDT

By TOM DAVIS, STAFF WRITER

Pilots will receive written guidelines on new flight patterns in the region after several planes departed the wrong way out of Newark Liberty International Airport over the weekend, the Federal Aviation Administration announced Thursday.

The FAA had planned to publish the guidelines by the end of the year, after phasing in new flight patterns that could ease congestion in the New Jersey-New York region. Instead, it will give them to pilots on July 31.

The agency changed course after air traffic controllers citing repeated cases of pilot confusion and error pressured the FAA to publish the guidelines in a book that's kept in every plane's cockpit.

"We looked at it and took action," said FAA spokesman Jim Peters, who declined to elaborate.

The controllers' union celebrated the FAA's decision, which came the same day The Record reported that decisions by inexperienced controllers and Continental Airlines pilots unfamiliar with the new patterns threw three planes off-course Saturday in two wrong-way incidents.

One of the incidents occurred after a controller with eight months' experience confused the numbers of two separate jets, said Eddie Kragh, president of the Newark chapter of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. The other took place because of pilot error, he said.

"Oh, thank God," Kragh said after hearing of the FAA's decision.

Kragh said three similar incidents occurred earlier in the month compelling air traffic controllers to call on the FAA to help overworked controllers and confused pilots better adjust to a redesign of the region's flight patterns.

Continental Airlines declined comment, and other airlines referred inquiries to the Air Transport Association, an airline advocacy group.

Victoria Day, an association spokeswoman, said late Thursday that it was too early to comment because the group hadn't yet received enough information on the FAA's decision.

The FAA has declined to comment on Saturday's two incidents because it hadn't received reports from Newark Liberty as of late Thursday. The Port Authority, which operates the airport, referred a request for comment to the FAA.

NATCA officials were surprised the FAA changed its mind, saying the agency typically is slow in making decisions and upgrading its technology. The union also didn't expect the guidelines would be published by December.

"Only yesterday, they said they weren't going to publish anything until they were finished with the airspace redesign," Kragh said. "That could have taken years. That's insane."

The union noted, however, that the FAA still lags behind the corporate world in developing technology that provides a map of taxiways and runways at airports so pilots and controllers don't have to rely solely on old-fashioned surveillance radar and related systems.

Pilots who use Newark have said the airport's air traffic which grew 9 percent from 2003 to 2007 should compel Congress and the FAA to work harder to ensure that new technology is used to help planes better navigate through its busy airspace.

Veteran New Jersey flight instructor and pilot Joseph Blakaitis, however, said pilots should have a complete understanding of the region's flight patterns before departing an airport. "They're not supposed to leave the ground unless they know exactly where they're going," he said. "He's going to have to delay his takeoff."

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What's next

* The Federal Aviation Administration says it will send a computer-generated message to pilots outlining new flight patterns in the New York-New Jersey region on June 5. On July 31, the agency will publish the guidelines in a book that's kept in the cockpit.

* Pilots and controllers who use Newark want the FAA to develop GPS-like technology that provides a map of taxiways and runways at airports so pilots and controllers don't have to rely solely on old- fashioned surveillance radar and related systems.

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E-mail: davist@northjersey.com

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Source: Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.

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