Recently Senator John Kerry sent a letter to the ACTING FAA Administrator inquiring about technical staffing. As both the FAA and PASS know, the FAA has lied to Congress and completely abrogated their responsibility with respect to this issue. In fact, as this letter from Tom Brantley to Steve Zaidman so clearly points out, the FAA is going to great lengths to bamboozle the Congress.
Download Tech_Staffing_Ltr_Tom_Brantley-Steve_Zaidman_June_2008.pdf
The FAA recently asked all their managers for the number of ATSSs (Air Traffic Systems Specialists) available to respond to outages, whether additional staffing was brought in through the call back process, and whether staffing levels were sufficient to address system problems.
Bobert Sturgell must be from Egypt because he is the King of Denial. Apparently, FAA management is poised to respond to the Kerry letter by saying that the illegally low staffing levels have not resulted in NAS equipment related air traffic delays and has not been a major factor in outage duration times.
WRONG.
Check out this internal FAA report:
Download NAS1YRMajorOutage-DelayReportAsOf051208.xls
Holy Liars, Batman! From May 2007 to May 2008 there were 4958 NAS equipment related air traffic delays. That's kind of like "none" only different.
The FAA also knows that there has been a 50% increase in the hours required to restore and repair vital technical components to the NAS. Specifically, unscheduled outage restoration times rose from 21.6 hours in 2001 to 40 hours in 2006. Some facilities are staffed at less than HALF of what the facility has been allotted.
The FAA has gutted their ability to respond to emergency outages in a timely, efficient and safe manner. They have turned a blind eye to system integrity and safety, choosing instead to "run it like a business."
I like to use the old firefighter analogy. Yes, you pay them to be at the firehouse when something is not burning. But damn...that sure comes in handy when something lights up. Because if you send them home...by the time you get them to the scene...the damn thing has probably burned down.
The FAA sent all the firemen home, system specialists and air traffic controllers alike. You will be recognizing this over the next several years, as the NAS burns faster than The Station saloon.
Not to mention the times the Localizer (or insert any piece of equipment here)has gone down on a Friday night and not restored until Monday morning when AF came in for their next shift. Who knows how many pilots had to change their intended destination. Not to mention the times when an AT Supervisor whispers to the AF tech " oh, the ARTS (or insert any piece of equipment here) was only down for 30 minutes so I won't put it in the log so you won't take a hit for the outage."
Posted by: Dis Gusted | June 23, 2008 at 06:48 AM
"Fix on fail" concept, maybe? How businesslike!
A little hint here, the FAA has already failed.
Time for a "fix", you think?
Posted by: Bad Vector | June 23, 2008 at 09:20 AM
We have had an arts patch problem for two weeks. Our auto-flash is unreliable. Prior to the IWR's this would have been a fix the day it went down. Now we fix on fail. "You can still flash them yourself?" "No reason to fix it then". Tell that to the guy that gets busy and forgets to flash an airplane, therefore violating an adjacent sector. Deal.
Posted by: ZERO | June 23, 2008 at 11:35 AM
Hey John Carr,
Can you please e-mail me at squishO90@hotmail.com, I have a request for you.
Thanks
Rick White
Posted by: Rick White | June 23, 2008 at 11:48 AM
A beacon channel at our place has been broken for over a year. A whole friggin year! Ya know what we were told? "You still have one good channel, so shut up." Take note you management pukes, when we fix this disaster we are coming for you. I plan on making life hell for you. You better not even look at me crosseyed. Your time is almost up, so enjoy it. You may have knocked us down but we ain't out. Better bone up on labor law cause I haven't forgot one damn bit of it. The day the FLRA turns to Democratic majority, you people better start worrying. Have fun because the clock it ticking.
Posted by: Carr09 | June 23, 2008 at 01:06 PM
Let's go back in time. Asheville NC. Summer 1967. Piedmont 727 just departed with cessna crossing with incorrect fix. No radar service. 82 people die as flaming wreckage and bodies rain down over I-26 and the Hendersonville area.
Reason? No radar service. Under Sec of Navy's wife was on board. Asheville got a radar real quick.
FAST FORWARD to present day bean counting hair splitting puzzle palace clueless FAA management sycophants. Yea go ahead and whisper. Hide those outages you dumb ass controllers and technicians. Play into managements hand. Soon it will happen. Somewhere over America all those lies and staffing cuts and leaving the ILS out to Monday and hiding your close calls and outages will all converge into one big boom of body parts and flames and pink mist.
Then it will all change. Go ahead you sycophants. It will be blood on YOUR hands when that horrific day arrives.
Go ahead and whisper and hide those outages. You are just cutting your own throats and you are too stupid to see it.
But you will. Soon.
Posted by: SOS | June 23, 2008 at 02:34 PM
SOS,
It isn't the techs nor controllers that are "hiding" things. MANAGEMENT is. Controllers and techs have been shouting at the top of their lungs for several years.
FAA says is all because of "labor disputes".
Controllers and techs are working their asses off trying to PREVENT the scenario you present. NO ONE wants that to happen.
But if it does, controllers and techs "Told you so". We can't make people listen or react.
We can just try to keep everyone safe.
Posted by: imgoneandhappy | June 23, 2008 at 05:06 PM
Hey John Carr,
Can you please e-mail me at squishO90@hotmail.com, I have a request for you.
Thanks
Rick White???????????
RICK WHITE LEFT ZNY AS A SUPERVISOR AND TURNED HIS BACK ON NATCA... HEY JOHN... SEND HIM AN EMAIL ALRIGHT... TELL HIM THAT THE GUYS FROM ZNY WISH HIM WELL... HE HAD A CHOICE... NOW HE'S TUNED IN AND WANTS TO KNOW WHAT WE ARE UP TO ???? HEY RICK... BE WELL GOOD LUCK... AND GET LOST............
Posted by: ZNY TUNED IN | June 23, 2008 at 09:34 PM
imgoneandhappy
Please allow me to clarify. I should have said "Some dumb ass controllers and technicians" are hiding things thinking it will one up someone or get them in good standing with FAA goon management.
The vast majority of controllers and technicians work each day as if their mothers or wives or kids are on one of those tin tubes buzzing through the air.
I stand corrected and thanks for pointing that slip of words out
Posted by: SOS | June 23, 2008 at 10:18 PM
"ZNY TUNED IN", and John Carr,
Different Rick White?
I believe that the one that posted above is an ATSS (AF Tech) in Philadelphia, and is a strong PASS member nationally as well as locally. Check it out.
If this is who I think it is, please contact him. NATCA, PASS, and their constituency might both benefit from that contact.
Thanks.
Posted by: Dale Kettring | June 24, 2008 at 05:25 PM