Quote of the Week:  A "symbiotic coverup relationship between controllers and their bosses" from a story this week quoting U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch, who investigates complaints made by government whistle-blowers

Aviation Conspiracy Newsletter #437................................................................................July 15,  2007 Past newsletters can be accessed at: http://pages.prodigy.net/rockaway/ACNewsmenu.htm  The PASSUR airport flight tracking system at many major U.S. airports  http://www.passur.com/sites.htm (you must have Java installed to view it). If you want to get the newsletter sent to you every week, sign up to AviationWatch. Bill Mulcahy rockaway@prodigy.net

 FAA Whistleblower Says FAA/Controllers "Cover-Up" Mistakes!!

As Bill Sees It (Editorial): TWO Federal Officials Demand Investigation Of FAA/Air Traffic Controller "Cover-Up" Conspiracy!!! It's good to see that not all FAA officials are busy reinterpreting and/or working to avoid enforcing aviation safety regulations so they can jam more planes into the sky and airports. This week two FAA employees, one a controller and one a U.S. Special  Council who investigated the "whistleblower" complaint, came out publicly with their charges about controllers "covering up" incidents where planes came too close together. No doubt the air traffic controller, Anne Whiteman,  who blew the whistle, will be a target for the controller union. She already has had her car forced off the road by another air traffic controller!!! Last week there were many stories about how the FAA has recently changed the definition of what constitutes a near collision, endangering the safety of the flying public. The purpose of this rule "redefinition" was to unsafely reduce the distance between planes to increase the capacity of airports, while reducing the number of near collision incidents...on paper, not in reality. Are Recent Near Collisions And Crashes Being Caused By FAA Safety Reductions? While the FAA is busy thinking of ways to  change safety rules so they can jam more planes into the sky and increase the "capacity" of airports, the danger to the flying public increases. This week was just another week of aviation chaos with two airliners almost colliding at Florida's Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport after one missed its turn onto a taxiway and entered the runway where the other was about to land.  The FAA can change all the safety rules they want but the one statistic they won't be able to "skew" is the number of dead bodies from an airline disaster; although I'm sure they are working on it.  Five Killed In Florida As Plane Crashes Into Homes!!! Once again people on the ground are reminded that at any time a plane can come crashing into their homes and kill and maim their families. In the case of the Florida crash this week one child in the home that the plane crashed into got burned over 90 percent of his body!!! London Mayor Pays For Study On Heathrow Noise Impacts: A story this week told about a study on aircraft noise impacts on London. This report was commissioned by anti noise group HACAN Clear Skies and paid for by the mayor of London. While most of America's politicians only listen to the airline industry, it is good to see that there is somewhere that politicians listen to the public. America has politicians like N.Y. City's Mayor Bloomberg that instituted "Operation Silent Night" to deal with New Yorker's number one complaint..noise. Unfortunately, while cracking down on things like "boom boxes," the one source of noise that was not mentioned was nighttime aircraft noise from the New York metropolitan areas three major airports!!! When questioned about this, Bloomberg said "that is a federal matter" over which he had no control. Bull#@**!!! A mayor can do a lot and at least he could complain. America doesn't need another president who works for the corporate polluters and cons the public with public relations hype rather than real change. American Airlines Pulls Out Of Stewart Airport In Upstate New York: Stories this week told about how American Airlines has decided to leave Stewart Airport. Local residents should not celebrate yet. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey which runs major airports in the New York City metropolitan area is due to take over the lease on the airport in a few months. As American Airlines has shown that Stewart can't make it as a passenger airport, the REAL purpose of the Port Authority's secret scheme is becoming clear; and I believe that is to turn Stewart Airport into a giant, heavily night-operating air cargo hub. This is the use that the communities near New Jersey's Teterboro Airport successfully fought to stop the Port Authority from dumping on them!!!

