FAA Tries To Gather Data From Pilots, Controllers On Averted Mid-Air Collisions

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Posted on 25th August 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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The Federal Aviation Administration is trying to convince pilots and air traffic controllers to share information about mid-air collisions that were averted, according to The Wall Street Journal.  

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704340504575447883834823838.html?mod=ITP_pageone_1

United Airlines is likely to be the first airline to participate in the program, which seeks to collect data on what lead up to the near-crashes and ways to avert such dangerous situations, the newspaper reported.

The Journal cited FAA documents that said the initiaitive’s goal is to ”more accurately identify potential hazards and develop more robust mitigation strategies.” The intent is not to take action against any pilots or controllers.

 Why the fuss now? There have been a number of near-collisions mid-air during the past few months.

The Journal reported that according to the National Transportation Safety Board, in recent months there have been about 400 reports of cockpit-warning systems going off when plans flew too close to each other.  

The ultimate goal of the new program is to couple flight data from instruments and interviews with pilots and controllers, rather than studying them separately.  

 

 

Safety Officials Urge That Kids 2 And Under No Longer Sit In Adults’ Laps During Flights

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Posted on 12th August 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Federal air safety officials are once again recommending that all flyers, even children under age 2, have a seat on flights, The New York Times reported Thursday.

In other words, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended that children 2 and younger no longer be permitted to sit on the laps of adults during air flights. The NTSB made that suggestion to the Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/12/us/12brfs-004.html?scp=1&sq=National%20Transportation%20safety%20board&st=cse

 In fact, the safety board is urging the FAA to require that tiny kids on all types of flights – private, commercial and charter — have their own seats. 

 Those 2 and younger “should be afforded the same level of protection as all other persons,” the NTSB said in its letter to the FAA.

But the federal agency has nixed that recommendation on prior occasions, claiming that parents who don’t have the money to buy separate tickets for their youngest kids would instead drive to their destinations, making the number of highway accidents increase, according to The Times. 

Families Of Flight 3407 Get Air Safety Bill Passed And Signed By Obama

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Posted on 2nd August 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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The family and friends of those who were killed in last year’s crash outside of Buffalo, N.Y., have finally seen the bill they lobbied for become law.

On Sunday President Obama signed an aviation safety bill that has been the cause celeb for the families of Continental Flight 3407, a commuter flight that ended with death for 50 people on Feb. 12, 2009. That crash was the result of pilot error, according to federal investigators.

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/capital-connection/article88123.ece

The  new law that the Federal Aviation Administration must abide by and enforce applies to all airlines, and it aims to prevent accidents similar to that of Flight 3407 from taking place in the future.

One of its provisions mandates that pilots now have 1,500 of flight time before they can be hired as co-pilots, versus the former 250 hours. 

The new law also establishes a pilot database that will allow airlines to check how many times a pilot candidate has flunked flight tests. The pilot of Flight 3407, Capt. Marvin Renslow, had failed numerous tests.  

The law also calls for the FAA to come up with tougher regulations regarding pilot fatigue, and for the agency to draft new rules regarding pilot qualifications.   

One Year and 34 Lawsuits Later, Controversy Over the Fatal Continental 3407 Crash in Buffalo Continues

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Posted on 12th February 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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On the first anniversary of what may be one of the most senseless accidents in air history, 34 lawsuits have been filed stemming from the crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407, which killed 50 people. http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20100212/UPDATES01/302120012

Survivors of some of the victims killed in the Feb. 12, 2009 crash, which killed 49 on board the plane and a man in the house it crashed into near Buffalo, N.Y., planned to take four-hour walk today to commemorate the tragedy. http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/02/families_to_walk_in_honor_of_v.html

Jeffrey Skiles, the co-pilot of the “Miracle on the Hudson” flight, was take part in the walk, which will go from the crash site in Clarence, N.Y., to Buffalo Niagra International Airport. The flight originated in Newark International Airport.

The goal is to “complete the flight” on behalf of the loved ones killed in the accident.

Since the crash, spouses and children of the crash victims have filed suit against Continental Airlines and Colgan Air, the regional airline that was operating the flight on behalf of Continental. The other defendants include Colgan parent Pinnacle Airlines, plane manufacturer Bombardier Aerospace and FlightSafety International, which helped train the pilots.

