WASHINGTON — Experienced air traffic controllers are retiring faster this year than the government projected and their union said Wednesday the remaining veterans can no longer safely handle peak volumes in Atlanta, Chicago, New York and Southern California.
“We have come to a crossroads in these four locations,” said Patrick Forrey, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. The four locations, among the most congested in the nation, now have a staffing emergency, Forrey said.
Forrey has said before that the Federal Aviation Administration is eroding the safety margin for air travelers, but he went further: “We have so few veteran controllers left that we cannot safely handle the volume of aircraft into these major areas during the busiest periods of the day.
“They are being asked to handle so much volume with so little rest and with fewer eyes and ears that they are fatigued, and when you are fatigued you make mistakes.”
The FAA’s chief operating officer Hank Krakowski acknowledged, “We do have a few facilities where we’re tight” on staffing. But he emphasized that “nothing in our data shows any increase of errors where staffing or fatigue have been contributory. We do not believe we are running an unsafe system.”
Krakowski said the agency is aggressively hiring new controllers and is pleased with their skills and progress in training. New controllers can take up to three years to become fully certified for all tasks at busy facilities. “Hiring will keep up with demands,” he said.
FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said fatal air accidents have declined to record low levels and that FAA measurements show reductions in serious errors.
The union estimated 500 veteran controllers will have retired during the first third of fiscal 2008, which started Oct. 1. In March, the FAA estimated 695 controllers would retire during all of fiscal 2008.
The union said 357 have already retired and the rest of the 500 had informed the union they intend to retire by Feb. 2.
Brown said the FAA is aware of 301 retirements so far this fiscal year. She said the agency had increased its estimate for retirements this fiscal year, but had not made the new estimate public.
In 2007, the FAA said 828 controllers retired, 28.8 percent more than the 643 it initially predicted. At the end of fiscal 2007, it had 14,874 controllers, but that included more than 3,000 still in training. Trainees operate some radar positions but are not qualified for all jobs.
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