Dec 5, 2007 11:52 am US/Pacific
Report: High Risk For 'Catastrophic' Runway Crash
WASHINGTON (CBS News) ―
Congressional investigators said Wednesday that there is a
"high risk" of a "catastrophic runway collision" at a U.S. airport
and put the blame squarely on the administration, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Fuss.
The report said close calls have been increasing because safety oversight has
been slipping, citing overworked air traffic controllers, many working six-day
weeks, and high-tech radar systems that aren't working the way they are
supposed to.
The investigators gave the Federal Aviation Administration credit for reducing
runway safety incidents from a peak in 2001 but said "FAA's runway safety
efforts subsequently waned" as the number of incidents settled at a lower
level.
Then in fiscal 2007, which ended Sept. 30, the incidents spiked to 370, or 6.05
runway incursions per 1 million air traffic control operations, almost
returning to 2001's 407 incursions and 6.1 rate. An incursion is any aircraft,
vehicle or person that goes where it shouldn't be in space reserved for
take-off or landing.
At this time, "no single office is taking charge of assessing the causes
of runway safety problems and taking the steps needed to address those
problems," the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative
arm, said in a report requested by Rep. Jerry F. Costello, D-Ill., and Sen.
Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J.
Transportation Secretary Mary Peters stepped into that leadership void in
August by calling an industrywide brainstorming conference to produce ideas for
quick action. In October, the FAA reported progress on steps recommended by the
August conclave, particularly in speeding improved runway markings and pilot
training. The GAO report approved of those moves but also recommended more
leadership from the FAA, improved data collection and a reduction in overtime
required of air traffic controllers.
"This report makes clear that the Bush administration is cutting corners
and failing to put passenger safety first," Lautenberg said. "The FAA
is taking too many chances and ignoring too many red flags."
Even though serious incursions, where a collision was narrowly averted,
declined to a record low 24 in 2007 from 31 the year before, the report said
they have remained high enough since the FAA took its eye off the ball to
represent a high risk of catastrophe.
Since 1990, 63 people have died in six U.S. runway collisions. And the
FAA's previous definition didn't classify some serious runway errors as
incursions, including an Aug. 27, 2006, crash in Lexington, Ky., of a Comair
jet that took off from a too-short runway, killing 49.
This year has seen dramatic near-misses. On Aug. 16, two commercial jets
carrying 296 people came within 37 feet of colliding at Los Angeles
International. A Delta Boeing 757 touched down in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.,
July 11 and had to take off immediately to avoid hitting a United Airbus A320
mistakenly on its runway. A Delta Boeing 737 landing at New York's LaGuardia airport July 5 narrowly
missed a commuter jet mistakenly cleared to cross its runway.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating those, two others in Denver and one in San
Francisco.
The GAO seconded the transportation safety board's April recommendation that
the FAA reduce mandatory overtime for controllers. Since the FAA imposed a
contract on the controllers union in 2006, experienced controllers have retired
much faster than the agency predicted. The FAA also cut controller staff to
respond to traffic pattern changes from airline mergers and bankruptcies. The
union says the cuts are too deep and reduce safety; the FAA says air travel has
never been safer.
The GAO said 52 percent of controllers at the nation's busiest airport,
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, regularly work six-day weeks.
Overall, between 20 percent and 52 percent of controllers at 25 FAA facilities,
including seven of the 50 busiest towers, are on six-day weeks.
Nevertheless, "agency officials indicated that they had no plan to
mitigate the effects of air traffic controller fatigue," the GAO said.
The GAO found that radar the FAA installed at 34 of the busiest airports to
monitor aircraft on the ground doesn't work well when needed most - during
heavy rain or snow. FAA's more advanced ground-control radar, operational at
only eight airports, issues false alerts of impending collisions - 41 from June
7, 2006, to May 16, 2007, at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International.
FAA's Office of Runway Safety hasn't produced a national runway safety plan
since 2002, went two years without a permanent director and had a 45 percent
staff cut over the past four years, the GAO found.
Arguing for more and better data, the GAO urged the FAA to finish a
three-year-old effort to set up a no-fault system for controllers to report
safety problems. Industry experts told the investigators FAA definitions were
so subjective that they knew of incidents FAA classified "as being less
severe than they actually were."
Finally, the GAO urged the FAA to assume more responsibility from airports and
airlines for safety in ramp areas, where planes park next to gates and 29
people have died between 2001 and 2006.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