The victims’ families are seeking compensation for negligence, wrongful death and punitive damages.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Feb. 2 that the pilot’s faulty response, over-correcting, to a low-speed warning resulting in the plane crashing into a home and creating a fireball five miles from the Buffalo airport.

The pilot of Flight 3407 was distracted, seemingly more interested in flirting and chatting with his young female first officer. He was also making fast-food wages, $16,000; had failed three flight exams and had no sleep the night before the fatal flight.

The NTSB made 25 safety recommendations after its probe into the crash to the Federal Aviation Administration, which will evaluate them.


The Associated Press did a critical story Friday questioning whether enough has been to done to prevent future accidents involving regional carriers, which is says now make up half of domestic departures. http://www.latimes.com/business/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-us-faa-airline-safety,0,7865987.story

FAA chief Randy Babbitt has said he is “very pleased with the progress” and safety measures his agency has taken since the crash, but many are critical and don’t think enough has been done. Those include members of Congress and the NTSB, according to the AP story.

For example, some legislators and survivors of the crash victims want flight experience for co-pilots increased to 1,500 from 250 hours. Airlines and flight schools have balked at that suggestion.


The FAA has requested public input on whether commercial pilot certification should be changed. http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/02/11/Federal_Regulations.htm

FAA says Hackers broke into agency computers

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Posted on 10th February 2009 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 2/10/2009

By JOAN LOWY
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hackers broke into the Federal Aviation Administration’s computer system last week, accessing the names and Social Security numbers of 45,000 employees and retirees.

The agency said in a statement Monday that two of the 48 files on the breached computer server contained personal information about employees and retires who were on the FAA’s rolls as of the first week of February 2006.

The server that was accessed was not connected to the operation of the air traffic control system and there is no indication those systems have been compromised, the statement said.

“The FAA is moving quickly to prevent any similar incidents and has identified immediate steps as well as longer-term measures to further protect personal information,” the statement said. The agency said it is providing a toll-free number for employees “who believe they may be affected by the breach.”

Tom Waters, president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3290, said FAA officials told unions representing agency employees at a briefing Monday that the second breached file with personal information contained encrypted medical information.

“These government systems should be the best in the world and apparently they are able to be compromised,” said Waters, an FAA contracts attorney. “Our information technology systems people need to take a long hard look at themselves and their capabilities. This is malpractice in their world.”

The FAA statement said the data theft has been reported to “law enforcement authorities,” who are investigating.

All affected employees will receive letters notifying them of the breach, the statement said.

Waters said FAA officials told union leaders the incident was the first of its kind at the agency. But he said his union complained about three or four years ago about an incident in which employees received anti-union mail that used names and addresses that appeared to be generated from FAA computer files.

He said the union complained to the FAA and the Transportation Department’s inspector general but no action was taken.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

Feds: FAA worker took plane, yachts as perks

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Posted on 21st November 2008 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 11/21/2008

Associated Press Writer

SEATTLE (AP) _ A Federal Aviation Administration employee from Southern California took illegal perks from his job — including a plane, yachts and heavy-duty trucks — and an investigation continues into how widespread the practice was, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

Steven Bradley Smith, a field technician with the FAA in San Diego, abused an internal computer system to claim surplus items from other government agencies, according to charging papers unsealed Thursday in federal court in Tacoma, Wash.

“There’s a great concern about who knew what about this — about whether it’s something that was systemic, or one guy who managed to find the seam in the zone defense of the FAA,” Assistant U.S. Attorney David Jennings told The Associated Press.

He said he could not comment further on the investigation.

The computer system is run by the General Services Administration and is designed to allow federal agencies to list items they no longer need, so that other agencies can acquire them free of charge. Prosecutors said Smith should not have been authorized to acquire items but managed to anyway — purportedly on behalf of the FAA — using another agency’s code number.

Among the 215 items Smith obtained since 2004 were a Cessna 210 from the Forest Service, a Boston Whaler from the Coast Guard, several computers and a 44-foot Navy yacht that had been used by the ROTC at the University of Washington, the charging document said.

Smith and his half-brother, Bradley Garner — who owns Royal Limousine Service in Bermuda Dunes, Calif., and is accused of receiving some of the goods — are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and theft of honest services.

Smith made an initial appearance Thursday in federal court in Santa Ana, Calif., and was ordered to post a $200,000 bond before he could be released on electronic home monitoring, Jennings said. It was not immediately clear who Smith’s lawyer was.

