5:32 pm ET
May 31, 2011


FAA Chief Faces Heat For Controller Lapses

    • Thanks to the new "non-punitive" reporting system touted so highly by Captain Babbitt this controller was able to go report the incident...even though the pilots of the US Air flight were also reporting it as a near miss so this isn't one of those "previously unknown events" that Captain Babbitt says is causing the error numbers to spike. Now that the incident has been reported by the controller he is totally immune from any type of disciplinary or other adverse actions including performance based actions to help him improve unless a board approves those actions. But guess what...the Union that represents this controller has a seat on that board and the approval from the board MUST be unanimous....so good luck getting the Union to approve actions against its own dues paying member. Thank you Captain Babbitt for your help, maybe if you were in the left seat of this particular US Air flight that barely missed the same plane TWICE, you'd re-think this nice cozy relationship you've created with the Union.....by the way, weren't you previously a Union boss yourself? That's right, you were....and Obama appointed you to watch over the hen house......I think I'll ride Amtrak until somebody with the authority to make the proper changes gets a chance.

    • @Jay ---- your knowledge of the aviation industry is laughable. Captain Babbitt, by the very nature of his background, has experienced many close calls in his career as all pilots have. He was not BORN in to his position (like George W) as a pilot and then ALPA national President, he worked his way there and was elected to that position. Unions are not the problem, they are the solution to aviation safety. Contriollers just recently recieved the same safety tool as pilots have had for years. Immunity from accidental mistakes by reporting them in a timely manner in order to enhance the science based problem solving data base that would otherwise be hidden due to legal defense manuevering. It sounds as if you recieved your problem solving skills from some military institution based on 17th century disciplinary action!! Besides, TCAS has virtually ELLIMINATED mid air collisions. Do you even know what TCAS is?

    • Apparently the "pilot" of the turbo prop" did not have or does not understand "TCAS," because he was not aware of what he was flying towards. The information here indicates that the pilot of the jet did not have a TCAS warning, becuase his comments, as reported here, were made when he visually observed the aircraft below his position. According to the reported text, the "controller" was about to "CONTROL" the two aircraft into a collision course after the initial near miss. If the "controller's" are so sure of themselves, I would assume that they would be more then willing to give up the immunity status and still making their "safety" related operational error reports. Yea, let's all hold our breaths for that one.

    • Having over 26,000 hours I have always said the the best service the Government provides is the FAA. A true professional would report obvious breakdowns in the system no matter who is at fault. Punitive results or not. Keep the union's out of the discussion.

    • IMHO the problem is that the FAA has to hire (or has been hiring) people who know NOTHING about aviation. The "screen" is laughable, and we now have second generation post-strike "controllers" who never learned how to control in the first place as instructors -- of the third generation post-strike trainees.
      I retired on the FIRST day I was eligible because of these people who must have trouble "controlling" their bladders because they can't control planes and never think of how their "actions" affect downstream sectors.
      But to be fair, I would have quit anyway with all the new "stuff" that the FAA's lawyers have dumped onto controllers through the 7110.65.... and their habit of "management by GENOT". No matter how hard you try you cannot dump 10 lbs into a 5 lb bag.

    • Unfortunately, this appears to be another example of mismanagement by Randy Babbit. As an airline pilot of more than 19000 hours, I appreciate what he did while running ALPA, but I think he is in over his head trying to run the FAA, or better yet, trying to "fix" the FAA. As a buroucracy, the FAA is broken. About the only way to fix it might be to close shop and contract it out. If we are having hundreds of ATC controller problems, it reflects on a broken system and a broken management. Sorry to have to say it.

    • Immunity from prosecution for operational errors in all probability will breed a lapse in attention by a few controllers that have not been doing the job adequately. What happens if 100 ft turns into a midair? What program will be used by Randy and the boys to cover up the "operational error" and resultant smoking hole? FAA management has no concept of what it takes to get the job done and done right. I think Harold covered it well. Close the government fiasco down and start out with a contract syustem. We watched this inept management blow this to bits. It can't hurt trying a different approach.

    • Just an added comment to Jay. How in the world do you tie George W to the ineptness of Randy Babbitt. He is more of a politician then Geprge W ever thought of being. How did he get elected to the head of the union? When you want to advertise for the union just come out and say it. George W had nothing to do with the corruption and misconduct and unprofessionalisnm that extends throughout ATC and AVS. and Randy baby is aware and does nothing to correct it. Don't expect much in the line of professional respect fop your main man.

    • @Ric

      Actually, Jay is just about right on the money, and I can tell you from first-hand inside FAA exoerience that he must be on the inside himself because his comments about the ATSAP system and the union on the ERC board are 100% correct.

    • Travis you are correct. The comment should have been in response to Ric. My apologies.

