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Air Traffic Controllers Exhausted, Overworked Under Bush’s FAA |
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Summer air travel season is just getting under way, but in the nation’s control towers and radar facilities, a worsening staff shortage and the effects of fatigue with fewer air traffic controllers working longer shifts could pose a major problem, warns a new video from the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA).
The video, “When You Lose Controllers, You Lose Control,” asks:
…What happens when we’re exhausted and stretched to the limit? Nearly one-fifth of us have left since 2006, leaving towers dangerously short-staffed, with fewer experienced controllers being forced to work overtime. Even the National Transportation Safety Board [NTSB] warns the results could be catastrophic, but the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] still won’t listen.
The worsening staffing crisis, says NATCA, is the direct result of the FAA’s imposition of harsh work and pay rules that have driven the ranks of fully trained and certified controllers down to their lowest levels since 1992.
Since the work rules were imposed, more than 2,600 controllers have left their jobs—nearly 20 percent of the workforce and even the FAA predicts hundreds more controllers will leave before the end of the current fiscal year. The exodus likely will be even worse, according to NATCA, because the FAA has consistently underestimated the attrition rate.
With fewer controllers, those remaining are forced to work overtime hours with fewer and shorter breaks and decreased amount of time between shifts. Many are working six-day weeks.
Controller fatigue has been well-chronicled, including reports from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the NTSB. Just in the past few weeks controller fatigue has been cited for an increase in incidents—including cases of planes getting to close to each other in the air and on the ground—in Atlanta, Cincinnati and Indianapolis.
But the FAA has ignored the warnings says NATCA, and now may even add to the problem: The agency is considering canceling vacation time for controllers as a way to address short-staffing, a move that in turn will deprive controllers of the breaks they desperately need away from their grueling job.
Says NATCA President Patrick Forrey:
There are fewer eyes watching the skies and runways throughout the country, and those that remain are suffering from fatigue.
Left with understaffed facilities, management is faced with two choices for handling the ever-increasing volume of air traffic: Call in overtime or work short-staffed. Both of these options—which are often used in tandem—create fatigue among air traffic controllers. Regular use of overtime limits a controller’s ability to recover from work-related stress and fatigue, while short-staffing increases workload.
The union has repeatedly called for a resumption of contract talks with the FAA to address the staffing crisis, controller fatigue and other vital issues, but the Bush administration’s FAA has rebuffed every offer. A House passed FAA reauthorization bill would require the agency to go back to the table with NATCA, but the Senate has yet to act.
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From the Downsizer Dispatch this morning - more bad news on the FAA and their incompetence and disregard for safety.
In a true free market (something we’ve never had) businesses have a clear incentive to provide safety, so they won’t lose customers and employees to their competitors. More importantly . . .
In a true free market businesses are legally liable for the safety of their products, services, and work-places. To limit this liability businesses seek insurance. The insurance providers then do oversight to limit their own risk of loss by making sure that products, services, and work-places, are in fact safe.
This free-market approach to safety regulation is what funds the existence — even in our current un-free market — of something like Underwriter’s Laboratory (UL). UL tests product safety in order to protect insurers from losses. The result is increased safety for you.
The other approach to safety is one driven by top-down regulations and inspections provided by unaccountable bureaucrats and paid for with tax dollars. The problem with this system is that it greatly muddies the water as to whom is actually liable for safety failures.
If Underwriter’s Laboratory makes a mistake, it pays a big price, out of its own pocket. But if, for instance, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) makes a mistake, it doesn’t pay any price at all.
In the year 2000 it was discovered that . . .
Between 1,800 and 2,000 mechanics were falsely certified by St. George Aviation in the late 1990’s.
Eight years later, the FAA has found and re-tested only 700 of these mechanics, and most of these received only partial tests.
The failure rate was 36% among those re-tested.
This rate suggests there may be 400 or more unqualified mechanics still working in the airline industry, and the FAA is doing almost nothing about it. Source: Cybercast News Service
When will the FAA pay a price for this failure? Probably never. As a coercion-enforced monopoly the government rarely has to pay any price for failure. Instead, the FAA may get a larger budget so, supposedly, it can do better in the future. Worse still . . .
If an airline wants to protect itself against FAA incompetence it will have to pay extra for insurance and underwriting oversight, while still submitting to the FAA’s regulations and inspectors. This is a cost most airline’s can’t afford, so we end up with only the FAA’s incompetent and unaccountable “protections.”
Meanwhile, businesses have an incentive to game the system, using their political clout to gain favorable treatment from government regulators and government-imposed limits on their liability.
The biggest mistake organized labor made in 1980 was to NOT fully support the air controller strike under the old PATCO.
If the skies are dangerous the pilots and flight attendants should work collectively to ensure their own safety as well as that of the passengers. The FAA bosses are not going to do it, only workers pulling together can make flying safer!
All air transport unions have a lot at stake here. Let’s not blow it like the last time! Show unity with NATCA! Show the world that passenger and worker safety means something! SHUT THE AIRPORTS DOWN!