FAA Rule Threatens Safety Above LAX, Pilots’ Group Charges
The busy airspace over seven U.S. airports, including Los Angeles International Airport, has been declared “critically deficient” in safety by an airline pilots’ group because of an FAA rule that gives air traffic controllers more latitude in determining how far apart to keep planes.
The seven locations--areas of rigidly controlled airspace called Terminal Control Areas--were placed on a “Black Star’ list by the 70-member International Federation of Air Lines Pilots Assns., meeting this week in Washington.
The change was instituted at the seven locations in 1988 as part of a two-year test program.
Under previous FAA rules, planes were required to be at least three miles apart. Under the change, which the pilots’ group says was quietly instituted by the FAA, the controller “can now let aircraft get as close as he wants, as long as in his judgment they will not collide,” according to Capt. Henry Duffy, president of the U.S. Air Line Pilots Assn., which is associated with the international group.
A Los Angeles spokesman for the federal agency Wednesday defended the FAA’s actions.
“It is not a compromise of air safety,” FAA spokesman Fred O’Donnell said. “This was done with full cognizance of the airlines in 1988. It’s a test program. The objective is to reduce the near-midair-collisions possibility, increase service to the pilots and to handle more air traffic.”
Duffy said in a prepared statement that the newly adopted Black Star designations were aimed at the controlled airspace at the seven locations--not the airports beneath them.
“The Black Star rating does not mean that these Terminal Control Areas are ‘unsafe,’ ” he said. “It simply means that they now have a safety deficiency that warrants notification of airline pilots worldwide.”
Though the FAA instituted the change two years ago, the pilots’ association did not discover the “positive separation” rule change at LAX and the six other sites until late last year, Duffy said.
Besides Los Angeles, the Terminal Control Areas added to the “Black Star” list include Charlotte, N.C.; Memphis, Tenn.; Cleveland, Dallas-Fort Worth, Philadelphia and Phoenix..