Garner was scheduled for a detention hearing Friday. A public defender who represented Garner at his initial appearance, Joan Politeo, was out of the office Thursday afternoon and did not return a message seeking comment.

Investigators said they determined that Smith turned the yacht, a fiberglass yawl called the Lively, over to Garner, who took it to Canada, where it remains. He also gave Garner the Cessna, and even though the plane remained owned by the government, Garner managed to take out an insurance policy — and received a $45,000 payment when the plane was damaged in a storm while parked at a Louisiana airport in 2007.

The Boston Whaler was found on a trailer in front of Smith’s home in Blue Jay, Calif., along with a boat previously used by the Border Patrol and a Chevrolet K2500 truck once used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Attached to that truck was a 600-gallon tank trailer formerly used by the Air Force, according to an affidavit filed by Christopher M. Bjornstad, a special agent with the GSA’s inspector general.

Smith also arranged for transfer of another yacht and several other trucks, officials said. Other items, including several Apple computers, were sold on eBay, Bjornstad wrote.

Smith’s activity came to the attention of the GSA when someone else in the Transportation Department reported he had been using their code number to try to claim the Lively this year. Investigators allowed him to continue the practice to build a case against him, the court documents say, and the Lively episode is the reason charges were filed in Washington.

It’s unclear how Smith would have obtained such items from around the country while keeping his day job. After agencies claim items through the computer system, they must physically acquire them.

“It’s not like UPS shows up with a boat on your doorstep,” Jennings said.

In some cases, such as with the yacht, Smith sent Garner to pick up the items.

Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the FAA in Los Angeles, confirmed that Smith still works for the agency.

“Speaking generally, and not in relation to any specific case, the FAA has no tolerance for anyone misusing the funds of the United States of America,” he said in a written statement. “We expect excellence and professionalism from all of our 46,000 employees.”

Jennings said the government would try to reclaim its property — if it can find it.

“There’s another Boston Whaler missing and a bunch of other boats we’re still looking for,” he said.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

FAA renews, toughens warning to Boeing 737 pilots

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Posted on 10th November 2008 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 11/10/2008

By TIM KLASS
Associated Press Writer

SEATTLE (AP) _ The Federal Aviation Administration has toughened a requirement that Boeing 737 pilots be reminded not to ignore a cabin pressure warning horn, ordering preflight briefings as well as changes in manuals.

The airworthiness directive, issued Monday and effective Nov. 25, stems from a crash in which 121 people died on Aug. 14, 2005, when a Helios Airways 737-300 slammed into a hillside north of Athens, Greece.

Greek investigators determined that the pilots had lost consciousness because of a cabin pressure failure shortly after takeoff on a flight from Nicosia, Cyprus, and that the plane kept going on autopilot for two hours until it ran out of fuel.

Authorities say the cabin pressure control settings had been operated improperly and that an alarm went unheeded. Last Tuesday the attorney general of Cyprus said five people would face criminal charges for the crash.

The FAA’s order applies to all Boeing 737s, the world’s best-selling commercial jet with more than 6,000 orders since the model was launched in 1965 and 5,397 in use worldwide, and takes effect in 120 days. Public notice and comment requirements were waived “because an unsafe condition exists that requires the immediate adoption” of the directive, according to the notice.

Changes in the manuals must be made by each airline. The process is complex, varying by aircraft as well as the nature of the change, and new wording must be validated before it can take effect, FAA spokesman Les Dorr said.

FAA directives typically are reissued by civil aviation authorities in other countries.

Chicago-based Boeing Co. and FAA representatives said the cockpit warning horn serves a dual purpose. On the ground it indicates something is wrong with the plane’s pre-takeoff configuration, such as the setting of the wing flaps. In the air it means a loss of cabin pressure, which can cause pilots to lose consciousness if they don’t immediately put on oxygen masks.

The FAA directed on July 7, 2006, that flight manuals be changed to remind pilots to pay heed to the warning horn after takeoff, but “we have received continuing reports of in-service events involving failure of the flight crew to recognize and react property to valid cabin altitude (air pressure) warning horns,” according to the latest directive.

It was not immediately clear which airlines were involved in the reports of pilots ignoring the horn, when the problems occurred or whether any U.S. carriers were involved.

Such problems in other countries typically are reported to civil aviation authorities who then notify the manufacturer, in this case Boeing, which in turn alerts the FAA, Dorr said.

