Two for Texas

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is taking steps to strengthen the reporting system designed to classify airspace errors, in response to an embarrassing report by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Inspector General (IG) that revealed the intentional misclassification of operational errors at the Dallas-Fort Worth Terminal Approach Control (TRACON). The latest snafu at the U.S. aviation agency follows Southwest Airlines’ failure to comply with Boeing 737 airworthiness directives with local FAA personnel approval. The FAA removed both the facility manager and assistant manager at the Dallas-Fort Worth TRACON from their positions pending a final determination on possible further personnel actions. The aviation agency said others might also be disciplined. “I am deeply disturbed by the findings in this report,” said Hank Krakowski, chief operating officer of the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization. “I am personally committed to making sure the IG’s recommendations are implemented and that managers are held accountable.” The former United Airlines pilot acknowledged that the FAA said it would fix the problem in 2005 but “today it’s clear to us that those commitments were not taken seriously by people in my organization who were responsible.” The IG found that management at the Dallas-Fort Worth TRACON investigated operational errors and deviations, but routinely and intentionally misclassified them as pilot errors or non-events. The report was prompted by whistleblower allegations initially lodged in 2004 that management was covering up operational errors and deviations. It found that between November 2005 and July 2007, TRACON managers misclassified 62 air traffic events as pilot deviation or non-events when it fact there were 52 operational errors and 10 operational deviations.