Safety record of US airlines again under fire
WASHINGTON – The rate of close calls between aircraft on the ground approached record highs in recent years at airports around the United States, according to a recent government report that was the latest in a series of studies questioning air safety.
Nationwide, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that runway safety gains achieved earlier this decade have been eroded by overworked controllers, a jump in flights to pre-9/11 levels and a lack of leadership by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
“This report provides yet another credible, compelling and clear link between safety and controller fatigue, which is caused by staffing shortages and longer hours on the job,” said a statement by Patrick Forrey, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn.
“LAX also recorded one of the largest total numbers of serious runway incursions,” reported the LA Times.
The findings come despite much-touted efforts by the FAA and local airports to ensure that pilots and air traffic controllers follow federal rules that permit only one plane at a time on or near a runway.
The report, requested by the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, is the harshest indictment in years of the FAA’s progress in addressing incidents in which aircraft violate safety zones around runways, said the Times.
The agency began a much-publicised effort in 2000 to curb close calls, which are considered the most serious threat to domestic aviation today.
Though GAO researchers applauded such FAA initiatives as enhancing lighting and signs on airfields, providing additional training for pilots and controllers and developing new radar systems, they found that the rate of runway safety violations in 2007 is nearly as high as its peak in 2001.
Researchers also found the rate of the most serious close calls remained relatively steady from 2002 through 2006, suggesting “a high risk of a catastrophic runway collision occurring in the United States”.
The FAA in a statement said it had exceeded its goal for reducing the most serious close calls in 2007. It added that it was working with airport officials to identify measures to further reduce the incidents.
Report by David Wilkening
Ian Jarrett
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