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Report Criticizes FAA Leadership

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By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN, The Associated Press

Published: December 6, 2007

WASHINGTON - Air travelers face a high risk of a catastrophic collision on a U.S. airport runway because of faltering federal leadership, malfunctioning technology and overworked air traffic controllers, congressional investigators said Wednesday.

The investigators gave the Federal Aviation Administration credit for reducing runway safety incidents from a peak in 2001 but said "FAA's runway safety efforts subsequently waned" as the number of incidents settled at a lower level.

Then in fiscal 2007, which ended Sept. 30, the incidents spiked to 370, or 6.05 runway incursions per 1 million air traffic control operations, almost returning to 2001's 407 incursions and 6.1 rate. An incursion is any aircraft, vehicle or person that goes where it shouldn't be in space reserved for takeoff or landing.

At this time, "no single office is taking charge of assessing the causes of runway safety problems and taking the steps needed to address" them, the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, said in a report requested by Rep. Jerry F. Costello, D-Ill., and Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J.

Then-Federal Aviation Administrator Marion Blakey stepped into that leadership void in August by calling an industrywide brainstorming conference to produce ideas for quick action. In October, the FAA reported progress on steps recommended by the August conclave, particularly in speeding improved runway markings and pilot training.

The GAO report approved of those moves but also recommended more leadership from the FAA, improved data collection and a reduction in overtime required of air traffic controllers.

"This report makes clear that the Bush administration is cutting corners and failing to put passenger safety first," Lautenberg said. "The FAA is taking too many chances and ignoring too many red flags."

Although serious incursions, when a collision is narrowly averted, declined to a record low 24 in 2007 from 31 in 2006, the report said they have remained high enough to pose "a high risk of a catastrophic runway collision."

The FAA issued two statements that emphasized it had reached its goal of reducing the most serious runway incursions by almost 25 percent in 2007. The second statement called controller overtime a short-term issue that it could resolve through stepped-up hiring. It said hiring is being focused on two dozen facilities with high overtime or six-day workweeks, and a working group is studying whether scheduling changes could minimize fatigue.

Costello, who chairs the House aviation subcommittee, said: "When there is great public attention and attention by the Congress, then the FAA acts. As soon as the attention goes away, the FAA reduces their attention."

He and Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., House Transportation Committee chair, urged quick approval of a House-passed FAA bill that would provide $42 million for incursion reduction and $72 million for runway lighting, require an FAA runway safety and technology plan, and force the FAA to reopen contract negotiations with controllers, a provision the Bush administration opposes.

Since 1990, 63 people have died in six U.S. runway collisions. The FAA's previous definition also did not classify some serious runway errors as incursions, including an Aug. 27, 2006, crash in Lexington, Ky., of a Comair jet that took off from a too-short runway, killing 49.

This year has seen dramatic near-misses. On Aug. 16, two commercial jets carrying 296 people came within 37 feet of colliding at Los Angeles International. A Delta Boeing 757 touched down in Fort Lauderdale on July 11 and had to take off immediately to avoid hitting a United Airbus A320 mistakenly on its runway.

A Delta Boeing 737 landing at New York's LaGuardia Airport on July 5 narrowly missed a commuter jet mistakenly cleared to cross its runway.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating those incidents, two others in Denver and one in San Francisco.

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