Airports Fail to Prioritize Safety

Dec. 5, 2007 — -- Take a look at one of the nation's busiest airports, and it's easy to see the potential for disaster. Los Angeles International Airport has as many as 140 takeoffs and landings an hour. This year alone, there have been two near collisions, including one in August when a 737 came within 37 feet of an Airbus jet.

It's not just LAX.

There were 370 runway incidents last year, and 24 of them were close calls.

The new Government Accountability Office report warns of a "high risk of a catastrophic runway collision" unless more is done. Rep. Jerry F. Costello, D-Ill., and Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., requested the report.

Lautenberg said, "This report makes clear that the Bush administration is cutting corners and failing to put passenger safety first."

"We have regressed in this most important arena of aviation safety, rather than progressed," Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., said.

Congressional investigators found the FAA has worked to improve runway safety, but its efforts have still fallen short.

For example, there are better runway markings and pilot training. But the agency's Runway Safety Office hasn't issued a safety plan in five years, has cut its staff by 45 percent and was leaderless for two years.

The lack of coordination and leadership was so bad that the report found FAA researchers finished a study on runway safety, but couldn't find anyone at headquarters to whom they could report its results.

Another problem: ground radar, installed at dozens of airports to warn controllers of impending collisions, doesn't work well in the rain.

The FAA has also been testing special runway lights that would turn red if there's a plane already on the runway, signaling other pilots to stop. But the agency hasn't decided whether to install the systems.

The agency's efforts to improve runway safety also "subsequently waned" after the number of accidents and incidents lowered.

Costello, who is chairman of the House Subcommittee on Aviation, said, "When there is great public attention and attention by the Congress, then the FAA acts. As soon as the attention goes away, the FAA reduces their attention."

This may explain why in the fiscal year 2007 the number of incidents spiked to 370. That's 6.05 runway incursions per 1 million air traffic control operations, which is almost as bad as 2001's 407 incidents, or 6.1 incursions.

An incursion is defined as any vehicle or person that goes where it shouldn't be, as in space reserved for takeoff or landing.

The report also points a finger at a growing problem — air traffic controller fatigue. At least 20 percent of controllers at 25 air traffic facilities work six days a week. This is also true for 52 percent of the controllers in the tower at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the nation's busiest airport.

Atlanta air traffic controller Gary Brittain said, "The fatigue sets in. And fatigue causes controllers to make mistakes, as it would anyone."

The report found the FAA has no good plan to deal with controller fatigue.

Gerald Dillingham of the GAO said, "We made suggestions to the FAA that they need to find some way to start addressing that immediately."

And the GAO warns, with the skies getting more crowded, the problem only gets more urgent.