    • Harold and Ed - Obviously you do not remember what happened when the government contracted out Flight Service, it has gone from essential services to a joke, yet Lockheed-Martin is raking in the bucks and crying for more and more money every year while doing less and less. Enjoy being controlled by 2/3 less Controllers so that a fat cat contractor can make more profit.

    • There are hundreds of mistakes by human beings in the Aviation System daily. The only thing has changed is the reporting of these anomolies by the media and the lack of ability of people with no aviation experience to put them in the proper context. Some of the comments above are obviously politically biased or anti-union or anti- government. JUST because the media starts suddenly reporting incidents everytime a contoller sneezes does not mean that teh incidents of sneezing in the tower have INCREASED! Someone name the LAST time there was a mid air collision in this country in controlled airspace. Mid air collisions are virtually non existent in controlled airspace due to radar, TCAS, Pilot see and avoind, controller professionalism, etc. This alleged 100 foot miss is another example. The pilots saw the TCAS alert, gained visual on the target thus relieving them of the TCAS command to deviate their flight course, had the time and the presence of mind to querry the controllers and avoided the conflict without breaking a sweat. This is hardly news or justification to FIRE the head of the FAA, Fire all the controllers, and start over from almost 100 years of evolutionary building of the safest air traffic control system in the world.

    • Why is it that Ric and Jay don't admit the truth: ATSAP has kept tens of thousands of safety violations hidden from Babbitt, the Congress and the public. NOT JUST THE IDENTITIES OF THE ATCs involved, but also the real numbers reported to the system. Why is the ATSAP database hidden away--OUTSIDE FAA--resident with CSSI, a contractor? Why is it that only three people get to review each reported error or safety violation: two FAA senior officials, and one NATCA official? Why is it that not even IG Scovil has access to ATSAP's numbers--again, NOT THE IDENTITIES--the numbers in the aggregate, and by type of error or safety violation. Above all, why isn't anyone connecting the dots and asking questions about the quality and amount of training provided to new and existing controllers? Is it that perhaps Raytheon--the training contractor hired by Bobby Sturgill--has "lobbied" away accountability?
      ATSAP was NOT Babbitt's idea, it was former Acting Administrator, BOBBY STURGILL's, who directed the creation of the system. Sturgill was a "Bushie", and on his shoulders rests responsibility for the failure of ATSAP to enhance, not erode, aviation safety.
      Babbitt is simply ignoring reality because--as during the Bushie reign--the Obama Administration is beholden to contractors like Raytheon, whose former senior vice president of Government Operations and Strategy is the current Deputy Secretary of Defense.
      According to three former FAA officials intimately knowledgeable of ATSAP, operational errors and ATC training, it is "not a matter of if, but when" the 100 feet turn into a mid-air.

    • Why is it that safetyminded has do make up rediculous conspiracy theories in order to try to prove a point. We KNOW that people will lie, provide misleading facts and tell half truths in order to mitigate criticism and punishment directed at them for mistakes made during employment in safety related industries. The key to good decision making is based on accurate facts and the statistics derived from them. The way to do that is to provide immunity from prosecution or punishment to people that make mistakes as long as they provide timely and accurate details of the facts and circustances surrounding the mistake. Immunity does NOT apply to willful misconduct, gross negligence or deliberate violations of the law.

    • Ric, this is not a conspiracy theory. You've not refuted a single fact I mention in my comment.
      I emphasize, this is not about WHO made the error, but about reporting to the flying public, Congress and Administrator Babbitt, accurate numbers and types of operational errors. Accurate statistics are useless if they're kept hidden away from those who can assess their merit and provide solutions to problems.
      Fact: ATSAP was Bobby Sturgill's creation
      Fact: ATSAP data reside with outside contractor, CSSI
      Fact: ATSAP data is examined by three arbiters, one delegate from the union (NATCA); two FAA officials, no one else.
      Fact: These three individuals decide which errors merit attention, which do not. They decide how they will be handled, by whom; they decide whether or not the errors will be reported officially to FAA's statistical database on operational errors.
      Fact: ATSAP contains tens of thousands of anonimously reported errors that have not ever been transmitted to anyone outside CSSI.
      As a result, FAA's published statistics on operational errors and other safety violations are incomplete, inaccurate, heavily edited by individuals representing organizations with vested interests in not revealing the facts to the prees, Congress and the public.
      Ric, aviation safety is not the private concern of one small contractor vested in financial interest, and three reviewers vested in institutional bias. Shouldn't we let the truth about ATSAP statistics come out? NOT IDENTITIES, JUST THE NUMBERS AND TYPES OF PROBLEMS THAT BESET THE SYSTEM AT PRESENT?

    • This surely makes great sense to me

    • I do not disagree with this article!!

    • Thats some significant article!!

    • You are completely right with this blog!

Add a Comment


About Washington Wire


    Sign up for Capital Journal Daybreak

    • Washington Wire on Twitter
    • Washington Wire on Facebook

Top Groups In Politics

  • Election Day


  • The Treasury Department
