Would Computerized ATC Intentionally Under Report Safety Deficiencies?
Do incentive bonuses create cheats?


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AVflash Volume 11, Number 26a -- June 27, 2005
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WHISTLE-BLOWER'S CLAIMS SUBSTANTIATED...
A Dallas/Fort Worth air traffic controller says she's been slapped,
verbally abused and almost run off the road by some of her colleagues
-- all in the name of safety. Anne Whiteman became a federal
whistle-blower when she claimed fellow controllers and managers at the
DFW terminal radar approach control (TRACON) conspired to cover up
dozens of serious separation errors. On Thursday, the Department of
Transportation's Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Office of
Special Counsel issued a report backing Whiteman's claims, and the
Special Counsel issued a statement saying the coverups "represent
safety deficiencies and undermine the public's confidence in the air
traffic control system."
http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#190038

....PROBLEMS SOLVED?...
FAA spokesman Greg Martin said the problems at DFW have been
addressed. "We take the charges seriously and as soon as we became
aware of them we took immediate corrective action," he told USA Today.
Whiteman isn't so sure. She said the OIG/Special Counsel report heaped
too much blame on a retired manager and relatively little on managers
still working in the TRACON. "Nobody has been severely reprimanded,"
she said. John Carr, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers
Association, said the FAA's reporting procedures are to blame. "The
agency has created a culture of underreporting of errors," he said.
Indeed, both controllers and managers get bonuses if safety stats
improve. Things for Whiteman have not ...
http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#190039

....AMID SPIKE IN NEAR-COLLISIONS
Pilots and passengers are often blissfully oblivious of a
near-collision. But at LAX June 19 a United Express jet was forced to
abort its takeoff because a Continental Express jet had, according to
controllers, moved beyond the taxiway hold bars to within about 40
feet of the runway. Controllers ordered the abort and the United
pilots slammed on the brakes, skidding past the Continental plane with
about 100 feet to spare. It was one of three separation incidents in a
week and the fourth in a month. Before that, there hadn't been an
error reported since November. Meanwhile, the state of safety at the
New York TRACON (where controllers' overtime pay topped the charts
exponentially) is frequently lost in a bickering match between the
controllers' union and the FAA. And counterparts at Boston's Logan
International are probing a near-collision at a runway intersection.
http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#190040