Safety Board Urges Tighter Control Over Air Traffic

The National Transportation Safety Board, responding to several incidents of airplanes flying too close to one another in Southern California, called for improvements in air traffic control operations Tuesday, including consolidation of radar-tracking facilities and stepped-up training of controllers.

The board’s action was linked specifically to a Feb. 13 incident over Westminster in which a British Airways jetliner and an American Airlines plane flew within 1 1/2 miles and 200 vertical feet of each other.

Safety board members focused heavily on the Coast Terminal Radar Approach Control facility at El Toro, known as Coast TRACON, which was guiding the American Airlines plane in the February incident. They recommended expansion and renovation of the El Toro facility “to accommodate the increased number of radar positions” needed for expanded traffic-control coverage in Southern California.

But in considering its recommendations, the board also broadened its concerns to eight other such incidents and to the overriding problem of crowded skies and overburdened controllers in Southern California.

After a 4-hour meeting, the agency adopted a staff report that calls for giving high priority to a plan for a new facility that would consolidate the Los Angeles, Coast, Burbank and Ontario Terminal Radar Approach Controls, which guide planes when they are outside major airport-control zones.

The recommendations were made to the Federal Aviation Administration, which has 90 days to respond. FAA officials in both California and Washington declined comment on the proposals until they have had a chance to study them.

As a general rule, most of the board’s recommendations are either accepted or the FAA “makes a counterproposal that we feel can do a better job,” an FAA official said. However, budgetary constraints can bear on the response and the extensive improvements proposed by the NTSB Tuesday would be costly.

In its recommendations, the safety board also said that some projects involving the El Toro facility should be delayed until staff shortages can be corrected, “and until the facility has been expanded or relocated to accommodate” the increased number of radar positions.

Federal officials said that Coast TRACON is authorized 66 “full-performance” air-traffic controllers, but as of January, only 24 were on the job along with 27 “developmental” or trainee controllers.

“It’s an overworked facility,” said one federal official, adding that “it’s tough to attract people to work there.”

Randy L. Moore, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. local for the El Toro facility, said there are 65 authorized positions at El Toro, but only 38 are filled--21 by “full-performance” controllers and 17 by trainees.

Moore said that attracting controllers to El Toro is difficult because while the cost of living in Orange County is high, controllers are paid the same wages nationwide. “If you’re working in Dallas, where it’s cheaper to live, why would you want to move here?” Moore asked.

He said the Bush Administration plans to offer a 20% wage increase in areas where the cost of living is high. That plan is stalled, however, while Congress considers budget cuts.

The board suggested a study on the possibility of hiring “aviation-oriented persons from the local area,” such as retired pilots and military personnel, to fill some support slots and help relieve the severe manpower shortages at the El Toro facility.

Also, the panel urged that officials “expedite the identification, selection, release and transfer” of air-traffic controllers from other locations to help relieve the shortage.

Addressing the general air-traffic problems in the region, the board suggested a sweeping review of the entire control system and facilities that oversee flights in the high-density area.

“The review should focus on the adequacy of regional airspace plans,” the recommendation said--”control facilities, equipment and technology, airways and airspace design, controller staffing, and training and operational procedures.”

In the February incident 9,000 feet over Westminster, the British Airways 747 and the American Airlines BAe-146b breached FAA rules requiring a minimum separation of 3 miles horizontally and 1,000 feet vertically.

The incident occurred about 7 p.m., shortly after runway lights at John Wayne Airport had gone out because of a short circuit, closing the airport for about 4 hours.

The American Airlines flight from San Jose was being diverted to Ontario International Airport, while the British Airways plane from Los Angeles to London was in contact with Los Angeles controllers.

After a Los Angeles controller warned the British plane that the two craft were too close, the pilot made a quick turn to avoid danger.

While neither pilot filed a near-collision report on the incident, numerous near collisions have been reported in the region in the past. During 1987, the FAA received 27 pilot reports of such incidents in Orange County, compared to 11 in 1985 and 16 in 1986.