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United Grounds 777 Fleet

April 2, 2008 By Leave a Comment

After finding overdue inspections on fire detection systems, United Airlines grounded its entire fleet of 58 Boeing 777 aircraft.  This is the second set of maintenance related groundings for United in recent days, just last week it grounded a portion of its Airbus A320 fleet due to landing gear wiring problems.

United Airlines 777 So far United has canceled 28 of 84 flights utilizing the 777 however more cancellations are likely since the latest round of inspections includes the entire fleet.  A United spokesperson said that the inspections would likely take 24-36 hours to complete on all aircraft.  None of the aircraft are being operated while the inspections are taking place.

It is tough to tell what impact this will have on United’s operations.  The 777 is a large aircraft mainly used for international flights which generate much of United’s income and nearly all of its profit.

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FAA Too Cozy With Airlines Lawmakers Say

April 2, 2008 By Leave a Comment

FAA LogoAccording to Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.) the FAA is too close to the airlines that it regulates.  Recent accusations by whistle-blowers indicate that the FAA has overlooked many inspections and oversight due to tight relationships with airlines and not wanting to hurt airline economics.

 Today the FAA spent time in front of Congress defending itself and its practices.  The main evidence it uses is the recent $10.4 million fine proposed against Southwest Airlines for flying aircraft that had not been properly inspected.  The FAA has also stepped up inspections at other major airlines in light of the accusations, putting pressure on the industry to make sure everything is right.

This is serious problem for the FAA.  On one hand it is charged with oversight and safety in the airline industry.  On the other hand it must promote air travel and assist airlines. 

Instead of solely focusing on maintenance and aircraft inspections the FAA should focus most of its energy on human factors and crew fatigue.  It has been many years since a purely mechanically related airline accident, however human error and fatigue incidents continue to plague the industry.

The FAA is doing the right thing in stepping up, now it just needs to get priorities in line and work to make our safety record even better.

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Faulty Wiring Found in 3 United Planes

March 31, 2008 By Leave a Comment

While investigating three of its Airbus A320 aircraft, United has identified wiring problems that have led to two non-fatal runway incidents.  The first incident involved an airplane skidding off the runway at Jackson Hole, Wyoming and the second involved an aircraft skidding off the side of the runway at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.  United has said it notified contract maintenance facilities as well as pilots and flight attendants, however it has not made a statement on inspecting other aircraft.United Airlines 777
 
Although landing gear problems are serious, most issues do not result in catastrophe.  Planes land without incident most times a landing gear problem is encountered.  The most famous recent incident involved a JetBlue A320 in Los Angeles where the nose wheel was stuck sideways, thus not providing directional control for the aircraft.  The pilots successfully landed the aircraft and brought it to a stop without a single injury to passengers and with relatively little damage to the aircraft.

United now needs to dig into more of its aircraft and determine if the issue is isolated or not.  With the recent round of FAA maintenance inspections still underway, it may not be a choice soon.

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FAA Needs to Stop Whining and Start Acting

November 9, 2007 By Leave a Comment

For the second time in just a few months, a major air traffic control facility has lost all air-ground and ground-ground communications. This morning, an unidentified outage occurred at the Jacksonville Center facility in Jacksonville, Florida. Jacksonville Center handles the major traffic routes between Florida and further North up the east coast. It is the 7th busiest air traffic control center facility in the country.

Not long ago the Memphis Air Traffic Control Center lost all of its communications as well, blocking a major portion of US airspace and causing the delay and diversion of hundreds of flights bound for its airspace. This outage was caused by the cutting of a telephone line to the center facility.

These two outages are the face of a much larger problem that the FAA has chosen to ignore and not fix for the last few decades. The air traffic control system in this country is outdated, unreliable, and subject to complete failure from even the smallest of problems. Complete outages are rare, but it’s the every day problems that put lives at risk.

