Will The Proposed Change In ATC Personnel Requirements Impact Safety?

Will The Proposed Change In ATC Personnel Requirements Impact Air
Safety?

Which proposed conditions would permit air traffic controllers to
remain at their posts beyond the current maximum retirement age of 56?

If half the ATC personnel are due to retire in nine years, how long
will the proposed regulation be effective in overcoming attrition?

What is the reason for FAA's apparent reluctance to train sufficient
additional ATC personnel?

Doe that reluctance reveal a hidden agenda?

Will future UAVs require ATC?



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AVflash Volume 10, Number 25b -- June 17, 2004
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FAA MAY RAISE ATC RETIREMENT AGE...
On Tuesday, FAA Administrator Marion Blakey told a Congressional panel
that the maximum retirement age of 56 for air traffic controllers
might need to be raised, to help deal with an unprecedented avalanche
of retirements. More than 7,000 controllers, almost half the
workforce, are expected to leave in the next nine years, as the cohort
of workers hired in the early 1980s -- after President Ronald Reagan
fired more than 12,000 striking controllers -- reaches retirement age.
"At Congress's request," Blakey told the House Aviation Subcommittee,
"we are preparing regulations that would permit a controller, under
certain conditions, to remain in the workforce beyond the mandatory
separation age of 56."
http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#187489

....AS NATCA CALLS FOR ACTION NOW...
Ruth Marlin, executive vice president of the National Air Traffic
Controllers Association, told the panel that raising the retirement
age will not solve the problem -- it's time now to start hiring at
least 1,000 new controllers. The FAA's plan to collect more data
before taking action will only make things worse, she said. "We can do
yet another round of studies and reports but the answer is plainly in
front of all of us," Marlin said. "The FAA must immediately begin
hiring and training the next generation of air traffic controllers to
prepare for the inevitable shortage. And Congress must provide the FAA
with resources to do so."
http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#187490

....AND TRAINING ISSUES ARISE
George Ebbs Jr., president of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
(ERAU), testified on Tuesday that the government's training program
for new hires in Oklahoma City is redundant and unnecessary, and also
asked that training rules be relaxed to allow candidates who already
have a college degree to advance more quickly. If ERAU could send its
graduates directly to on-the-job training, Ebbs said, "the FAA could
realize significant savings in both time and expense. " Ebbs also said
that an accelerated program for college graduates could enable ERAU to
train an additional 600 controllers per year.
http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#187491
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Irrational beliefs ultimately lead to irrational acts.
-- Larry Dighera,