From the Associated Press: Utah’s two U.S. senators are urging the Federal Aviation Administration to hold off testing a new computer system at a Salt Lake City air traffic control center that guides planes across portions of eight states. Republican Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch wrote FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt on June 11, asking [...]
Posts Tagged as ‘NATCA’
June 14, 2009
NATCA: “We’re quite hopeful about NextGen”
The Dallas Morning News had a catch-all, general interest article about the status of NextGen. Here are some quotes: Aviation consultant Michael Boyd: “Capt. Babbitt isn’t going to run the FAA – it is going to run him. I have no confidence this is going to work. The public is simply being bamboozled by the [...]
March 25, 2009
Hank Krakowski: “We have included controllers in all phases of NextGen so far.”
The FAA’s Hank Krawkowski testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Aviation Safety, Operations, and Security today, and summarized the last year’s worth of movement on ATC issues as well as the development of NextGen planning. One of the more interesting portions of Krakowski’s prepared remarks came at the very end, where he specifically addressed the [...]
November 18, 2008
Controllers want changes in ATOP system
The National Association of Air Traffic Controllers issued a press release this week, calling on the new administration to reevaluate the Advanced Technologies for Oceanic Procedures system. ATOP allows aircraft to transmit location coordinates across long distances in an automated fashion, but the implimentation is somewhat controversial because airlines are allowed to set their own policies [...]
October 14, 2008
Flight rerouting called ‘reckless’
The re-routing of four flights over North Carolina and Georgia is being investigated due to union allegations that an FAA manager ordered the move in violation of federal rules. The incident, which occurred at Jacksonville Center late last week, was first made public by NATCA (press release here) and later picked up by the AP. [...]
September 17, 2008
NATCA: Outages at SoCal TRACON, Miami Center
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association has issued a press reelase reporting two ATC outages in recent days. The first occurred on Sunday at the Southern California TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach Control), which apparently experienced a loss of radar and radio functionality. Details per NATCA: At approximately 3:17 P.M. PDT on Sunday frequencies for the [...]
September 2, 2008
More from Oshkosh: Sturgell sees controller workload easing
As I mentioned earlier, Acting FAA Administrator Robert Sturgell took questions about air traffic control and NextGen issues at last week’s AirVenture event. While a transcript isn’t available, AIN Online did have some additional quotes and insight in their report from Oshkosh. Sturgell characterized the nation’s ATC system as being: in a “transition” phase as [...]
