Air Traffic Control: Be Careful Out There

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The air-flow plan has indeed reduced the number of aircraft stacked in the skies in bad weather around major airports. Instead, the delays are taken in "gate holds" on the ground; planes are not allowed to leave until they have a chance to land promptly at their next stop. This prudent procedure caused more than 70,000 holiday travelers around the nation to be delayed last week when fog closed Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport, a major airline hub. While the air-flow controls may annoy passengers eager to get going on their trips, pilots and controllers prefer it to in-air stacking because it leaves fewer airborne planes to worry about.

As fuel costs have gone down and delays have increased, however, the airlines are pushing to get their planes aloft closer to schedule. They want more departure and arrival routes established so that more of the sky space is utilized. They would also like to reduce the 15-mile minimum spacing between following airliners so that more traffic can be moved in the same time. Planes heading toward a landing at 220 m.p.h. thus are about four minutes apart.

Most safety experts argue that the already strained system is not able to accommodate either more stacking, closer flying or more routes to be controlled. But the FAA seems ready to bow to some of the airline pressure. The agency's regional traffic managers expect to meet in February, and may consider a ten-mile interval in time for the summer season.

The need for more FAA inspectors is obvious. In the view of Jim Burnett, it may even be more important for FAA inspectors to develop a new attitude toward their work. "They must take a more aggressive posture," he says. Specifically, Burnett would like to see more spot inspections to detect any cheating on maintenance rules.

The NTSB has also urged the FAA to require pilots and copilots on commuter airlines to be checked more frequently on their instrument flying. The safety board urges faster development of a program to provide flight simulators to train these pilots and asks that the commuter carriers be required to provide at least one experienced pilot on each flight, rather than have two newcomers work together. No single move, however, could ease the worries of pilots and passengers alike more than installing collision-warning devices on airplanes. After years of indecision and delay, the FAA is finally moving to put such a system in place.

Safety experts advocate such short-term and relatively inexpensive improvements as clearer runway markings, tighter control over carry-on luggage that can hurl about a cabin in a crash landing, and greater fire resistance in airline cabin fabrics.

The FAA's Engen says the country urgently needs more airports and runways. But airport expansion around many major cities is almost prohibitively expensive and politically difficult if, indeed, suitable land can be found. This seems mostly a dream.