Technicians on Scene in Cleveland, Indianapolis, Minneapolis to Help Restore Chicago Airspace
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- Published: October 03, 2014
Following the events of last week that resulted in the shutting down of the Chicago Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZAU ARTCC), the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, AFL-CIO (PASS), the union that represents Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) technical employees, continues to learn more about the efforts of PASS-represented technicians throughout the region.
With restoration efforts continuing at the ZAU ARTCC, Chicago air traffic is being rerouted to other Centers throughout the country, including facilities in Cleveland, Indianapolis and Minneapolis. Technical Operations employees at these facilities are putting in extra time and making personal sacrifices in order to ensure that the job gets done and air traffic stays on track.
“On Monday morning, we got called out to start making radio frequencies available at Cleveland Center that are normally used at Chicago,” said Bruce Bateman, a PASS district representative and FAA employee. Bateman is based out of Indianapolis but works with Chicago and Cleveland Centers. “We are patching radio channels over on a microwave link between Chicago and Cleveland so controllers have the ability to communicate as well as providing backup for the channels.”
Brett Bateman, a PASS chapter vice president and FAA employee, has been working extra hours and coming in on his day off to provide assistance. He was called in on Monday in order to perform intrafacility wiring to allow remote control of the radios. He also shared that when the contractor was unable to get its primary path working, FAA backup equipment had to be implemented in order to keep communications operational.
Bruce and Brett Batemen, father and son, say technicians are preparing for Saturday’s Notre Dame football game while also handling the extra traffic from Chicago. There will be another radar technician, Jay Eades, at the South Bend Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facility working on his day off in order to assist with the situation since South Bend will be controlling traffic in its own airspace as well as enroute traffic into Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway.
In addition, PASS-represented technicians in Minneapolis are providing Chicago airspace support. Allan Schwietz, a PASS district representative and Service Operations Center (SOC) employee, says that the Minneapolis district has taken over almost half of Chicago airspace. He explained that technicians had to redo all airspace in the En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) system in order to allow Chicago controllers temporarily working in Minneapolis to see the planes.
“I have talked to some of the controllers from Chicago and they couldn’t thank us enough for how seamlessly this has gone for them. They were amazed by what we’ve been able to do,” said Schwietz. “Since we got the call last Friday, there has not been one ounce of, ‘We can’t do that.’ It’s always been, ‘How can we get that done?’ And we technicians are getting it done.”
“All of our technicians in the region are truly coming together to make this work,” said PASS Regional Vice President Luke Drake. “It shows the commitment and dedication of the federal workforce. Without our technicians and their knowledge and experience, the situation could have been far worse and inconvenienced even more travelers. Only Technical Operations employees have that kind of dedication and skill. Only they put safety and efficiency of the system first.”
For more information or questions, please contact Jessica Cigich at 202.293.7277 ext. 117 or 202.701.4725.
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For 37 years, PASS has represented more than 11,000 employees of the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense who install, maintain, support and certify air traffic control and national defense equipment, inspect and oversee the commercial and general aviation industries, develop flight procedures and perform quality analyses of the aviation systems. For more information, visit the PASS website at www.passnational.org.