Before the Helios crash, Boeing was alerted to “some cases where flight crews were getting confused” about the alarm horn and advised airlines “to do a little crew training on that,” Boeing spokeswoman Liz Verdier said.

After the FAA’s initial directive, which largely incorporated Boeing’s advisory note, the manufacturer began working on a change in the cockpit and flight deck design to incorporate a warning light that will provide a second indication of cabin pressure loss when the horn sounds, Verdier said.

“Within the next month or so,” she said, Boeing expects to have the change ready to incorporate into production of current models, the 737-700, -800 and 900, followed by production of retrofitting kits for earlier models a few months after that.

The FAA may propose further action to “address the unsafe condition” once the warning light kits are available, according to the airworthiness directive.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

Plane crash leaves Mexico interior secretary dead

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Posted on 5th November 2008 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 11/5/2008

By MARK STEVENSON
Associated Press Writer

MEXICO CITY (AP) _ One of Mexico’s top pointmen in the war against drug trafficking died when a government jet crashed into a Mexico City street, setting fire to dozens of vehicles and dealing crusading President Felipe Calderon a serious blow.

Officials said the Tuesday crash appeared to be an accident but the loss of Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mourino, former anti-drug prosecutor Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos and six others thinned the ranks of Mexico’s already embattled leadership.

U.S. Ambassador Antonio Garza praised the two officials and suggested them as models for the fight against organized crime.

“Their dedication and commitment to accomplishing their work, especially that which strengthened our bilateral fight against those who attack the security of our two countries, certainly will be a model for all of us in a common effort that will continue to strengthen,” Garza said in a statement.

Mourino, 37, was one of President Felipe Calderon’s closest advisers but has been embroiled in scandal since taking office in the midst of Mexico’s violent fight against drug cartels. He was in charge of the country’s security.

“With his death, Mexico has lost a great Mexican, intelligent, loyal and committed to his ideals and his country,” Calderon told a news conference. “I ask all Mexicans that they don’t allow any event, no matter how difficult or painful, to weaken them in the pursuit of a better Mexico.”

Calderon has sent tens of thousands of federal police and army troops throughout Mexico to fight drug cartels that are fighting increasingly bloody turf battles and killing police officials.

Presidential spokesman Max Cortazar said Mourino and a group of advisers had attended the launching of a program to welcome returning migrants in the city of San Luis Potosi on Tuesday, and were headed back to Mexico City’s international airport when the plane went down.

Officials said no distress call had been received and the crash appeared to be an accident, but Calderon said his administration “will carry out all the necessary investigations to find out the causes of this tragedy.”

U.S. experts from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will arrive on Wednesday to assist in the investigation, officials said.

Mexico’s fleet of government aircraft have suffered accidents in the past and the country has long said it needs new helicopters and planes to fight drug cartels. Mexico is slated to receive more helicopters and planes as part of a $400 million U.S. aid package known as the Merida Initiative approved in June, but which has not been yet released.

In 2005, a helicopter crash blamed on poor weather conditions killed Mexico’s top police official, public safety secretary Ramon Martin Huerta, the head of federal police and seven other people.

The Learjet carrying Mourino crashed on a street in the posh Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood, an area filled with tall office buildings. Officials evacuated about 1,800 people from area offices.

Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said all those aboard the plane were killed and that more people may have died on the ground. “It’s likely that we will find other bodies in the vehicles,” Ebrard told the Televisa news network.

Hundreds of police, firefighters and soldiers swarmed the scene, which was littered with the burned-out hulks of vehicles and pieces of what appeared to be bodies.

Eight bodies were recovered and at least 40 people were injured, seven of them seriously. The jet seats eight and Calderon listed eight people — including assistants and spokespeople for Mourino — but it was unclear whether all the bodies recovered were from the plane. The bodies were too badly burned to be immediately identified.

Santiago Vasconcelos, who was previously in charge of pursuing extraditions against drug traffickers, had been the target of at least one planned assassination attempt in the past.

The plane’s wreckage came to rest just yards from tall office buildings and Ebrard said many more people would almost certainly have died had the plane hit one of the towers.

Civil aviation officials were investigating the cause of the crash.

Mourino was one of the most controversial officials when he joined Calderon’s Cabinet in January because of his family’s involvement with private contracts to Mexico’s state-owned oil company, precisely at a time when Calderon sought to open up the legal framework for more such contracts.

