FAA is Laying Out Steps for Air Traffic Controllers To Avoid More Close Calls

The head of the nation's air traffic controllers said there have been too many near collisions at airports and laid out steps to avoid more -- including more supervisor oversight in control towers and extra controller training for "unusual circumstances." From a report: "Even though we all know that multiple levels of safety are built into our system, there is no question that we are seeing too many close calls," said Tim Arel, chief operating officer of the Federal Aviation Administration's Air Traffic Organization. The five steps laid out Thursday by Arel in an agency-wide memo follow last week's FAA safety summit focusing on the recent series of near collisions involving commercial airliners on or near the runways of US airports. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating six incidents this year alone. "Our dedication to continuous improvement demands that we dig deep to identify the underlying factors and address them," Arel said. "With the summer travel season just around the corner, airlines and the traveling public have high expectations."

The steps laid out in the memo direct supervisors to "devote their full attention to the operation and airfield during peak traffic periods at each facility" and instruct improvements to training. The memo notes simulator training for controllers was "last updated in 2016." Additional safety steps include working with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association to reinforce existing safety protocols and reexamining runway incursion data "to identify underlying factors that led to these close calls and identify remedies." The most serious types of near-collisions on US runways this year are about double the rate seen in the past, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Thursday. "In past years, they've occurred at roughly a rate of once per month," he told a Senate committee. "Right now, they are this year occurring at a rate that is double that. "Buttigieg spoke specifically about the two most serious categories of runway incursions and said there's a "definite increase."

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