Air Traffic Control Errors Increase

Wednesday, December 20th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) â€” Air traffic control errors allowing planes to come too close to one another have increased, according to an inspector general's report that calls for a quick effort to reduce these problems.

So-called ``operational errors'' rose from 764 in 1996 to 1,154 in 2000, according to the report by the Transportation Department's inspector general.

The biggest increase was reported in the Washington Air Route Traffic Control Center in Leesburg, Va., where errors rose from 24 to 102. Big jumps were also reported in the Cleveland, New York and Chicago centers.

The report called on the Federal Aviation Administration â€” which is a part of the Transportation Department â€” to act ``with a sense of urgency.''

Such errors can pose a serious safety risk, though no actual midair collisions were reported. Other cases, however, can be minor, technical violations of required separation that pose no real hazard.

The true extent of the danger is unknown because the FAA does not determine the severity of each incident, the IG report noted.

The report noted that the FAA is currently working with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association on an agreement regarding what actions should be taken when an error occurs. Currently, the controller involved is removed from work for retraining, but penalties such as loss of pay occur only rarely.

After seeing the report the FAA agreed that it needed to increase emphasis on reducing errors and to develop a method to determine the severity of each error.

However, the agency declined a suggestion by the National Transportation Safety Board that it save radar and voice tapes for 45 days instead of the current 15 days in the event a close call needs to be investigated further.

The inspector general's report looked at errors in major Air Route Traffic Control Centers, which handle planes flying between cities, and Terminal Radar Approach Control facilities, which handle planes approaching and leaving airports.

The Washington center controls air traffic between airports and at high altitudes in a region including southern New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, the eastern third of West Virginia, most of Virginia, the eastern two-thirds of North Carolina and extending out into the Atlantic Ocean.

The report looked at the following centers, comparing operational errors in fiscal years 2000 and 1996:

Washington ARTCC, 102 errors in 2000, up from 24 in 1996; Cleveland ARTCC, 74, up from 32; New York ARTCC, 71, up from 44; Chicago ARTCC, 70, up from 26; Indianapolis, 54, up from 39;

Atlanta ARTCC, 40, up from 36; Memphis, Tenn. ARTCC, 38, up from 21; Dallas-Fort Worth ARTCC, 34, up from 23; Los Angeles ARTCC, 33, up from 19; Denver ARTCC, 33, up from 11;

Jacksonville, Fla. ARTCC, 30, up from 27; Kansas City, Mo. ARTCC, 28, up from 20; New York TRACON, 27, down from 33; Albuquerque ARTCC, 25, up from 21; Miami ARTCC, 21, up from 15;

Boston ARTCC, 21, up from 13; Northern California TRACON, 18, down from 30; Houston ARTCC, 18, up from 7; Oakland, Calif., ARTCC, 17, down from 20; Minneapolis ARTCC, 15, up from 13;

Chicago TRACON, 14, up from 13; Salt Lake City TRACON, 12, up from 8; Oakland Bay TRACON, 8, up from 6; Miami TRACON, 8, up from 2; Washington Dulles TRACON, 7, up from 2.