Air Safety: a Sense of Urgency
Two separate instances of near-collisions between airliners crossing the North Atlantic serve as a fresh and unnerving reminder of the seemingly growing dangers to air travelers. Southern Californians are especially sensitive to these dangers because of the tragic air collision last August over Cerritos.
That accident occurred when an Aeromexico airliner and a small Piper collided; 82 people were killed.
The National Transportation Safety Board, after a prolonged investigation into the accident, issued a report last week correctly noting that existing air-traffic-control rules place too much reliance on pilots’ ability to see and avoid other aircraft. But that factor was fundamentally irrelevant to the Cerritos crash, which occurred in tightly controlled airspace where reliance on visual avoidance of other aircraft is minimal.
All aircraft operating in the terminal control area, or TCA, that surrounds Los Angeles International Airport are required to be in radio contact with the controllers, who direct the movements of all planes inside the zone. Within the TCA all planes must have transponders, which give controllers a plane’s altitude and location. The Piper was not so equipped, and its pilot never contacted the controllers, who didn’t see the small plane on radar. Such unauthorized intrusions, it turned out, were not unusual around LAX or other major airports around the country.
The National Transportation Safety Board, having studied the problem, recommended tougher punishment of pilots who, inadvertently or otherwise, enter crowded air-traffic zones without the required clearance. The board also proposed that the present requirement for altitude-reporting equipment aboard all planes entering the Los Angeles TCA and eight similar zones be extended to cover all aircraft approaching or leaving several dozen other busy airports around the country.
Other recommended steps include a speedup in the acquisition of better radars, along with the expedited development and installation of collision-avoidance devices that will tell pilots when they are on a collision course with other aircraft.
These are sensible proposals, but they break no new ground. The Federal Aviation Administration, in fact, already is moving on all these fronts. Something approaching a consensus has developed on what needs to be done to enhance the safety of the U.S. air-traffic-control system--and specifically to reduce the danger of air collisions. The need now is for a greater sense of urgency in getting on with the job of training new controllers and acquiring new and better equipment.
Critics charge that the National Airspace System Plan--aimed at giving controllers the improved radars, computers and other tools that they need--is a year behind schedule with a funding shortfall of around $1 billion. Yet the Airport and Airway Trust Fund--which is made up of revenues from taxes on aviation fuel and passenger tickets--has $5.6 billion in uncommitted money, and the surplus is growing by $100 million a month.
Meanwhile, errors attributed to air-traffic controllers were up 50% in June from the previous year--a fact that presumably reflects the strains being put on controllers by trying to operate a system that has become inadequate in terms of both trained manpower and outmoded equipment.
T. Allan McArtor, who has been named to replace Donald D. Engen as head of the FAA, told a Senate committee last week that safety would be his top priority. If he means it, he must be willing to buck budget managers within the Administration who are seemingly less interested in making air travel safer than in hoarding money in the aviation trust fund to make the budget deficit look lower than it really is.
