Report: "High Risk" Of Runway Disaster

Congressional Study Says FAA Has Slipped Badly On Efforts To Prevent Collisions

(CBS/AP)  Congressional investigators said Wednesday that there is a "high risk" of a "catastrophic runway collision" at a U.S. airport and put the blame squarely on the administration, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Fuss.

The report said close calls have been increasing because safety oversight has been slipping, citing overworked air traffic controllers, many working six-day weeks, and high-tech radar systems that aren't working the way they are supposed to.

The investigators gave the Federal Aviation Administration credit for reducing runway safety incidents from a peak in 2001 but said "FAA's runway safety efforts subsequently waned" as the number of incidents settled at a lower level.

Then in fiscal 2007, which ended Sept. 30, the incidents spiked to 370, or 6.05 runway incursions per 1 million air traffic control operations, almost returning to 2001's 407 incursions and 6.1 rate. An incursion is any aircraft, vehicle or person that goes where it shouldn't be in space reserved for take-off or landing.

At this time, "no single office is taking charge of assessing the causes of runway safety problems and taking the steps needed to address those problems," the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, said in a report requested by Rep. Jerry F. Costello, D-Ill., and Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J.

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters stepped into that leadership void in August by calling an industrywide brainstorming conference to produce ideas for quick action. In October, the FAA reported progress on steps recommended by the August conclave, particularly in speeding improved runway markings and pilot training. The GAO report approved of those moves but also recommended more leadership from the FAA, improved data collection and a reduction in overtime required of air traffic controllers.

Read the GAO report here.

"This report makes clear that the Bush administration is cutting corners and failing to put passenger safety first," Lautenberg said. "The FAA is taking too many chances and ignoring too many red flags."

Even though serious incursions, where a collision was narrowly averted, declined to a record low 24 in 2007 from 31 the year before, the report said they have remained high enough since the FAA took its eye off the ball to represent a high risk of catastrophe.

Since 1990, 63 people have died in six U.S. runway collisions. And the FAA's previous definition didn't classify some serious runway errors as incursions, including an Aug. 27, 2006, crash in Lexington, Ky., of a Comair jet that took off from a too-short runway, killing 49.

This year has seen dramatic near-misses. On Aug. 16, two commercial jets carrying 296 people came within 37 feet of colliding at Los Angeles International. A Delta Boeing 757 touched down in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., July 11 and had to take off immediately to avoid hitting a United Airbus A320 mistakenly on its runway. A Delta Boeing 737 landing at New York's LaGuardia airport July 5 narrowly missed a commuter jet mistakenly cleared to cross its runway.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating those, two others in Denver and one in San Francisco.

The GAO seconded the transportation safety board's April recommendation that the FAA reduce mandatory overtime for controllers. Since the FAA imposed a contract on the controllers union in 2006, experienced controllers have retired much faster than the agency predicted. The FAA also cut controller staff to respond to traffic pattern changes from airline mergers and bankruptcies. The union says the cuts are too deep and reduce safety; the FAA says air travel has never been safer.

The GAO said 52 percent of controllers at the nation's busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, regularly work six-day weeks. Overall, between 20 percent and 52 percent of controllers at 25 FAA facilities, including seven of the 50 busiest towers, are on six-day weeks.

Nevertheless, "agency officials indicated that they had no plan to mitigate the effects of air traffic controller fatigue," the GAO said.

The GAO found that radar the FAA installed at 34 of the busiest airports to monitor aircraft on the ground doesn't work well when needed most - during heavy rain or snow. FAA's more advanced ground-control radar, operational at only eight airports, issues false alerts of impending collisions - 41 from June 7, 2006, to May 16, 2007, at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International.

FAA's Office of Runway Safety hasn't produced a national runway safety plan since 2002, went two years without a permanent director and had a 45 percent staff cut over the past four years, the GAO found.

