FAA to Add 16 Controllers at LAX Tower

The Federal Aviation Administration will be moving 16 more air traffic controllers to the understaffed tower at Los Angeles International Airport, but there is no indication that the transfers were a response to the high number of runway incursions there.

There are 48 authorized positions for certified controllers at the tower, but there currently are only 34 certified controllers and four trainees at LAX, according to FAA spokesman Mitch Barker.

He said six controllers will be transferred to the tower from other facilities by Jan. 1, with the rest to follow later.

Barker said his agency did not indicate why the transfers were ordered.

Last year, LAX led the nation with 10 runway incursions--incidents in which aircraft on the ground came too close to other planes, vehicles or objects on a runway, reducing the margin of safety or creating a collision hazard. There were 322 incursions nationwide.