The Mourino family’s dealing in contracts for the transport of fuel angered many here, who view the state oil company as a point of national pride and oppose any openings to private involvement in the industry.

Born in Spain and educated at the University of Tampa in Florida, some also criticized the fact that he was foreign-born, arguing he shouldn’t be able to hold one of the top Cabinet security posts.

He became a Mexican citizen about two decades ago, served as a federal legislator and went on to become Calderon’s closest adviser as head of the Office of the Presidency. He was one of the youngest men to have held the politically sensitive post of interior secretary.

Spanish firms have recently made major inroads in Mexico’s telecommunications and banking sector, drawing criticism from some Mexicans who resent the influence of the country’s former colonial master.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

NextGen could eliminate outdated airways

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Posted on 10th October 2008 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 10/9/2008 2:30 PM

By MICHAEL TARM
Associated Press Writer


CHICAGO (AP) _ A World War II-era air traffic network that often forces planes to take longer, zigzagging routes is costing U.S. airlines billions of dollars in wasted fuel while an upgrade to a satellite-based system has languished in the planning stages for more than a decade.

The $35 billion plan would replace the current radar system with the kind of GPS technology that has become commonplace in cars and cell phones. Supporters say it would triple air traffic capacity, reduce delays by at least half, improve safety and curb greenhouse gas emissions.

An Associated Press analysis of federal and industry data found that if the new system were already in place, airlines could have saved more than $5 billion in fuel this year alone.

But funding delays and the complexities of the switchover have kept the project grounded. The government does not expect to have it up and running until the early 2020s, and without a major commitment, supporters warn that even that goal might be not be attainable.

“The United States has been to the moon and back. I think the public deserves that same level of effort for our national airspace system,” Robert Sturgell, the acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, said in a recent interview.

The planned satellite-driven network, dubbed NextGen, would save fuel by ditching radar technology that is more than 50 years old and enabling GPS-equipped planes to fly the shortest route between two points: a straight line.

NextGen could save airlines at least 3.3 billion gallons of fuel a year — or more than $10 billion annually by 2025, based on today’s fuel prices, according to FAA projections obtained by The Associated Press.

Currently, jetliners move in single-file lines along narrow highways in the sky marked by radio beacons. Many of the routes gently zigzag from one beacon to the next, sometimes forcing cross-country flights to follow sweeping arcs and waste hundreds of gallons of fuel.

It’s “the equivalent of using an electric typewriter when others are using computers,” said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transportation Association. “It’s a huge, huge drag on productivity.”

Some private and commercial aircraft already are equipped with GPS devices that pilots use to determine their position, but the NextGen system would dramatically expand use of the technology by creating a nationwide GPS network for air traffic.

Building the network involves gradually putting together the new system while still relying on radar for day-to-day operations.

Gerald Dillingham, director of civil aviation issues at the U.S. Government Accountability Office, likened the process “to changing a tire on a car that’s going 60 miles an hour.”

Hank Krakowski, the FAA’s head of the air traffic system, called it “one of the largest project management challenges the federal government has had since we put somebody on the moon.”

Airports also have to make improvements to accommodate the expected increase in air traffic.

U.S. airlines have struggled in recent years, in part because of rising fuel prices. Ten airlines have shut down and others are facing bankruptcy. Their financial troubles mean less-frequent flights and fewer amenities for air travelers, who must pay more for tickets, luggage, drinks — even pillows.

A report on NextGen released last month by the Government Accountability Office said major problems remained, including a lack of detail about just how the system would work and a shortage of the kind of highly skilled managers needed to see the project through.

Critics have said the Bush administration, while expressing support for a satellite-based system, never pushed hard enough for it.

“The next president needs to make the NextGen initiative a national priority and ensure that it is given the resources, management attention and sense of urgency that it warrants,” said Rep. Bart Gordon, a Democrat from Tennessee and chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee.

Airlines are expected to contribute $15 billion toward the $35 billion project, and they must equip their fleets with GPS at a cost of more than $200,000 per plane.

But most carriers — which are otherwise enthusiastic about NextGen — are reluctant to retrofit planes years, maybe decades, before the satellite network is fully operational.

“It’s like you buying a new car and the dealer saying, ‘How would you like to buy this nifty GPS technology — but it won’t be available in your area for years,’” Castelveter said.