Arguing for more and better data, the GAO urged the FAA to finish a three-year-old effort to set up a no-fault system for controllers to report safety problems. Industry experts told the investigators FAA definitions were so subjective that they knew of incidents FAA classified "as being less severe than they actually were."

Finally, the GAO urged the FAA to assume more responsibility from airports and airlines for safety in ramp areas, where planes park next to gates and 29 people have died between 2001 and 2006.

[buddhabman]

Republican - Reagan Union Busting killed the Air Traffic Control union, and the FAA has not recovered since. Bush''s - Republican Trillion dollar Iraq war, and fiscally irresponsible TAX cuts has drained important Health and Safety departments of needed funds. So yes it''s Bush''s fault. Come on 01/20/2009

[slim1h2o]

Until more americans either wake up OR die, no one will really care or do anything about these F**king Crooks.

Posted by watcher269 at 10:59 AM : Dec 06, 2007

They''re allowing the Medical System to kill us off, by not doing certain tests, and/or operations, that would cure us. Gotta love the G''ment

[sbb2211]

Incursions were at a record low of 24 for 2007, but ''foaming at the mouth'' Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J still jumps up and points his stinky finger at President Bush.

"It''s your fault! Even if this is a record low year, it''s your fault because we COULD have had a bad year, even though we didn''t have a bad year! Think of the CHILDREN! Slobber, drool, Reid and Pelosi, snort, Hillary, snort, growl, woof woof!"

What a wasted human life Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J is.

[watcher269-2009]

No surprise here - Bushit and Cheney have drained the budget of every department to fund their illegal war.

Until more americans either wake up OR die, no one will really care or do anything about these F**king Crooks.

[fstop100]

What happened to FAA? Maybe they should all get fired for poor job performance, just like in the private sector.

[mcvet]

Hey, a mouse got into my cupboard last night and destroyed 2 boxes of cereal. It''''s Bush''''s fault!!!!
(LOL you libs have NOOOOOOO idea how stupid and infantile you sound. None at all. Bush this, and Bush that. Fu*cking broken record.)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by MichaelT302 at 06:38 PM : Dec 05, 2007
+ report abuse

Blab, blab, blab, blab, Libs, blab, blab... Did you miss some of your Nazi Youth Rally''s?? This has been taken out of the official Responses by the Reich for several months now. Maybe you should get in touch with your local Grand Wizard and attend the next ones??? Just a suggestion! Sieg Heil Bush!!

[mcvet]

Yet Clinton also could have vetoed their lack of funding.

Is there a democrat in this country more interested in leadership than scoring political points against Bush? This is a serious issue, demanding more than just political posturing.

Why does it always take a horrible tragedy for the political blame game to end?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by jandj6488 at 11:52 PM : Dec 05, 2007
+ report abuse

Oh PLEASE!! Clinton stood his ground against the fascist and we all KNOW it.. he forced the thugs to shut down the Government rather that bust the budget on Tax Cuts for the rich. READ the record for God''s sake. Democrats wanted to fund it properly but the fascist DEMANDED it be cut or NO BUDGET deal... God you Bootlickers are the worst!! Sieg Heil Bush!!

[slim1h2o]

Congressional Study Says FAA Has Slipped Badly On Efforts To Prevent Collisions

That''s not the only agency that''s slipping, the rest of the country is in the same shape.

[alphaa10-2009]

MichaelT302 said, "It''''s Bush''''s fault!!!!
(LOL you libs have NOOOOOOO idea how stupid and infantile you sound...)"
---
Try not to have a tantrum-- others sound that way to you because you haven''t read the news in nearly seven years. You watch too much Faux News TV...

Meanwhile, your boy is *** everything up so royally it will take years to fix. No wonder those people are saying bad things about him.

But disaster happens to be the centerpiece of the Bush plan. When Bush leaves, he will make sure troops are still in Iraq, the national debt is beyond measure, and the US economy and infrastructure is outside any remedy.

When the next president cannot fix the Bush mess, the GOP hopes to ride to victory in 2012, claiming it was all "the next guy''s fault!"