Dallas, Texas: FAA Whistleblower And Special Counsel Blow Lid Off FAA Corruption!!! WASHINGTON — Two Federal Aviation Administration employees have accused the agency of "covering up" serious incidents in which planes got too close to each other in the Dallas area, according to a government investigator who suggested that such practices may extend to other parts of the country. U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch, who investigates complaints made by government whistle-blowers, alleged that the FAA and its air traffic controllers have been reclassifying mistakes for at least a year in an effort to reduce criticism from bosses and to help boost performance bonuses, which are based partly on error data. Bloch called for an investigation by the department's inspector general. He said the FAA was seeking to reduce the number of controller errors by blaming the mistakes on pilots. The reclassification of errors could result in "potential crashes." because repeated mistakes would not be corrected, he said in an interview. "This cuts to the core of air traffic safety and why you have air regulations that controllers are supposed to observe," Bloch said, adding that the decision to reclassify reports also was the result of a "symbiotic coverup relationship between controllers and their bosses."

SANFORD, Florida:  Five Killed And 10 Year-Old Boy Badly Burned When Plane Crashes Into House!!!  Ryan Cooper was standing in his driveway when he saw the small plane crash into his neighborhood, setting two homes ablaze. Minutes later, the off-duty firefighter dashed into the houses in search of survivors. The fast-moving blaze was being fed by hundreds of gallons of aviation fuel pouring from one floor to the next as Cooper groped through the smoke and flames without an air pack. He rescued a 10-year-old boy, then went back for the father. He also tried to save neighbors in the burning house next door but couldn't find anyone before a police officer pulled him out for his own safety. In one of the homes, "the conditions on the outside had deteriorated greatly to the point where I almost got disoriented to where I was," the 30-year-old Cooper said Wednesday from the hospital. Eventually, smoke inhalation stopped him. Five people died in the crash _ a NASCAR pilot and the husband of a racing executive aboard the plane, as well as a woman and two children in the destroyed homes. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/11/AR2007071100129.html Video: http://video.on.nytimes.com/index.jsp?fr_story=7236212308183c8a8044e007f126440dd59680b4 

2 Planes Nearly Collide On Fort Lauderdale Runway: The passengers aboard Delta Flight 1489 thought they were just seconds from touching down at Broward's main airport Wednesday, when suddenly, the plane began to climb again. Passenger Paul Zappia thought it was a rookie pilot who overshot the runway. Then the pilot came onto the intercom. ' `I guess you're wondering why we had to go back up. That's because a plane that was unauthorized came out in the middle of the runway in front of us, and we had to avoid it,' '' Zappia, 46, of Miami, recounted. In fact, the two planes had come within a few hundred feet of colliding. Disaster was avoided thanks to the Delta pilot and air traffic controllers, who all noticed the other plane, said Kathleen Bergen, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration. The Delta pilot pulled up the plane, and circled the airport instead of landing. The Delta flight from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport was trying to land on the north runway shortly after 2:30 p.m. Meanwhile, United Flight 1544 was rolling along one of the taxiways that intersects with the north runway, Bergen said. Just before it reached the north runway, the United plane was supposed to turn left onto another taxiway, Bergen said. It didn't. Instead, it went straight, entering the runway on which the Delta plane was about to land. Once the Delta pilot broke the news to everyone aboard, everyone started clapping, Zappia said. ''Thank God, I'm alive,'' Zappia said. ``He saved hundreds of lives.''  http://www.miamiherald.com/466/story/167825.html 

NEW WINDSOR, New York: American Airlines Pulls Out Of Stewart Airport!!! - American Airlines was the first commercial carrier to operate at Stewart International Airport when passenger service began there in 1990. Now the airline is pulling up stakes and leaving the local market. "It is a very expensive market to operate in, and we could not sustain profitability," said Andrea Huguely, a spokesman for American Eagle, the American-owned commuter carrier that currently serves Stewart. Huguely said in a telephone interview on Wednesday that leaving Stewart was a "difficult decision to make" for American, but she cited mounting operating costs, fees and other expenses as the reasons for the withdrawal. American Eagle will stop flying in and out of Stewart as of Sept. 5. Tanya Vanasse, Stewart's marketing manager, said on Wednesday that the airport had not been formally notified about American's pullout. "American Airlines seems to be a little bit ... muddle(d) internally in terms of communication," she said. Stewart has had success recently in attracting new carriers, specifically JetBlue and AirTran, but Stewart Airport Commission Chairman James Wright said the American pullout is "the nature of the airline business." Orange County Chamber of Commerce President John D'Ambrosio was caught off guard by American's announcement. "You can knock me over with a feather at this point in time," he said. "I am surprised that American is leaving. They were the first ones in, and I hope they are the last ones out, frankly. I have high hopes for the future. ... Maybe after the Port Authority takes over, they will be back." The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is to take over the operation of Stewart in October after it buys the remaining 93 years of National Express Group's 99-year lease with the state to run the New Windsor facility. http://www.dailyfreeman.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18575774&BRD=1769&PAG=461&dept_id=74969&rfi=6 

