NATCA Seeks Audience with FAA

National Air Traffic Controllers Association President Patrick Forrey has sent a letter to Acting FAA Administrator Bobby Sturgell, requesting an emergency meeting “to see what can be done to restore system safety before tragedy occurs.” Forrey noted that a recently released General Accountability Office (GAO) report on runway incursions highlighted the risk of a potential catastrophic collision due, in part, to lack of adequate technology, FAA’s failure to exhibit national leadership on high-priority, runway-related safety actions, and unprecedented numbers of overworked controllers at facilities around the country. “These conditions are placing both pilots and air traffic controllers at great risk of mishap. We have witnessed several alarming close calls in the airspace above Chicago and Oakland, and on runways at Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Newark. Two general aviation planes collided in mid-air.  One was under the control of Miami TRACON where it appears that a busy controller issued a traffic advisory but was unable to prevent the collision,” he added. “NATCA is extremely worried that the safety margins—which have kept the nation’s skies the safest in the world—have all but eroded. We have initiated our own technology review to identify capacity and safety enhancements that we can propose to the agency and its stakeholders.  In the interim, however, we are requesting an emergency meeting between the agency’s top ATC executives and NATCA to see what we can do together to restore system safety before tragedy occurs,” said Forrey.