Air traffic controllers say FAA is undermining safety agreement

As the summer travel season heats up, flight delays and cancellations are down slightly from 2007, but aviation leaders are arguing over a new program that allows air traffic controllers to report errors without fear of retribution and are sounding alarms as the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization remains stalled in Congress.

"We're at a critical juncture in the history of aviation," FAA acting Administrator Robert Sturgell said last week in Atlantic City, N.J. "I think it's fair to say that we're in a crisis mode. …The crisis is a crisis in confidence. It's the kind of thing that happens when the flying public faces one more challenge after another."

An argument has flared between FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association over an agreement the two organizations signed in March to provide a framework for analyzing safety information and to minimize fear of reprisals against controllers who reported safety issues.

In testimony before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Aviation Subcommittee last week, Henry Krakowski, chief operating officer of FAA's Air Traffic Organization, cited the agreement as "a logical extension of the FAA's aviation safety action program … we believe will improve safety and better engage our workforce."

But controllers strongly objected to Krakowski's characterization, saying the agency had moved to change personnel rules to allow managers to discipline controllers who came forward with safety information.

NATCA obtained FAA documents from an internal review of the Air Traffic Safety Action Program before it was signed that show the agency wanted to preserve its disciplinary power when controllers reported safety concerns.

The agreement "appears to create immunity," the review said. "'Nonpunitive environment' -- This is nonnegotiable as it prevents management from disciplining employees.… Section 4 -- Last sentence is another immunity clause interfering with the agency's right to discipline."

A subsequent memorandum FAA's Office of Human Resource Management issued on April 14 clarified the agency's approach.

"FAA will not be able to take nondisciplinary removal actions for unacceptable performance," the memorandum read. "Instead, the current and successful long-standing practice of removing unsatisfactory [air traffic controllers] will continue to be taken for cause using negligent or careless performance or inattention to duty."

The memorandum warned that NATCA might object to removal proceedings on the grounds that the memorandum of understanding that set up the Air Traffic Safety Action Program created a nonpunitive environment.

"NATCA was put on notice that the FAA will continue to take removal actions for negligent/careless performance or inattention to duty," the HR memorandum continued.

NATCA President Pat Forrey said he objected to the suggestion that controllers were intentionally negligent.

"The FAA intentionally misled Congress when it said it would implement [a safety program] that protected controllers coming forward to report safety concerns," he said. "Controllers do not maliciously or intentionally make errors on the job. Quite the contrary; our daily efforts to keep the system as safe as it is despite unprecedented pressures … show our dedication to safety."

FAA is holding a three-day conference on fatigue issues in aviation in Vienna, Va., this week with sessions that will address air traffic control challenges, but that symposium is closed to the public and the media.

In April, 20.4 percent of flights were delayed and 1.7 percent were canceled, down from 22.3 percent delayed and 1.8 percent canceled in April 2007. But delays and cancellations rose sharply in June, July and August 2007 before falling again in September, and nothing indicates that this summer will be any different.

Sturgell said FAA wanted to move forward with an array of programs that could have long-term effects on delays, but the agency was operating under a funding extension that expires on June 30. That extension has frozen funding at fiscal 2007 levels. In early May, the Senate returned reauthorization legislation to the calendar, but has yet to act on it.