England: Report  Says Aircraft "Dominates The Environment." Noise from Heathrow is a 'significant' problem across the whole of London, with even people on the opposite side of the capital from the airport suffering distress, according to new research. A report, 'No Place to Hide', blames a boom in flying and increases the pressure on government ministers, who are expected to announce in the autumn a decision on whether to build a third runway and sixth terminal at the world's busiest international airport. Researchers from independent consultancy Bureau Veritas measured noise levels that 'dominated the environment' in south London and found 'significant noise' as far from the airport as Poplar in east London. The volume of complaints and membership of campaign groups are also rising in north London and as far west as Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. The most likely explanation for recent increases in noise is that air traffic controllers are using more approach routes because of growing traffic. The biggest rises were during early mornings and evenings, when people are more likely to be at home. Hacan ClearSkies, the anti-airport expansion campaign group which commissioned the report, said it did so after membership rose rapidly in areas well beyond the boroughs nearest the airport - albeit from a 'very low base' - despite claims by the airport's owner, BAA, and by the government that noise levels were falling. The report was funded by the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone.  Read a summary of the report here. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2126746,00.html 

Audubon Society: National Park Service Wants To Preserve Natural "Soundscapes!!!" Preservation of such natural landscapes is part of the National Park Service’s mission. But so is preservation of what the agency calls natural “soundscapes.” “Noise increases exponentially, not linearly,” says Karen Trevino, director of the Park Service’s Natural Sounds Program Center. “In any given area an increase of three decibels reduces our ability to hear by 50 percent. That means that if I can hear a bird singing 100 feet away and a noise intrusion raises the ambient baseline by 3 decibels, I would have to move to within 70 feet of the bird to still hear it. People often assume that a 5- or 10-decibel increase is insignificant or barely noticeable. That’s not the case.”  If the only source of noise pollution were the tour flights, the park would meet the pathetically modest goal of being a little less than half noisy at least three-quarters of the time. But the steady parade of jetliners overhead renders it 99 percent out of compliance. When the FAA proclaimed that it shouldn’t figure in jet noise because it was “de minimus” (trifling), the Grand Canyon Trust, Sierra Club, Wilderness Society, National Parks Conservation Association, and others successfully sued. “It wouldn’t be much of a problem to move the jet route 5 or 10 miles south,” says Hingson. “That would be a huge help, but the FAA won’t hear of it.” http://www.audubonmagazine.com/incite/incite0707.html Editor's Note If it doesn't bother the FAA to concentrate routing over densely populated urban areas, it certainly wouldn't bother them to destroy the natural "soundscape" over parkland. http://www.audubonmagazine.com/incite/incite0707.html 

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                                    Important Aviation News Stories This Week

Experts Talk About FAA Accountability 

Planes Nearly Collide At Ft. Lauderdale Airport    http://cbs4.com/topstories/local_story_194222536.html 

Problems at JFK Airport ripple through U.S. aviation

A conga line of arrivals sat on an unused runway more than a mile from the gates. The main taxiway was clogged by a dozen jets waiting to depart. Another dozen, mostly hulking wide-body arrivals from Europe, were clustered at the northwest corner of the airport — an area chosen to keep them clear of the growing chaos.

As some jets waited for hours to move, the frustration increased. An unidentified pilot on Comair Flight 5233, which had arrived from Burlington, Vt., about 90 minutes earlier, asked the tower for help getting to his gate because his jet's air conditioner was broken. "Our cabin temperature is getting up into the 90s right now," the pilot said.

"Call your company and tell them to find gates for all those guys in front of you," a controller replied, according to a recording of the conversation provided by LiveATC.net, a website for aviation professionals that monitors air-traffic communications. "I can't move anyone out."

JFK, one of the nation's most storied airports — and the most popular for flights into and out of this country — is choking on delays, creating a ripple effect throughout the U.S. aviation system. More than four decades after Eero Saarinen's wing-roofed TWA terminal here helped introduce modern architecture, jetways and other innovations to airports, JFK's terminals often are a crowded mess — symbolic of how a range of vexing problems in the aviation system come together in New York.

