Tower Staffing Corrected After Coming Up Short

Residents of such mid-sized cities as Omaha, NE; Fargo, ND; Little Rock, AR; Tulsa, OK; and Kansas City, MO were astounded to discover last week that after the firestorm that was the Lexington, KY disaster, their airports were frequently staffed at night by only one controller.

While no official cause of the Comair crash in Lexington has been determined, it is widely believed that the accident might have been averted had there been more than one controller in the hours before sunrise on August 26.

While common at smaller airports, for larger facilities the FAA had issued an official policy that required at least two controllers: one to check the radar and one looking out the window.

"It was news to me," said Shawn Dobberstein, executive director of the Municipal Airport Authority in Fargo said to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Star-Tribune, "We as an airport and all our users have to trust that [the tower is] properly staffed. It was a disappointment to hear it wasn't."

As ANN reported last week, the FAA in November of 2005 issued a directive that all towers be staffed by at least two controllers at all times. This was in direct response to a near-miss that occurred near Raleigh, NC that year because of a lone overworked controller who lost situational awareness. Because of severe short-staffing of FAA personnel, this directive was not enforced. However last Sunday the FAA mandated that two controllers be on duty.

All this comes when another directive from the FAA was instituted the day before Labor Day that imposes a number of changes that the National Air Traffic Controllers Association says "promises to have negative impacts on the safety and efficiency of the National Airspace System."

The new rules change the pay structure for new controllers and those near retirement age, and change the way sick leave and rest periods are handled.

The situation has caught the attention of Congress last week  and Minnesota Rep. James Oberstar and Illinois Rep. Jerry Costello asked the Department of Transportation to find out how many towers were not complying with FAA directives. According to their letter to the U.S. Inspector General, there were "disturbing reports" about ignored directives and guidance from the FAA.

FMI: www.faa.gov