SYRACUSE RADAR OUTAGE RAISES SAFETY, STAFFING QUESTIONS
- Details
- Published: July 18, 2013
17-Hour Outage Should Have Been Fixed Immediately
WASHINGTON, DC - A 17-hour outage of the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS), the air traffic control system used in managing terminal airspace, at Syracuse’s Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facility over the Fourth of July weekend raised concerns among aviation technicians regarding the impact of staffing shortages on aviation safety.
The outage occurred at approximately 4:30 p.m.on Friday, July 1, and was not fixed until approximately 9:30 a.m.the following day. STARS was down for 17 hours because no technical staff was on duty to get it back up and running.
“This is yet another example of how staffing shortages are putting our aviation system at risk,” said Tom Brantley, national president of the Professional Airways Systems Specialists (PASS), the union representing FAA technical employees who maintain and certify critical aviation equipment.
In an effort to pinch pennies, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has failed to replace retiring technicians in the last several years and is reducing shift coverage at facilities such as Syracuse. This particular facility moved from 16-hour coverage to 8-hour coverage over two years ago and has lost two technicians. The FAA has made no move to replace these technicians even though the facility is now four technicians below its authorized staffing level.
“Decreasing technical staff in the face of constant, if not rising, demand defies common sense,” said Brantley. “If this facility had been sufficiently staffed, this failure would have been rectified immediately. The FAA cannot be allowed to skimp on safety.”
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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.