At JFK, increasing competition has fueled a dramatic rise in domestic flights in recent years, putting more stress on the most tangled piece of airspace in the world.

It's an area roughly 20-by-20 miles that sees well over 1 million flights a year, including those passing through nearby LaGuardia and Newark Liberty International airports. JFK handles nearly 400 international flights a day, but domestic flights now outnumber international ones by 2 to 1.

Air traffic analysts and federal officials say JFK and its neighboring airports are examples of what busy hubs could look like in the future. Airports in several metro areas, notably San Francisco, are seeing increased flight delays stemming from congestion.

Through May this year, about four in 10 flights at JFK, LaGuardia and Newark were at least 15 minutes late, the nation's worst delays for the period in the past decade, according to the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

On Feb. 14, an ice storm crippled JFK, which led JetBlue Airways to strand aircraft on the ground for up to 10 hours in an incident that drew national attention to airlines' struggles with delays.

A USA TODAY examination of the reasons behind the delays at JFK finds several factors, some of them entrenched and difficult to change:

•The patchwork of air routes available to jets over New York, last updated 20 years ago, requires controllers to put aircrafts in holding patterns nearly every day because they simply run out of room. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is trying to revamp the flight lanes, but the effort faces intense opposition from local communities concerned about increasing noise in several areas. Opposition could delay the FAA's effort for years.

•Tension between the FAA and its controllers heightens the delays. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which manages the region's airports, has found that fewer aircraft have reached runways each hour in recent years because controllers have added more space between planes than required.

The increased spacing comes in the wake of a dispute between the controllers union and the FAA over how to discipline controllers who allow planes to get too close to one another.

FAA Deputy Administrator Bobby Sturgell says the FAA has imposed measures to encourage controllers to run planes closer together. But the plan has become emblematic of the ongoing debate of how to maintain safety while allowing more air traffic.

•Airline competition has helped to clog JFK. During the past two years, Delta Air Lines has sharply increased flights as the number of international flights also has risen.

Officials at JetBlue, the 7-year-old carrier that has become JFK's leading airline, carrying 11.6 million passengers into and out of the airport, have taken the unusual step of endorsing limits on flights because they say that at peak times, airlines are scheduling more flights than JFK can handle.

•Construction to prepare JFK for the mammoth Airbus A380 — set to begin airline service this year in Asia and Europe — has blocked key taxiways. That's added to flight delays because controllers can't efficiently move jets from one side of the airport to the other. During the construction, one taxiway was moved and others were reinforced.

The problems illustrate how fragile the aviation system has become at its busiest airports, says John Hansman, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who studies air traffic.

"A few things start to go wrong, and then it cascades," he says.

In recent months, the problem has prompted a flurry of activity by airlines, the Port Authority and the FAA.

Delta has successfully lobbied the FAA to make more use of JFK's four runways so additional jets can land each hour. The airline industry's Washington trade group, the Air Transport Association, last month demanded that the FAA add flight routes in the New York area. The Port Authority formed a task force to address delays. In response, the FAA has sent a team to New York to study JFK's problems.

"We are putting a lot of focus on it," Sturgell says. "We know it's important to our national system as well as the citizens flying into and out of the New York area."

Sturgell says JFK's problems won't be solved without new technologies the agency plans to introduce in coming decades, such as satellite-based navigation that will allow aircraft to safely fly closer together.

"It speaks to the limitations of the current air traffic system," Sturgell says.

A boost from JetBlue

Built on marshland in Jamaica Bay about 12 miles from Manhattan, JFK originally was known as Idlewild, the name of the golf course that once was on the site.

By the late 1990s, its distinctive terminals had become worn, top carriers such as Pan Am had gone out of business and the bulk of traffic into New York City had moved elsewhere. LaGuardia and Newark both had far more flights.

But in 2000 an upstart airline, JetBlue, saw potential in the underutilized airport and began offering low-cost flights there.

Within three years, it was the airport's top airline, and it has continued to grow. It now has about 344 flights a day.

Other carriers followed JetBlue's growth, particularly Delta. During the past two years, it and its partners nearly doubled the number of daily flights at JFK to 382.

Now JFK handles more flights a day than its New York rivals and has grown at a faster rate since 2000 than any other large U.S. airport, according to FAA data.

JFK is on a pace to handle 460,000 flights this year, 33% more than 2000, the Port Authority says.

'Stacked full of airplanes'

The impact of that growth shows on days such as Monday, June 11.

Late that afternoon, a line of intermittent storms moved up the East Coast, slowing air travel. FAA air traffic managers at the agency's Command Center near Washington, D.C., ordered controllers at JFK to halt most domestic departures but allowed arrivals to continue.

As more and more jets arrived, controllers ran out of places to put them. Barking orders in staccato bursts, they tried to keep taxiways clear by moving arrivals to an unused runway. But the effort couldn't keep the taxiway in front of Delta's terminal clear.

The pilots of Delta Flight 133 from Athens, one of the jets that had been sent to the far side of JFK, radioed shortly after 5:30 p.m. to say the airline was holding taxiway "lima-alpha" open for them so they could reach the terminal. The controller replied that the taxiway was full of planes.

Controller Barrett Byrnes, president of the local controllers union and one of those on duty in the tower that day, says the scene has become typical.

"It's not every night, but it's most nights," Byrnes says. "When you overburden an airport, as delays begin to happen, you are never able to recover from them. Once the delays start, it's over."

Inefficient routes

Former controller Steve Kelley recalls being struck 20 years ago by the inefficient routes that planes in the New York area followed. Little has changed since then.

Nowhere else in the world do so many aircraft converge into such tight confines as New York.

If the weather is bad at JFK, for example, one of the airport's runways is unusable because the route required for a low-visibility approach interferes with flights at other airports. JFK's four long runways could handle more flights, but the area's controllers can't accept more aircraft.

Kelley, who now manages the FAA's effort to redesign flight corridors on the East Coast, says using modern technology such as highly accurate aircraft routes guided by satellite would help reduce delays at JFK and other area airports.

For example, the delays on June 11 were triggered by a few small thunderstorms. One of the features of the FAA's plan would allow planes to use additional routes outside the region, so they would have more paths to fly around storms, Kelley says.

However, the FAA's experience in New York shows it won't be easy to make such changes.

The prospect of rerouting aircraft across the region has created bitter opposition. Public meetings on the plan have been contentious. Virtually no elected official in the region has endorsed the idea.

The FAA has concluded that the number of people affected by noise from aircraft would drop because of plans to keep more planes over the ocean, rivers and highways, but some communities that rarely hear aircraft noise would get more of it.

Area congressmen have asked the Government Accountability Office to study the FAA's plan.

"I'm extremely concerned that this airspace redesign is a colossal mistake," says Rep. Robert Andrews, D-N.J.

More space between planes

Looming in the background of JFK's delays are disputes between controllers and FAA managers.

Two years ago, the FAA found that controllers at the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control center, which handles aircraft below 18,000 feet in a roughly 50-mile radius around the city, routinely were bringing planes slightly closer together than the rules allowed (typically 3 nautical miles).

The facility's union president, Dean Iacopelli, says that since then, several controllers have been disciplined for minor traffic-directing infractions that previously would not have drawn punishment.

The FAA's move has led controllers to put more space between planes, prompting a decline in capacity at New York's airports, says Tom Bock, the manager of airspace and operational enhancements for the Port Authority.

Iacopelli says controllers are simply trying to follow the directions they are receiving from management. The FAA is investigating ways to allow controllers to squeeze more aircraft together while staying within their guidelines, Sturgell says. The agency recently eased its rules regarding minor infractions.

Byrnes and Iacopelli say declines in staffing at New York facilities also have added to delays. Controllers have had increasingly tense relations with the FAA since it imposed pay cuts last year. The FAA says staffing levels are adequate and that it's hiring more controllers.

Endless wait times

As darkness fell on JFK on June 11, delays continued to stack up.

Some of the storms that blocked domestic routes drifted over the Atlantic Ocean, forcing a halt to departures to Europe.

By evening, every flight leaving JFK was late and some jets sat for hours waiting to leave. One pilot waiting for departure clearance asked the tower how long he should expect to wait.

"If I had that answer, I'm in the wrong job," a controller responded, according to a recording of the conversation provided by LiveATC.net. "… I couldn't even begin to tell you."