Says Controllers Unable To Monitor Funnel Clouds

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association is again protesting a ban by the FAA on banning radios in air traffic control towers. Denver controllers said last week they only learned about a funnel cloud near the airport when someone notified them there had been a tornado warning on television.

Also last week, a funnel cloud was spotted about a mile northeast of Tulsa International Airport's FAA tower, said Scott Keller, the controllers association Tulsa representative. He said the only way controllers found out about that funnel was from an employee's wife who phoned the tower to warn them.

"These folks are sitting ducks," said NATCA spokesman Doug Church. "It's about punishing controllers; there is no distraction to a work environment that has a regular radio on."

The FAA had all AM/FM radios removed from tower work areas to prevent them from distracting controllers under a contract imposed on controllers in September, according to the Associated Press. NATCA contends the ban removes a "key asset" for controllers to monitor funnel clouds and warn pilots.

Union representative Michael Coulter said Denver's tornado warning siren was faint and barely heard from the tower, and rain was so heavy that controllers were unable see the funnel cloud.

As ANN reported, the controllers union slammed the FAA in December for banning radios in the first place, saying the lack of suitable weather reporting equipment put controllers in danger... as well as those onboard a Comair regional jet controllers were directing to land in the vicinity of an F2 twister that hit Daytona Beach International Airport on Christmas Day.

A local agency manager put two weather radios in the DAB tower cab December 27, saying the policy banning all radios from work areas was not meant to prohibit weather radios... but the FAA reiterated weather radios are part of a blanket ban on all audio devices that could cause distractions to controllers on duty.

NATCA says that left controllers wondering what, exactly, the agency thinks about their safety. In a release, the union claims the FAA's September decision to ban weather radios, commercial radios and cell phones from its air traffic control facilities placed air traffic controllers in danger.

"Without access to critical severe weather information, the FAA is not only showing a blatant disregard for its employees but also for the flying public," said Kelly Raulerson, NATCA's Daytona Beach facility representative. "Before this ban went into effect, we used to hear frequent tests of the Emergency Broadcast System on the radio in the tower that we kept on. We certainly needed to hear that familiar alert on Monday. Instead, we were cut off from the world and left in a very vulnerable position."

"This is a situation that defies all measure of common sense and responsibility," said NATCA Executive Vice President Paul Rinaldi. "The FAA removed the radios as part of its imposed work rules in an effort to punish controllers. But it's turning out to be a fateful decision that has serious, life or death consequences that clearly the agency foolishly overlooked. We call upon the FAA to immediately put back all radios and life-saving communications equipment."

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