The NextGen system could offer airlines a 10 percent savings in fuel costs per year. If the network were in place today, it would essentially pay for itself in just seven years.

GPS is already used in many parts of the aviation world. Many European countries, China and even Mongolia have established some GPS networks or plan to do so soon.

At least one major U.S. carrier, Southwest Airlines, says it’s investing $175 million to equip 500 planes with GPS within a few years. That will allow pilots to fly more efficiently even before the full NextGen system is in place, including quicker landings that burn less fuel.

Getting each of its planes on the ground just one minute faster, Southwest says, would save $25 million in fuel a year.

The airline could wait until the new system is up and running, “but we’re pouring gas down the drain,” said Dan Gerrity, CEO of Naverus Inc., which is helping Southwest implement its GPS plans.

Cargo carrier UPS has also installed GPS gear on hundreds of aircraft for use at its Louisville, Ky., hub, saying the technology will save nearly a million gallons of fuel a year, as well as reduce noise and emissions by around 30 percent.

NextGen would also help airliners fly, land and takeoff closer together, minimizing delays. Even though the technology would allow more planes into the sky, the FAA and pilots agree that the technology would actually reduce the risk of accidents such as midair collisions and runway incursions.

NextGen would for the first time let flight crews view precisely where other aircraft are using a cockpit monitor. The current radar system takes more than 10 seconds to scan an area, so controllers keep aircraft separated by several miles as a precaution.

Most pilots see NextGen as the best hope for keeping flights on time. Rory Kay of the Air Line Pilots Association said the improved technology could also help relieve pilot fatigue by cutting the time planes wait on the ground.

Passenger groups generally support the project, even though they expect airlines to pass some costs onto customers.

“But we think it’ll all be worth it in the long run,” said David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association. “The alternatives look pretty bleak to us.”

To the FAA’s consternation, Congress has failed to pass a bill giving the agency permission to dip into the nation’s aviation trust fund to spend nearly $6 billion on NextGen over the next five years.

Robert Poole, an aviation expert with the free market-oriented Reason Foundation, said some legislators are reluctant to vote for a satellite system that would make eliminate hundreds of jobs at radar stations in their districts.

Meanwhile, the air traffic controllers union, which is often at odds with FAA brass over labor issues, accuses the agency of seeing the whiz-bang satellite technology as a cure-all for aviation problems.

It says some of the millions of dollars earmarked for NextGen would be better spent maintaining the current system, citing an FAA computer glitch in August that delayed 650 flights at airports from Orlando to Chicago.

It’s become fashionable, he added, to blame the radar system for aviation ills while ignoring other factors — such as overbooked flights and a lack of suitable airports and runways.

“GPS might be great to put in your car, too, but it’s not going to get you to work any faster unless they open up another lane on the highway. And it’s the same in the air,” said Doug Church of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

Poole said the FAA has a track record of proposing dazzling-sounding projects, then failing to deliver.

He cites an FAA initiative called STARS, which was launched a decade ago to give controllers advanced, multicolored radar screens. The project missed deadlines, went hundreds of millions of dollars over budget and had to be scaled down.

Poole doesn’t doubt NextGen’s potential, but he’s pessimistic about the prospects for rapid progress.

“I just think it’s very unlikely to be done in anything like the time frame and the budget now projected,” he said. “And that will be a tragedy for aviation.”

___

On the Net:

Federal Aviation Administration: http://www.faa.gov/

Air Transportation Association: http://www.airlines.org/

National Air Traffic Controllers Association: http://www.natca.org/

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

Calif. hiker finds ID that appears to be Fossett’s

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Posted on 2nd October 2008 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 10/2/2008 2:29 AM

By TRACIE CONE and JULIANA BARBASSA
Associated Press Writers

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. (AP) _ Preston Morrow was having a little adventure, wandering off-trail alone to look for a remote mine. He was scrambling down a rugged embankment Monday when he noticed some brittle, weathered identification cards scattered among the decomposing pine needles.

“JAMES STEPHEN FOSSETT,” a pilot license read.

As in Steve Fossett, who circumnavigated the globe by himself in 2002 and vanished on a solo flight in a small plane more than a year ago. The subject of untold fruitless hours of searching by teams armed with high-tech equipment and NASA-designed software.

Didn’t ring a bell.

