W Post: FAA's handling of controller losses blasted

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/11/AR2008061102525_pf.html

By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN
The Associated Press
Wednesday, June 11, 2008; 7:58 PM

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Aviation Administration has mishandled a flood of retirements and resignations among experienced air traffic controllers just when more air travelers rely on them each year, House lawmakers were told Wednesday.

One 22-year veteran controller, Melvin S. Davis, said the FAA's rising use of overtime to cover shifts in Los Angeles had so tired controllers that errors were rising. "These mistakes eventually will result in a catastrophe," Davis told a House aviation subcommittee hearing. "It's amazing to me it hasn't already."

The FAA's chief operating officer, Henry Krakowski, assured the lawmakers the agency is managing "a reliable and safe system" and is having "no problems attracting qualified candidates" to replace veterans leaving in a long-anticipated bulge in retirements.

Krakowski didn't convince skeptical panel members who heard testimony from Transportation Department Inspector General Calvin L. Scovel III and from working controllers that the agency's hostile relations with the controllers union had pushed 25 percent more veteran controllers to leave since 2004 than the FAA had anticipated.

"It is clear the Federal Aviation Administration was not and is not ready to deal with the situation," said the chairman, Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Ill. "In my judgment there is little action being taken to address these problems."

Costello noted that the FAA has lost 954 experienced controllers since last October, leaving the lowest number of fully qualified controllers in 16 years.

FULL story at link.

[MercutioATC]

1. ...and, once again, nothing will be done.

Our guys sound great and Congress constantly badgers FAA managers, but they never do anything.