FAA VIOLATES STAFFING PROCEDURE DURING HURRICANE FRANCES

Details: Published: July 18, 2013

Effort To Avoid Paying Overtime Puts Staff, Air Traffic Control Equipment At Risk,

Detailed Memo from On-Site Technician Attached

WASHINGTON, DC—As Hurricane Frances descended on South Florida last weekend, the Federal Aviation Administration violated normal staffing procedures at the Miami Center (ARTCC), putting both technicians and vital air traffic control equipment at risk.

During hurricane warnings, the FAA normally asks four volunteers to work and live on site for at least three straight days, continually monitoring air traffic control (ATC) equipment. But last Friday night, while a hurricane warning was in effect, the FAA inexplicably sent one of the four technicians home. The next day, still under hurricane warning, one of the remaining employees informed the FAA that another technician was required because once the winds hit a sustained 35 mph, the gates at the facility lock up and nobody can get into the facility. Instead of bringing in another employee, however, FAA supervisors sent the employee making the request home.

“The FAA put people and equipment at risk by sending the two technicians home during a hurricane warning,” said PASS National President Tom Brantley. “We want to know why the FAA sent the technicians home.”

By Saturday afternoon, Miami Center was required to switch the power supply for ATC equipment over to engine generators. “Equipment on generators needs to be monitored constantly,” Brantley said. “You literally cannot leave to go to the bathroom – which is why there are normally two employees per building, to back each other up.” Instead, there were only two technicians who were required to run between the two buildings, in tropical storm strength winds, in order to monitor all of the equipment. In addition, the main building began leaking water on critical equipment, making it even more difficult for the two men to keep everything working.

The technicians finally begged the FAA command center for more help late Saturday evening, and the agency called in one more technician, Noel Salvatierra. “When I arrived at approximately 11:00 pm, I found two rag dolls,” Salvatierra wrote in a memo to PASS (attached). “I could see the weary in their blood shot eye, smell the sweat of exhaustion on their bodies and hear the fatigue in their voice. They were tired. They were wet. They were sore. They were staggering. They were dangerous.”

“It is my opinion that the gross mismanagement of personnel placed these individuals in a life-threatening situation,” Salvatierra continued. “In a storm that took an incredible three days to cross the state of Florida the FAA found a way to trim costs at the expense of personnel who so genuinely sacrificed themselves for the integrity of the NAS [National Airspace System].”

“The Miami Center has a history of regarding resources above people,” said PASS Regional Vice President Dave Spero. “The technicians on duty last weekend acted heroically under extreme conditions and they should be lauded for their efforts.”

As Hurricane Ivan threatens to batter South Florida anew, PASS demands that the FAA develop staffing procedures designed to protect the safety and wellbeing of FAA technicians and the important equipment they are charged with operating. Specifically, PASS is asking the FAA to establish a Standard Operational Procedure (S.O.P.) and integrate it into the existing Hurricane S.O.P. requiring a minimal staffing at Miami ARTCC Environmental Unit consisting of four technicians - two at each building with a minimum of two certified technicians and two other either certified or environmental technicians with intimate knowledge of all of the equipment and the hazards associated with that equipment and the location of any emergency equipment. These technicians must be able to work in and around the entire building in any number of unforeseen circumstances unsupervised. This staffing level should be maintained from the time the National Hurricane Center issues a Tropical Storm Warning (or higher) to the time all warnings are lifted and engine generators are no longer used as a primary power source.

###

PASS represents 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.