Air Traffic Control: Be Careful Out There

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Certainly, one reason for the increase in near midairs is that air traffic has soared under deregulation. Flying accounts for nearly 90% of all interstate travel; the annual number of airline passengers has jumped from 292 million in 1978 to 415 million last year. The number of airlines, including cargo, express mail and charter service, increased from 150 to about 400, and ! the roster of passenger carriers grew by 97 (to 157). The FAA offers another explanation for the rising number of near midairs: its reporting system has improved. In 1983 the FAA began installing what controllers and pilots call a "snitch" alarm system. Aircraft now move across a controller's green radar screen as a blip of light in the middle of a round white "halo" or "doughnut," representing an area that has a diameter of five miles. The aim of the controllers is to "keep green" between the doughnuts. Whenever two circles begin to intersect, indicating that two planes have violated the horizontal separation standard of five miles, an alarm sounds, the doughnuts flash and a teletype clacks out the incriminating data. The controller must file a report on the incident, as must the pilot if he is suspected of being at fault. Anyone found responsible can be suspended from duty.

The automatic snitch may make it appear that the skies are growing more dangerous because more reports are being filed. In the past, say some pilots, regional offices of the FAA often failed to pass near-miss reports along to Washington because they wanted to tell their bosses only what headquarters wanted to hear: that the system is safe.

Critics counter that the FAA's stricter reporting system may just be catching up to the frightening reality in the skies. Moreover, the FAA has loosened another requirement: until 1985 planes that passed within 1,000 ft. of each other vertically were considered too close, and the incident had to be reported; now the vertical-separation standard is just 500 ft. Under an accurate system, this change should produce fewer, not more, close-call reports. Some pilots object to this reduction in the near-miss distance, noting that if two airliners are six miles apart but headed toward each other at 550 m.p.h., they could collide in 20 seconds.

There are indications that some controllers may be cheating the snitch system to avoid the burden of paperwork and explanations. The FAA investigated a near miss on Feb. 16 between a Sky West Airlines flight and a private Beech Bonanza near Santa Barbara, Calif. The planes had come within five miles, but the snitch was not triggered. The investigators discovered that a controller had dropped the Bonanza from his screen in the belief that there was no real chance of a collision despite the proximity of the two aircraft. This action, reported the FAA, "disabled the computer's ability to recognize the conflict."

, Some pilots object to the snitch alarm as a superfluous electronic Big Brother, but few approve of controllers defeating the system. Charges a veteran American Airlines captain: "Dropping a plane from the screen is playing fast and loose with human life to avoid being pinpointed for a mistake. It's unconscionable."