FAA understaffing, are they trying to create a wreck over Chicago ??

In the dark sky about 1,100 feet above Chicago's South Loop
neighborhood 10 days ago, a Learjet skimmed a mere 200 feet directly
over a Southwest Boeing 737 coming in to Midway Airport.
The pilots had no warning they would come so close --800 vertical feet
closer than FAA limits -- and they knew of the danger only after it
passed, leaving alarms wailing in the cockpits.
"They just about knocked each other right out of the sky," said David
Stock, head of the air traffic controllers' union at Elgin's radar
facility, which is under investigation related to the error. "That is
as close to a mid-air collision as you can get."

The jarring close call about 11 p.m. Dec. 18 led a holiday season
fraught with air traffic mishaps in the crowded sky around Chicago --
an alarming escalation in air traffic controller errors that even has
Stock worried about flying.
"It is getting to the point where I'm not sure I want to get on an
airplane," he said.

Stock's Elgin facility racked up 56 errors this year, a new high that
shattered a record 28 errors in 2006. The facility had just 14 errors
in 2004. Elgin directs all planes coming to or going from Midway and
O'Hare International airports.
Meanwhile, a radar facility in Aurora that handles traffic across the
Midwest recorded 12 errors just since October. Normally, it racks up
19 in an entire year.

Jeffrey Richards, head of the air traffic controllers' union at
Aurora, said trainees have made three errors in the past two weeks.
The FAA has reacted so far by suspending some training practices in
one section of the facility, and Richards is calling for the same
action across the board along with a re-evaluation of training
protocols.

Richards said part of the problem is a new FAA policy that runs
trainees through an 18-month apprenticeship instead of the previous
program that lasted up to five years.
"We should sit down and look at the whole training process again," he
said. "They are just throwing positions at these (trainees) without
letting them really experience them and get comfortable."
Stock said the increase in errors at his facility are in part tied to
staffing shortages, fatigue and too much overtime work.

FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro disputes those complaints. He says the
facilities are well staffed and the training program is sufficient. He
also pointed out that several of the recent errors didn't involve
dangerous situations.

Still, every error represents some level of increased risk. They also
result in serious repercussions for controllers. Three errors in an
entire career can get a controller fired.

To be sure, though, many of the latest errors are not nearly as
alarming as the Dec. 18 incident over Chicago. For example, the most
recent error occurred Thursday at 5:08 p.m. when two jets came within
4.17 miles of each other about 30,000 feet in the air north of O'Hare.

An error is recorded every time jets come within five horizontal miles
and 1,000 vertical feet of each other.

Molinaro didn't return calls seeking comment about the Dec. 18
incident.

Unlike most other close calls where a controller or pilot notices the
problem and takes action, it was apparently simple chance that saved
the two planes from colliding and likely killing bystanders on the
streets below, Stock said.

Air traffic controllers didn't catch the problem until after the jets
passed each other, he said. The pilots also didn't see each other,
Stock said, because the Learjet was in a haze of clouds the Southwest
jet had just descended from.

The Learjet was heading east, leaving Midway for an airport in New
York. The Southwest jet was coming in from the northeast.

The FAA is investigating the incident, Stock said. Midway air traffic
chief Bob Mischke declined to comment, saying the controller involved
had taken an immediate emergency family leave after the incident.

Meanwhile, Illinois federal lawmakers have called for an independent
review of practices at Chicago-area radar facilities. Air traffic
controllers are welcoming the scrutiny, hoping it will put pressure on
the FAA to hire more controllers and relax some criticized work rules.

The controllers have been working under a forced contract with the FAA
since September 2006.

"I know my guys are doing everything they can every moment," Stock
said. "These are still the best controllers in the world, but that is
also why this concerns me so much."