FAA And Air Traffic Controllers At Odds Over Radio Use

Tuesday, May 1st 2007, 6:33 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- A labor union says an FAA ban on radios in air traffic control towers could put lives at risk when severe weather bears down on airports. The FAA says the controllers already have a large amount of weather information in the tower.

Since the ban was instituted in September, the union says there have been at least a half-dozen near miss events at traffic control towers in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Denver.

Last week, a funnel cloud was reportedly spotted about a mile northeast of Tulsa International Airport's FAA tower.