FAA Draws Criticism in Airliner Near-Miss : Agency Failed to Fix Traffic Control Problems That Contributed to O.C. Incident, NTSB Says
Government safety officials said Wednesday that the Federal Aviation Administration’s “failure to address and correct” air traffic control deficiencies and problems contributed to a narrow miss between two airliners over Orange County last February.
The National Transportation Safety Board said an investigation of the Coast Terminal Radar Approach Control, or TRACON, facility at the El Toro Marine Corps Air station showed that FAA management personnel had verified and documented these problems over the last 3 years, but had taken no remedial action.
“The FAA’s quality assurance and safety oversight of the (air traffic control) system . . . is inadequate and ineffective,” the NTSB concluded.
The NTSB also noted that an El Toro air controller’s failure to alert Los Angeles air traffic controllers of an approaching airliner led to the narrow miss of the two aircraft over Westminster in February.
While not responding specifically to most of these criticisms, the FAA stated Wednesday that it has already undertaken a series of projects designed to correct any problems at Coast TRACON.
The Orange County facility helps direct traffic to and from Los Angeles International, Ontario, John Wayne and Long Beach airports through some of the most heavily traveled air corridors in the world.
The NTSB investigation was launched in response to the incident over Westminster about 7:10 p.m. on Feb. 13. Radar data showed that a British Airways Boeing 747 jetliner with 286 passengers on board was climbing out of LAX, en route to London, when it passed within 2 miles of an American Airlines BAe-146B jet flying to Ontario at the same altitude with 70 people aboard. FAA rules require 3 miles of horizontal separation and 1,000 feet of vertical separation.
A controller at Los Angeles TRACON, which had been tracking the 747, warned the British pilot that there was other traffic in the area and the pilot made a quick turn to avoid the other plane. Both aircraft continued on to their destinations without incident.
The NTSB concluded that the near-miss occurred “because of incomplete and misunderstood coordination between controllers at LAX Center and Coast TRACON and because . . . controllers at coast TRACON failed to comply with provisions of letters of agreement between Coast TRACON and adjacent facilities.”
The board singled out the Los Angeles controller for praise, commending his “immediate and decisive actions” to warn the 747 pilot.
In contrast, the board noted that the Coast TRACON controller cleared the American Airlines plane to fly into airspace delegated to the Los Angeles facility without properly notifying Los Angeles controllers that he had done so.
The unnamed controller was temporarily removed from his or her post, retrained, retested and then returned to the same position, where the controller was closely monitored for 30 days, according to the FAA.
Among the “numerous deficiencies and problems” cited by the board were “inadequate controller staffing, excessive use of overtime . . . and inadequate size and poor physical condition of the operational quarters” at El Toro.
“Specifically, the facility is run down, noise from military jets is a problem, rotary phone equipment is out of date and inadequate and the facility manager questions the health hazards of the environmental control system,” the NTSB said. “Controllers have been working scheduled overtime since 1985 (and) 6-day workweeks are required 66% of the time.”
Error Rates Compared
During 1988, seven controller errors were committed by Coast TRACON personnel, which worked out to 1.31 errors for every 100,000 flight operations. By comparison, the NTSB said, error rates during the same period at other facilities included 0.56 at Seattle TRACON, 0.56 at Ontario TRACON and 0.17 at Sacramento TRACON.
The board concluded that these safety problems warrant “immediate action and corrective actions by the FAA to prevent a diminished level of safety in the high traffic density of the Southern California Basin area.”
Fred Ferrar, an FAA spokesman in Washington, said Wednesday that his agency already has begun a long-range program, “planned and developed over the past several years,” to renovate and modernize the Coast TRACON facility.
Admitting a “significant staffing problem,” which he said was largely due to the high cost of living in the Orange County area, Ferrar said the FAA has begun a concerted recruitment program to attract more controllers.
Randy Moore, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. local at Coast TRACON, was in Washington on Wednesday preparing his testimony for a congressional panel investigating air safety.
Moore agreed that part of Coast TRACON’s inability to attract more controllers is the high cost of living in Orange County, and he said he supports an FAA plan to pay a 20% salary bonus to controllers at 11 FAA facilities around the country, including Coast TRACON.
Moore added that “it’s no coincidence” that the FAA has announced a delay in two air safety projects involving Coast TRACON due to a lack of controllers at the same time the NTSB findings were made public.
Moore said that the two air safety projects--one creating a radar control zone around John Wayne Airport and the other rerouting air traffic throughout the region--would increase the workload at Coast TRACON from 530,448 flight operations in 1988 to more than 1 million a year by mid-1990.
“The NTSB did not exaggerate the problem,” Moore said. “We are understaffed. The manager at Coast TRACON recently picked 10 new controllers from 25 applicants, and I know that eight of the 10 won’t take the job unless they get the extra 20% pay incentive.”
Moore said the FAA remodeled the employee lounge at the facility 2 years ago, but the NTSB still found it intolerably small.
Now, said Moore, the FAA is planning to install a 24-by-60-foot trailer next to the existing facility, to be used as an employee lounge and for two small offices.
Said Moore: “It’s better than nothing.”
Mandatory overtime remains a problem, although it is not as bad as it was a year ago, Moore said.
“Don’t get me wrong. Overtime is great for the paycheck,” he said. “But it’s rough on family life.”
SAFETY ZONE DELAYED--Change at John Wayne Airport hinges on hiring more air traffic controllers. Page 3.