Almost daily, radio transmitters fail, lines go down, and failures occur. Often radio transmitters become so hard to understand that pilots have to report them to controllers to be fixed. In addition, pilots may radio air traffic control several times before they are heard. Air traffic control instructions are also frequently not heard due to weak transmissions and static.

To compliment the problem, air traffic control staffing is becoming an issue and more controllers are working longer hours. Fatigue is simply intolerable in a profession where thousands of lives can be at risk. Controllers may forget to give clearances or not notice discrepancies due to fatigue. In addition, one air traffic controller may only control a small number of aircraft at a time. This means that if staffing continues to be reduced, flight delays will escalate since fewer aircraft can be in the sky at any given time.

The solution that the FAA has been unwilling to accept is the addition of funding for hiring controllers and upgrading systems. Instead it has been pouring money into a “free flight” program by which aircraft would monitor each other for conflicts and the system would be operated off of satellites. There are some places where more automation is good, air traffic control is not one of them. Every day pilots and controllers make mistakes. It is the vigilance of both parties that has allowed the United States to have the safest air traffic control system in the country.

By removing the human link of observing flights across the country, the FAA risks significant safety deviations due to automation failure and human error on the flight deck. Computers fail, plain and simple. There is not a computer in the world that will not fail at some point because of an error the designer could not plan for. If the air traffic control system in turned into an airplane autonomous system, the possibility of failure is increased because of the increase in computer reliance. Also, the number of eyes watching the sky will be reduced, therefore lowering the possibility of conflict being resolved in time.

The FAA needs to take its funding and upgrade radar sites, radio sites, and controller equipment in air traffic control facilities. By sticking with what works, the FAA will continue to be able boast the safest skies in the world.

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ATC Staffing Shortages Causing Delays

October 2, 2007 By Leave a Comment

The AP reports today that according to the National Air Traffic Controller’s Association (NATCA), the FAA is running dangerously short on air traffic controllers and will continue to do so with projected retirements topping 1,300 next year. For it’s part, the FAA has hired over 1,600 controllers in the last year to overcome these problems but faces an uphill battle.

It takes on average about 3 years for an air traffic controller to become fully certified in a facility and be able to work independently. During these three years, at least one other controller must work with the “trainee” to teach them local policies, ensure compliance with regulations, and monitor their ability. Even after a controller becomes fully certified at a facility it takes many years before they have acquired the knowledge to become truly proficient at their job.

This shortage is also one of the reasons why this summer’s delays have been some of the worst on record. Fewer controllers means that more airspace must be combined and handled by one controller. One controller cannot handle the amount of air traffic that multiple controllers can and therefore limits the number of airplanes that be in his airspace. Considering that a majority of shortages are in places like New York and other high density airspace, this has a tremendous impact.

The FAA has known for quite some time that it was going to start running short. Retirement is the main reason for controllers leaving the job, and it is fairly easy to predict when someone will retire when a mandatory retirement age for air traffic controllers exists. The question then is why the FAA has dragged its feet for so many years. There were large periods of time where the FAA did not hire any air traffic controllers, even knowing that it would take many years to train new controllers and that this would cause a squeeze on resources.

The answer is that the FAA wants to go to a satellite based air traffic control system. This system which among airline circles is known as “Free Flight” (FAA calls it NextGen) would rely on GPS positioning and equipment on-board aircraft that would monitor other aircraft locations to avoid conflict. This sounds like a wonderful idea, but it has its shortcomings. The first is that computers glitch, and aboard technologically sophisticated airplanes, they glitch enough that a fully automated system could barely be trusted. Second, the air traffic control system is so fluid that many times controllers handle requests that need immediate attention and decisions to re-route airplanes are more instinct than science.

The FAA needs to take the billions of dollars it is spending on the Free Flight program and invest them in upgraded air traffic control facilities and more air traffic controllers to watch the planes in the sky. The system is proven and effective.

Union Blasts FAA for Controller Staffing (Yahoo! Business)

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