FAA, Controllers Spar Over Safety of Indy Skies

By Bill Ruthhart, The Indianapolis Star

May 29–A feud with the Federal Aviation Administration over working conditions has Indianapolis air traffic controllers warning Hoosier passengers their safety aboard flights is increasingly in jeopardy.

Federal officials counter that controllers are using scare tactics to pressure Congress for legislation that would grant them new negotiating power with the FAA.

Indianapolis became the latest front in this nationwide dispute Wednesday when air traffic controllers here released statistics they say show an alarming increase in safety mishaps.

The Indianapolis Tower Facility at Indianapolis International Airport has reported six “operational errors” this year, on pace to surpass the 12 reported in 2007, the controllers union said. Those errors occur when two aircraft fly closer to each other than FAA rules allow.

The 12 errors in 2007 followed a total of five errors in 2005 and 2006 combined, said Darren Groce, a union representative.

Controllers at the Indianapolis Center Facility also reported an increase in mistakes. That facility tracks more than 71,000 square miles of airspace in portions of seven states.

Thomas Thompson, the union representative there, said the center has experienced a dramatic increase in “operational deviations,” in which aircraft enter airspace without the knowledge of a controller. Five months into the year, the center has experienced 35 deviations, compared with 31 in 2007 and two in 2006.

Groce and Thompson, union representatives for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, say the errors are in part related to more forced overtime for their members, which they say is the result of an increase in the number of controller retirements and a subsequent slow response from the FAA to hire replacements.

Oftentimes, they say, controllers are forced to work overtime with only an hour’s notice, and many are required to work an extra shift at least twice a month, leading to fatigue and mistakes.

“As controllers, we are on the front line of safety, and when we see a diminished margin of safety, it’s our responsibility to sound the alarm,” Groce said. “We need to let the public know the FAA is trying to run a federal agency like a business. They’re looking at it from a fiscal perspective instead of a safety one.”

The FAA, however, said it is hiring to keep up with the pace of retirements and that controllers are manipulating statistics to drum up safety concerns that simply don’t exist.

FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro said errors at the Indianapolis tower are occurring at nearly the same rate as last year and that the union chose to highlight deviations, a much less severe mistake than the errors.

Molinaro said the center has seen an increase in the number of deviations because the FAA’s software has improved and now picks up more of these instances. He also said both facilities are handling fewer flights than in 2007 and that their error rates are typical for facilities their size.

“The union is complaining about staffing and fatigue, even though they are handling less air traffic than in years past,” he said.

Much of the dispute centers on stalled labor talks between controllers and the FAA.

After negotiations between the two were declared at an impasse and Congress passed up the chance to intervene, the FAA was allowed to impose its work rules on controllers in September 2006.

The union is pushing Congress to pass legislation that effectively would reopen the talks. The House has passed such a measure, and it awaits action in the Senate. President Bush has threatened a veto if it passes.

Molinaro said the new guidelines allow the FAA to staff towers and centers based on air traffic rather than levels set in an outdated contract with controllers.

Controllers, however, point to figures they say show the Indianapolis facilities are understaffed.

For example, under the levels set in the last agreement with the FAA in 2003, the Indianapolis Tower Facility should have 56 controllers and instead has 34, Groce said. Molinaro said the current number of controllers is 41, near the range of 42 to 52 set by the FAA’s new guidelines.

At the Indianapolis Center Facility, the 2003 requirement was 519 controllers, compared with a current staffing level of 318. Again, the FAA said the number is appropriate and within a newly established range of 284 to 347 controllers.

“Those contractual numbers aren’t being enforced and really are irrelevant at this time,” Molinaro said. “What’s relevant are our current ranges, which are set according to flight levels.”

Federal law requires controllers to retire by the age of 56, but Thompson said many are leaving the job sooner.

“Everyone is rushing to the door,” he said. “Everyone is retiring as soon as they are eligible because the work conditions and the morale is poor.”

Thompson said that if the controllers aren’t granted some relief, the continued forced overtime and additional shifts will surely mean more safety problems.

Hiring to fill vacant controller positions is not an easy proposition. Training for a tower job takes 12 to 16 months and even longer for a position at the center — three to five years.

Molinaro said the FAA is keeping up with the pace of retirements and said complaints about staffing and overtime are a “tactic being used by the union for political and media reasons and does not address the welfare of the Indianapolis air traveler.”

Thompson, though, said he’s the one directing airplanes every day.

“It’s kind of like letting someone coast through a stop sign. Most of the time that’s going to be OK,” he said. “But if you let it happen enough, especially with airplanes traveling 300 or 400 miles per hour, it eventually increases the likelihood for something bad to happen.”

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