[rohink-2009]

Once again, the transparency of CBS. We need to change B.C. and A.D. to B.B. and A.B. (Before and after Bush)

[jandj6488]

Do our congressional leaders have to politicize everything? According to the report, incidents'' peaked in 2001. That means they''d been rising in the years prior to that, and they are now less than they were in 2001. Yet somehow Bush is to blame. How did the incidents'' rise during the 90''s? No doubt most of the readers on this blog will scream, "That Republican Congress!" Yet Clinton also could have vetoed their lack of funding.

Is there a democrat in this country more interested in leadership than scoring political points against Bush? This is a serious issue, demanding more than just political posturing.

Why does it always take a horrible tragedy for the political blame game to end?

[myidoncbs]

"This report [GAO, the Government Accountability Office] makes clear that the Bush administration is cutting corners and failing to put passenger safety first."

Bush has to cut SOMETHING to pay for his many wars: The war on Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the imaginary "war on terror", the war against the Constitution, the war against privacy, the war for Blackwater profits, etc.

gkayser says, "Congress is the body that provides funding for the FAA. Any lack of funding is the fault of Congress. Perhaps, that is why Congress''s approval rating is lower that the President''s." Perhaps he failed to notice that the presdent and his party will not allow anything that the majority party wants to enact. If the democrats want to pass something, Bush will veto it. If they want to over-ride the veto, the repugs won''t cooperate. Do you think that just maybe THAT might be why congress hasn''t done anything useful?

[noaanhc]

I am a very proud State of Maine Liberal.Our nation is slowly going down hill.The threat to air safety is very real,but do to tax cut after tax cut by the hard core republicans and a attitude in America of me, myself,and to hell with everyone else,then it is only just a matter of time when we read and watch the evening news about hundreds dead after 2 planes collide on an airport runway.

[usayesterday]

The FAA is suffering from shortages of personnel and shortages in budget to repair, replace, and upgrade the grossly aged equipment that oversee our air travel safety. Safety records in the past few years have only demonstrated the skill of the pilots in those planes as well as pure luck that has avoided many potentially catastrophic disasters. All of these recent reports begs the question, "is the next disaster going to involve the plane you are on?!"

It sickens me that there are some Americans who feel their tax cuts are vastly more important than the safety of EVERYBODY who flies in U.S. airspace today!

To all of the "more tax cuts and less government" Neo-Conservatives...

...I hope you are all on that "next" plane!

[michaelt302]

Hey, a mouse got into my cupboard last night and destroyed 2 boxes of cereal. It''s Bush''s fault!!!!
(LOL you libs have NOOOOOOO idea how stupid and infantile you sound. None at all. Bush this, and Bush that. Fu*cking broken record.)

[gkayser]

"Not blaming Bu$h, but this happened on his watch... "

Ultimately,the responsibility falls upon those that voted him into office. If you did not vote,you have no one to blame but yourself.If you did vote for him,you still have only yourself to blame.
As for Iraq,Congress voted approval for the military action. The blame for Iraq lays at the feet of all the Congress people that voted to give the President the authority to start things.

[bareemperor]

Not blaming Bu$h, but this happened on his watch...

[gkayser]

Congress is the body that provides funding for the FAA. Any lack of funding is the fault of Congress. Perhaps, that is why Congress''s approval rating is lower that the President''s.

[cdfoxtrot]

Another casualty of the moron-in-chief''s focus on the wrong issues. If even a tiny proportion of taxpayer funds that are being p1ssed away on the illegal war were directed at this issue, there wouldn''t be a problem to write about. The list is long, but this is nothing more than another item to add to the long list of failures of the worst US president in history.

[hungry1968]

Which political hack is in charge of the FAA?

Was he a director of the "American Quarter Horse Association"?

Or maybe it is "no foreign policy experience" US ambassador John Bolton?

Maybe it''s "I helped create the Iraq war" Paul Wolfowitz, who went to head the World Bank even though he had no banking experience?