Too Many Controllers In Training, Not Enough Experienced Ones

The FAA's lightning-round hiring of new air traffic controllers to replace retiring veterans has compromised the safety of the nation's skies. That's not (just) more rhetoric from the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, locked in a contentious two-year battle with the agency over a new contract; that's the finding of the Department of Transportation's inspector general.

According to The Associated Press, the FAA is literally swamped with new hires -- so much so, it has exceeded its own maximum trainee numbers at close to 70 of the nation's 314 ATC facilities. The training program itself is also flawed, according to the IG's findings, relying on a database full of false information to manage the program. The FAA has also failed to implement basic steps to handle the training process... steps the agency promised to take back in 2004.

If this all sounds like problems endemic to a top-heavy bureaucracy, well... we'll just note no fewer than four FAA VPs oversee different parts of the training program, and leave it at that.

"Facility managers, training managers and even headquarters officials were unable to tell us who or what office was ultimately responsible for facility training," the IG report said.

The IG also found the FAA hired 25 percent more new controllers than it expected to, from 2005 through December 2007, to fill vacancies left by departing veterans. As of last year, the FAA counted 11,026 fully-qualified controllers among its ranks, with another 3,584 in training; that contrasts with 12,328 veterans and 2,209 trainees in April 2004, according to the AP.

Moreover, the FAA has made a habit of underestimating how many controllers would retire or quit since a new contract was imposed in July 2006. Those work rules -- imposed on all controllers after the FAA declared an impasse in its contract talks with NATCA -- have taken a toll, the IG found. The new rules cut top controller pay by some $37,800 a year, according to the report; that amount is roughly equal to what new controllers make to start, down from $44,800.

Not surprisingly, NATCA president Patrick Forrey called the DOT IG report "vindication.

"Three years ago we urged them not to impose what they did because it would exacerbate this problem they knew was coming," Forrey added. "With work schedules being changed daily, vacations being canceled and more time required on work positions, our veteran members are saying, 'I'm out of here.' Under the old contract, far fewer controllers retired as soon as they were eligible."

The FAA has accepted most of the IG's findings... but it soundly rejected a recommendation the agency provide an accurate, public count of the number of qualified controllers at its facilities each year, and the number of trainees.

"Publishing annual static snapshots of total trainees by facility will be of little meaningful use," the FAA said in a written response, noting staffing figures change on a daily basis.

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