Air Controllers' Association: FAA Doesn't Train Them Properly

Jan. 30, 2008
Six out of 10 new air traffic controllers at Miami Center, a major radar complex that guides planes in and out of South Florida, do not receive adequate training — and that jeopardizes safety, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said on Monday.

Jan. 29 — Six out of 10 new air traffic controllers at Miami Center, a major radar complex that guides planes in and out of South Florida, do not receive adequate training — and that jeopardizes safety, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said on Monday.

The center lacks enough experienced controllers to mentor new hires, said Steve Wallace, president of the association's Miami Center branch. Further, the Federal Aviation Administration isn't training students fast enough, leaving many waiting for months before they even enter a classroom, he said.

Combined with a 30 percent pay cut, instituted for new hires in 2006, training woes have prompted 14 student controllers to resign since July 2007, an "unprecedented" number, Wallace said.

"We have a diminishing number of people," he said. "Now it's not just experienced controllers who are leaving — it's developmental controllers who are leaving as well."

Miami Center, which sits two miles northwest of Miami International Airport, oversees about 6,800 flights per day and is the eighth busiest complex of its kind in the nation. Many of those planes land at the Miami, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood and Palm Beach international airports.

The FAA, which oversees controllers, disputes that the training program is inadequate or creating safety problems. The agency notes that Miami Center has 285 controllers and is designed to operate with between 220 and 255 controllers.

Of those 285, 195 are experienced controllers, while 90 are trainees, FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said.

"Controllers are well-trained at Miami Center and at all our air traffic control facilities," she said. "No controller can be checked out until they've completed the rigorous training program we have in place."

Bergen said the FAA faces a challenge in training large numbers of controllers as thousands are approaching the mandatory retirement age of 56 or opting to retire early.

The FAA plans to hire about 16,000 controllers over the next decade, she said. Most of those already will have considerable training, either from a university or the military, she added.

"The system is safe," she said. "Neither the FAA's management nor the controllers would allow the system to be unsafe."

There have been no "operational errors," where two planes are allowed to get too close in the past year at Miami Center as a result of the training problems. But at Christmastime, a controller trainee errantly directed an airliner to fly into the airspace overseen by another controller, Wallace said.

"It could only be attributed to a lack of experience, because it was a very simple situation," he said.

The ultimate problem, Wallace said, is that the FAA doesn't permit controllers "to season" before they are put into high-pressure work situations. For that reason, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association on Monday appealed to the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, to audit the FAA's training program.

"It's that bad," Wallace said.