TECHNICIANS’ UNION BLAMES FAA AND KNOWN SOFTWARE PROBLEMS FOR AIR TRAFFIC DELAYS
- Details
- Published: July 18, 2013
Inadequate Technician Training and Staffing Also Responsible
WASHINGTON, DC— The total failure of communications between air traffic controllers at the Los Angeles En Route Air Traffic Control Center and aircraft flying over Californiaand NevadaTuesday evening could have been avoided had the FAA fixed known problems.
“What happened in California is the result of the FAA allowing a flawed system to be used in an operational environment,” said Tom Brantley, national president of Professional Airways Systems Specialists(PASS), the union that represents the FAA technicians responsible for certifying and maintaining the air traffic control system
“The ‘maintenance check’ the FAA mentions is a temporary patch designed to prop up a faulty system. It is analogous to repeatedly adding air to a flat tire, rather than repairing the hole. Sooner or later, the problem that you hope to avoid will become a reality,” explained Brantley.
According to Brantley, the FAA did not find the incompatibility issue until the new hardware was deployed because of inadequate testing procedures. If the agency properly tested the new hardware with existing software, the agency would have realized the system has a fatal flaw.
“The FAA makes it sound as if the communications system is designed to turn off if the periodic maintenance is not completed – that is not true,“ said Brantley. “The system turned off as a result of a problem with new hardware deployed by the FAA over the last year. Because the new hardware can cause the system to shut down, the FAA implemented a workaround, which is designed to hide the problem rather than correct it.”
Brantley also explained that the technician assigned to perform the maintenance check was not trained on that maintenance procedure. According to Brantley, assigning critical work to employees who have not been trained and certified is an example of the critical shortage of qualified systems specialists. Had the FAA hired and trained specialists to replace those who retired, the incident would not have happened. Brantley said that it is highly likely that similar problems will be encountered throughout the country due to the FAA’s failure to comply with a recent order requiring the hiring of hundreds of systems specialists.
“Once again, the FAA is unwilling to step up and admit it has failed,” said Brantley. “Instead, the agency continues to build a façade around the problem and blame employees for its system-wide neglect of staffing shortages.”
“If the FAA put as much energy into fixing problems with its operational systems as it does in reprimanding employees, we would have a much safer air traffic control system,” Brantley added. “PASS expects the agency to immediately begin creating a case to discipline the employee, using him as a scapegoat to avoid dealing with the real problems: inadequate staffing and training of the maintenance workforce. In fact, the agency is already threatening the employee behind the scenes.”
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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.