FAA Can’t Afford More Lemons
Federal Aviation Administration chief Jane F. Garvey has several problems, and not much room to maneuver. The costs and technical hurdles involved in a second gargantuan effort to modernize the nation’s air traffic control system are soaring. Congressional patience and the FAA’s capital budget are shrinking. And “near-misses” between aircraft rose by more than 20% last year over 1996.
A near-miss occurs when one aircraft intrudes on another’s cushion of safe airspace, defined by the FAA as two miles of horizontal distance and 1,000 feet above or below. Near-misses occurred about once every 36 hours in 1997.
Fortunately, Garvey, in office only a few months, seems to have both feet more firmly rooted than her predecessors, who presided over one of the most embarrassing and wasteful computer modernization efforts in the history of the government. Garvey has told reporters that she favors a phased approach and incremental improvements to benefit air travel “as soon as possible.” She is exactly right when she says that the FAA has pursued high-tech dreams, not attainable goals.
Between 1981 and 1994, the FAA began and then largely terminated as insufficient its “advanced automated” traffic control system. By then, federal studies say, $2.8 billion had been spent on projects that were canceled or substantially restructured. Meanwhile, by one estimate, the FAA was putting $180 million a year into maintaining its outdated and glitchy systems.
The current grand scheme, known as the wide area augmentation system, has moved in uncomfortably similar fashion, up from an unrealistic projected cost of between $400 million and $500 million to estimates as high as $14 billion, and there is still considerable concern whether the linchpin of the project--a satellite guidance system--will work as planned.
A reconsideration is in order here. Garvey deserves the flexibility to make any necessary mid-course corrections if problems arise or better options are found. The FAA can’t afford another multibillion-dollar lemon.
