Jul
15
FAA Hiding Controllers’ Mistakes?
Filed Under FAA
I read a story today over at the Washington Post about the FAA is possibly and I say possibly trying to hide controllers’ mistakes. One of the serious incidents stated was in Dallas when two airplanes got too close to each other. They stated that the FAA is trying to “cover up” these type of mistakes. U.S. Special Counsel Scott J. Bloch, who investigates these reports, alleges the FAA is trying to reclassify mistakes to boost performance numbers and bonuses and reduce criticism from bosses.
The report also stated that the FAA is trying to increase the causes of errors on pilots to reduce the number of errors by the controllers. Interesting! Pilots watch out!
The FAA just recently changed the system for reclassifying errors by controllers known to them as operational errors. The controller’s union stated that the new classifying of errors was possibly a way for the FAA to hide the mistakes. The FAA came back and said it was a new way to monitor and fairly police the mistakes. Who is right? We just don’t know right now. The investigation is underway in the government.
The good news is that none of these mistakes by controllers has resulted in any fatal crashes. Controllers are human and do make mistakes just like everyone else. That is why there are two pilots sitting up front to make your flight as enjoyable and most importantly safe! Pilots have to have the best situational awareness to understand what is going on around them and know where other planes are in their vicinity. If something doesn’t sound right to us on the radio, we have to speak up and ask the controllers! It could prevent a mistake that is life or death.
The full story at the Washington Post can be read here.
We have this problem in the UK, I think there were 11 near misses in our airspace in the past month… all we didnt know about.
That the FAA would do something like this really surprises me because it is a very professional organization. I think it’s a symptom of the ever increasing number of people flying. After a while, incidents previously taken seriously become increasingly ignored. Very scary.
What happens when the pilots ask a question to the ATC but the question is never answered directly? (This resulted in fatalities)