The FAA's Morale Improvement Program for ATCO's

Scott Pressley's bosses at the Federal Aviation Administration want to punish him. All because Pressley, the union representative for Birmingham air traffic controllers, let a journalist peek at the control room at the Birmingham International Airport. He got got the decree last week: Two weeks' suspension. Two weeks of nil pay. It could end up costing Pressley just under $5,000, he figures. More if you count his retirement, seniority, promotion prospects and reputation. How did it happen?

The journo wrote a column about air safety and controller staffing that featured some hypergolic "it's-all-good" commentary from the FAA's duty mouthpiece. Pressley argued to the contrary that things weren't quite so rosy, that there were a few thorns, and he agreed to put the journalist through some real life "motions" in the bowels of the radar room. On a Saturday morning, driving past the gate with no guard and on in to the control center, Pressley met the Press and showed him around. The radar room, the tower, the break room and "the facilities". It was a quick in and out, hardly a bowel motion of any great significance. But a description of that break room vented in a later column by that same newshound, caused the FAA to fume and fulminate.

The FAA's internal security team launched a rectitudinal probe, called the journo a security breach and flew a lawyer from Washington to get it all down on loo-paper. Four violations. His supervisor decided they were so egregious, the suspensions could not be served at the same time. Two weeks in Trafficker's Purgatory was the non-appealable administrative punishment. That the ruling (come caning) came days after Pressley was quoted in another Birmingham News story questioning air safety procedures, well that was merely a coincidence.

Pressley intends to fight the suspension. The FAA thinks he should be sucking it in rather than blowing the whistle - however subtly. At FAA HQ's their door is always open. Peer through it and you can clearly see them raising that safety bar. Look behind the radar curtains and talk to the cleaners however, and you might find that it's all done with mirrors.