By Josh Funk
The recent chronic delays and cancellations at New Jersey’s largest airport have emphasized the shortage of air traffic controllers and the aging equipment they use, who wants to replace President Donald Trump’s administration.
The Federal Aviation Administration is working on a short -term solution for the problems at Newark airport, including technical repairs and cutting flights to keep traffic manageable and at the same time treat a shortage of controllers. Civil servants meet all airlines flying from Newark from Wednesday to discuss the plan.
But even before those problems, aviation was already in the spotlight since the deadly Midaar’s collision From a passenger beam and an American army helicopter above Washington, DC, in January, and since then a series of other crashes and accidents. The investigations into those crashes continue, while the US Department of Transport is trying to make progress in the long -term issues of not having enough air traffic controllers and on trust outdated equipment. An American Senate that hears on Wednesday morning will focus on the efforts of the FAA.
What happened in Newark?
Twice in the past two and a half weeks, the radar and communication systems trust traffic controllers in Philadelphia that direct those aircraft in and out of Newark for a short time. That happened because the lines that wear the radar signal of a different FAA facility in New York failed and the Backup system did not immediately work.
So the controllers could not see or talk to the aircraft around Newark Liberty International Airport as long as 90 seconds later April 28 And May 9. The lines – of which some old copper wires were – failed a third time on Sunday, but that time the back -up system worked and the radar remained online.
But the first of those stressful situations led five to seven controllers to take a trauma leave of 45 days, and that deteriorated the existing staff shortage in the Philadelphia control facility, which reduces the number of flights in Newark every day.
The FAA currently has 22 fully certified air traffic controllers and five supervisors assigned to Newark in the Philadelphia facility, but the agency wants 38 controllers there. There are still 21 controllers there in training, and 10 of them are certified on at least part of the area.
What was done in Newark?
De FAA quickly limited the number of flights in Newark to between 24 and 28 arrivals and the same number of departure every hour to ensure that the remaining controllers could safely handle them. At times when the controller staff is especially lean, such as Monday, the FAA limits the traffic even further. For the problems, 38 or 39 flights would start and land every hour in Newark.
With all airlines that are on Wednesday from Wednesday, the FAA officials have aimed at a plan that continues to limit the starts and landings to no more than 28 per hour per hour to at least mid-June. By that time, a catwalk construction project should be packed and the controllers who took a trauma leave would be planned to return. The FAA then said that it is possible to increase the limit to 34 arrivals and 34 departure per hour.
In the meantime, the number of flights per day must be cut because not everyone can handle everyone according to the schedule. That is why Newark has generally led the nation in cancellations and delays. After the FAA has met the airlines, it gives them a few weeks to submit information in writing, so it will not give a decision before 28 May.
The FAA has been able to install new glass feed lines on Newark Airport and the other two large airports in the New York region – Kennedy International and Laguardia – but they are still being tested and will not come online until the end of the month. Civil servants were able to update some computer software last week Kept the radar offline go on a third time on Sunday when the primary line Failed again.
In the longer term, the FAA is also planning to build a new radar system in Philadelphia, so that controllers there no longer have to rely on the signal that more is removed from New York. But that may not be done for months, although civil servants work with contractors to speed up that project.
Why not hire more controllers?
De FAA has long worked to hire more air traffic controllers to replace retiring employees and to handle the growing air traffic. But it can be difficult to find good candidates for the stressful positions, and it takes years to train controllers to do the work.
Transport secretary Sean Duffy has taken several steps to try to hire more controllers. The FAA tries to shorten the time that is needed between when someone signs up at the Air Traffic Controller Academy in Oklahoma City and when they start, and the agency also tries to improve the graduation figure there by offering more support to the students. The candidates with the highest scores on the entrance exam also get the top priority.
De FAA also offers bonuses to experienced controllers if they choose not to retire early and to keep working to help relieve the shortage.
More high -tech simulators are also used at airports throughout the country, including Newark, to train air traffic controllers. The FAA said on Tuesday that controllers tend to complete the training faster when they use one of the 111 simulators it has.
“These new simulators give trainees in air traffic control a high-tech room to learn, develop and practice their skills,” said acting FAA manager Chris Rocheleau.
What about the outdated equipment?
The transport department plans to ask for billions and billions of dollars to pay for a overhaul of the national air traffic control system to replace the 618 radars, to install 4,600 new high -speed connections and to upgrade all users of the computers controllers. The exact price tag is not exactly.
Duffy blames the administration of former President Joe Biden for non -upgrading the air traffic control system, but the congress recognized for the first time that the system had difficulty keeping up with the growing number of flights in the 1990s, so the problems go back for decades – long before the Bidd of First Trump administrations. Biden’s former transport secretary Pete Buttigieg has defended their efforts to upgrade part of the technology and to expand the acceptance of the air traffic controller.
Some of the decades of old computer equipment on which controllers trust were seen during last week’s press conference on the plan, which received broad support from more than 50 groups in the industry. Duffy has used a range of colorful metaphors to emphasize how old the equipment is, saying that the equipment looks like it came from the set of the movie “Apollo 13” and comparing it with a Volkswagen beetle from 1967.
Originally published:
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