FAA Implements Initiative To Reduce, Prevent Controller Mistakes

In a move being described as a "cultural change in air-traffic safety," the FAA has instituted a policy requiring ongoing training for air traffic controllers as part of a larger plan to identify potential safety threats rather than open investigations after the fact.

The plan will place a larger emphasis on voluntary reporting of mistakes by controllers, but will also analyze computer-generated flight paths to determine when airplanes fly too close to one another.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the hazards the FAA hopes to find range from confusion over communications between pilots and controllers, to the identification of possibly dangerous approaches. David Grizzle, the FAA's head Air Traffic Controller, said computerized systems now make it easier to track such data more accurately, and spot potential issues. He said that such problems may have gone unreported in the past, even with the FAA's policy of non-punitive voluntary reporting.

Grizzle told the paper that focusing on prediction is a cultural shift for the agency, which will result in "changed behavior that reduces risk."

The FAA is predicting a big jump in reported controller errors this year as the system is implemented. Officials say its not that those incidents didn't occur, but were not reported because the aircraft never closed within the minimum required separation. Often TCAS warns pilots of impending accidents, and the pilots take steps to avoid the traffic. Such incidents will now be included in the FAAs data, resulting in higher reported numbers of near-collisions.

FMI: www.faa.gov