NY Post Decries "FAA Kids In Control"

When it comes to hiring more controllers, it seems the FAA has a classic case of "damned if you do, damned if you don't" on its hands.

Using two separation issues within a week involving simultaneous operations at JFK International as a backdrop, on Monday the New York Post ran a story about the agency's efforts to attract younger people into its ranks... including the somewhat unusual practice of placing "help wanted" ads on MySpace and Craigslist, as ANN reported in April 2007.

Air traffic control issues around New York are in the news lately. On July 10, a Delta 757 came within 600 feet of a Comair jet when the pilot of the Boeing heavy elected to abort his approach to Runway 22L at JFK. That put the plane's flight path in conflict with the regional jet, that had just departed off Runway 13R. As ANN reported, it was the second such incident at JFK -- under almost identical circumstances -- in less than a week; the FAA has since revised the simultaneous approach procedure to allow for greater spacing.

The Post reports on a recent FAA incentive package, offering $100,000 bonuses to lure new controllers to New York, to staff five area radar centers that monitor some of the busiest airspace in the country... and, are severely understaffed. That offer -- which expired July 8 -- reportedly lured 30 new hires to the New York area, with the promise of a $27,000 bonus upfront and another $75,000 paid out over four years.

But, the Post adds, some of those new hires are coming straight out of their senior years in high school... or not far removed from it. "One recent hire is a 20-year-old who is now reading the scopes for the Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) center in Westbury, LI," the Post writes, in the story headlined "FAA Kids Are In 'Control'; Desperate Feds Wooing High Schoolers."

(Editor's Note: Believe it or not, that's the tamer of two headlines the Post ran with the story. The first - 'Air Panic: FAA woos teen controllers as mid-air crashes loom' -- was changed hours after a USA Today op-ed called attention to it. Then again, this is the NY Post... an unabashedly proud tabloid newspaper.)

The FAA requires new controller hires to go through three months of training before sitting at a TRACON monitor. They then graduate to "controllers in training" and can remain so for years, before being signed off as full-fledged staffers.

"For even the sharpest controller out there, it will take a year and a half to get fully certified," noted Barrett Barnes, an official with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association who works the tower at JFK. "They haven't had anybody certified [at the JFK tower] in over two years.

"Bringing in over 30 people isn't a quick-fix solution. There's no guarantee anybody will check out and be certified," he added. "Giving new people $100,000 bonuses while the people doing the work day in and day out, year after year are getting their brains kicked in is just a slap in the face."

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.natca.org