“I have to admit the name didn’t pop into my head,” Morrow said. It wasn’t until Tuesday, when he discussed his find with co-workers at a Mammoth Lakes sporting goods store, that he realized what he might be holding.

“Oh my gosh, this is going to be huge,” Morrow remembers thinking.

A picture of the pilot license — including a certificate number and Fossett’s date of birth — was sent to the Federal Aviation Administration and matched the agency’s records, spokesman Ian Gregor said.

“We’re trying to determine the authenticity of the document,” Gregor said.

The discovery sparked a renewed search effort that resulted in the sighting by air later Wednesday of what appeared to be wreckage.

Erica Stuart, spokeswoman for the Madera County Sheriff’s Office, said a ground team was en route to the site Wednesday night, and they hope to confirm Thursday whether there is wreckage and whether it belongs to Fossett.

The intial find fired gave the widow and friends of the millionaire adventurer renewed hope.

“I am hopeful that this search will locate the crash site and my husband’s remains,” Peggy Fossett said in a statement Wednesday. “I am grateful to all of those involved in this effort.”

Morrow, an avid outdoorsman who moved to Mammoth Lakes to be closer to the mountain slopes he had skied since childhood, was west of the Sierra Nevada town when he found IDs with Fossett’s name and some scattered cash — 10 $100 bills and a $5 bill.

Fossett disappeared Sept. 3, 2007, after taking off in a single-engine plane borrowed from a Nevada ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton. A judge declared Fossett legally dead in February following a search for the famed aviator that covered 20,000 square miles.

Aviators had flown over Mammoth Lakes, about 90 miles south of the ranch, in the search, but it had not been considered a likely place to find the plane. The most intense searching was concentrated well north of the town, given what searchers knew about sightings of Fossett’s plane, his plans for when he had intended to return and the amount of fuel he had in the plane.

Search teams led by the Madera County Sheriff’s Department began combing through the loose, rugged terrain Wednesday looking for the airplane wreckage. An air effort was expected to be under way soon, said Madera County sheriff’s spokeswoman Erica Stuart.

Morrow said he found no human remains or signs of the plane when he hiked back out to the mountain slope Tuesday with his wife and three friends.

While standing on a ridge about 100 yards from where the documents were first seen, Morrow’s wife, Natalie, found a black fleece sweat shirt, Nautica brand, size XL.

“It looked like it had been there a while — it was faded out quite a bit,” Natalie Morrow said. She left the sweat shirt, but gathered GPS coordinates to guide authorities to the site.

“I’m hoping the family can know exactly what happened, so they can have some kind of closure,” she said.

Preston Morrow had wanted to contact Fossett’s family first, so he consulted local attorney David Baumwohl, and together they tried to get through to lawyers representing the missing adventurer’s kin.

“We figured if it was us, we’d want to know first. We wouldn’t want to learn from the news,” Baumwohl said.

When they did not hear back by Wednesday morning, they decided to turn everything over to the police, the attorney said.

The California Civil Air Patrol and private planes from Hilton’s ranch previously had flown over the area, but it is “extremely rough country,” said Joe Sanford, undersheriff in Lyon County, Nev., which was involved in the initial search.

Mammoth Lakes is at an elevation of more than 7,800 feet on the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada, where peaks top 13,000 feet. This year’s biggest search for Fossett focused on Nevada’s Wassuk Range, more than 50 miles north of Mammoth Lakes. That search ended last month.

One of Fossett’s friends reacted to Wednesday’s news with cautious optimism.

If the belongings turn out to be authentic, then that could help narrow the search area for possible wreckage, said Ray Arvidson, a scientist at Washington University who worked on Fossett’s past balloon flights.

“It would be nice to get closure,” Arvidson said.

Fossett made a fortune trading futures and options on Chicago markets. He gained worldwide fame for more than 100 attempts and successes in setting records in high-tech balloons, gliders, jets and boats. In 2002, he became the first person to circle the world solo in a balloon. He was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in July 2007.

He also swam the English Channel, completed an Ironman Triathlon, competed in the Iditarod dog sled race and climbed some of the world’s best-known peaks, including the Matterhorn in Switzerland and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

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Juliana Barbassa reported from San Francisco. Associated Press writers Jason Dearen and Malia Wollan in San Francisco, Scott Sonner in Reno, Nev., Tom Tait in Las Vegas, and Alicia Chang and Jacob Adelman in Los Angeles also contributed to this report.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
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