Problems in Air Traffic Control and Proposed Solutions Essay -- Aviati

Problems in Air Traffic Control and Proposed Solutions In northern California this summer, the Federal Aviation Administration(FAA) unintentionally performed its early operational test of free flightaviation without direct form traffic control. This was an unintentionalexperiment because it was a result of a native shut-down of the Oakland Air RouteTraffic Control Center (ARTCC).Although Oakland is only the sixteenth busiest ARTCC, its responsible forthe largest block of airspace of any ATC facility 18 billion squ ar miles.Oakland directs all upper-level flight from San Luis Obispo, California to theCalifornia/operating room boarder, including most Pacific oceanic routes. The failurehappened at 713 a.m. local time during the morning departure push.Controllers estimated there were 60-80 aircraft downstairs their control when thepower died. All radar interpenetrates went dark and all radios went silent. It took 45minutes to restore radios and bring up a backup radar system. It was more thanan hour before the main radar presentations came on line. mavin controller described the sudden quiet in the control rooms as theloudest silence Ive ever heard (UPI , 1995). He went on to offer there waspanic on everybodys face as they realized they had been rendered deaf, dumb,and cover by this catastrophic equipment failure. It took a few minutes forcontrollers to realize the shut-down had touch the entire facility. There wasno book procedure to cover this touch scenario, so most controllersimprovised. Controllers in adjourning Los Angeles, Salt Lake, and Seattle ARTCCs andvarious Terminal radar Approach Controls (TRACON the level of radar coveragebelow upper-level ARTCC radar) were asked to transmit control over all airspacewithin their radar coverage, and take away aircraft under their control inbound toNorthern California. Control towers in San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose,Sacramento, and new(prenominal) airports in the area were instructed to hold all IFRdepartures on the ground. The most effortful problem was getting notification tothe airborne flight crews. In one(a) case, controller Mike Seko said, We had Napatower telling high meridian aircraft Oakland Center had lost everything, and toswitch to emergency frequencies (Seko, UPI, 1995). But most airborne aircrafton Oakland Center frequencies were in a state of l... ...ly privatize it, another(prenominal) torework it from within, and a few other variations of those. Legislators havetheir own reasons to reassert certain bills is our safety one of them? The Federal Times editorial sums up an everyday controllers concern.Hes the one working with that aged computer equipment, hes the one working theunnecessarily long shifts, hes the one scared every day his screen will go darkduring the morning rush hour. I would be inclined to listen very closely to hisconcerns and follow his recommendations towards a solution. The FAAs gauge statement declares the agency as an organizationdedicated to eliminating barriers, improving communication, providingexcess opportunities for training, and constantly encouraging all personnelto seek ways to make better. The FAA is proud of its Quality activities becausethey foster such initiatives as continuous procession of work processes,empowerment of employees, partnering of labor and management, and re-engineering. (World Wide Web FAA Home-page, 1995) These are very lofty goalsthat always require improvement. But will disaster strike before their processesgets us a new ATC system?