Union, FAA collide on air safety - Some say contract and controller staffing disputes pose dangers. The agency calls this a safe period in aviation.
WASHINGTON — The next time you board an airliner and buckle your seat belt, you will be about to fly through a bitter labor dispute between some of the people most responsible for your safety in the skies.
The nation's air traffic controllers and the Federal Aviation Administration, which employs them, cannot agree whether enough qualified people are guiding air traffic or how safe the air space is today.
With airline travel rebounding almost to the volume before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, delays on U.S. flights have reached a record high. Nearly one-third of domestic flights on major carriers were late in June. At the same time, the FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. have been unable to agree on a contract. A year ago, the FAA declared an impasse and imposed a contract. Since then, the retirement of experienced controllers has soared beyond the agency's forecasts.
"In several places, it has created a safety problem where controllers are working 10-hour days, six-day weeks and working combined positions because they don't have enough fully trained bodies," union President Patrick Forrey said.
FAA figures show the number of fully certified controllers dropped to 11,467 in May -- the lowest in a decade, the union says. Beside them in control centers are 3,300 so-called developmental controllers who are being trained on the job.
"They are pushing the envelope and somebody is going to snap," Forrey warned. "Unless the agency slows down the traffic, someone may make a mistake, and then are they going to blame it on the controller?"
By contrast, FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said, "This is the safest period in aviation history." She said the contract allowed the agency to more easily move staff to meet the needs of a changing airline industry.
FAA Administrator Marion Blakey says the imposed contract "is saving taxpayers $1.9 billion over five years . . . to invest in 21st century air traffic systems."
The three-year average of fatal accidents on commercial flights has dropped to a record low of .017 per 100,000 departures. Fatal accidents on private planes dropped from 354 in 2005 to a record low of 299 in 2006, and Brown says this year is below last year's pace.
The union says these national figures conceal risky situations in towers, terminal approach and at regional control centers.
Some of the union's examples:
