Air Traffic Controllers Release Flight Assist Tapes

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Air traffic controllers lobbying Congress for more equipment and staff have a new way to illustrate the importance of their jobs _ recordings of controllers talking pilots through dangerous situations.

On one cut, a frantic woman flying over New Hampshire tells the controller that the pilot, her father, is incapacitated.

''The pilot of the plane is not well! We have to go back to Laconia! Please help me!'' she screams.

Ken Hopf, who was working Manchester, N.H., airspace at the time, calmed her down, determined that she could fly the plane and talked her through a safe landing at Laconia Municipal Airport.

Hopf was one of 12 controllers who received an award on Monday for their flight assists, or ''saves.'' Another award winner directed a pilot through an emergency landing. A third alerted a 747 that it had no landing gear extended.

The new awards _ named after Archie League, the first air traffic controller _ are part of a broad public awareness campaign by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association to stress the need for greater investment in aviation systems.

About 300 NATCA members gathered in Washington this week to press their agenda with Congress. Among the speakers: Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and John Kerry of Massachusetts; Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, Republican chairman of the Commerce Committee; Florida Rep. John Mica, Republican chairman of the House aviation subcommittee.

Controllers say budget cuts and staffing shortages threaten to undermine the world's safest air traffic control system. For the past three years, U.S. skies have had the lowest accident rate in aviation history, with just 15 accidents per 100 million departures.

''It's akin to peeling an onion,'' said NATCA President John Carr. ''Eventually you'll peel back enough that you won't have an onion.''

President Bush wants to cut 2006 spending on air traffic control equipment by $77 million, to $2.4 billion, on top of a 12 percent cut this year.

Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown disputed the idea that safety is being compromised.

''We've prioritized projects that we think provide the greatest safety and capacity benefits,'' she said.

Underlying NATCA's lobbying campaign are growing tensions between the union and the FAA, which employs the nation's 14,500 air traffic controllers. Contract negotiations are set to start in the fall.

Controllers say the FAA has taken an overtly hostile tone toward them and is trying to paint them as overpaid. Their base salary is about $100,000, but they can earn more than $200,000 with overtime.

During a meeting at a downtown hotel, controllers hissed when an image of FAA Administrator Marion Blakey was projected on a screen as part of a video presentation.

''We haven't even started negotiations yet, but we've made progress toward ground rules,'' Brown said. ''We expect some difficult moments. but we have no intention of being hostile.''

Last December, Blakey announced a plan to hire 12,500 controllers in the next 10 years and let some existing workers stay on the job longer than their mandatory retirement age to offset a wave of looming retirements.

The genesis for the moves can be traced to 1981, when President Reagan fired more than 10,000 controllers and hired replacements. Nearly three-quarters of those workers will be eligible to retire in the next decade.

Bush proposed enough spending next year to hire about 600 new controllers, and to replace the estimated 650 controllers who will retire or leave the agency in 2006.

The union isn't sure that's enough. They estimate the work force already is at least 700 people short of what's needed.

''They're doing more with less, moving more traffic each day,'' union spokesman Doug Church said.

Another problem: radar and data processing equipment is becoming outdated, said Ruth Marlin, NATCA executive vice president.

''We have an infrastructure that's too fragile to maintain,'' she said. ''Modernization is stalled. Major projects have been dragged out, delayed or canceled.''