A Outdoor deadly collision In January between a military helicopter and a commercial airliner, Several additional accidents And the technical problems that have led to mass cancellations in the largest airport in New Jersey have prompted officials to promise a solution for the country’s obsolete air traffic control system and to hire more controllers.
Doing it, they say, would help ensure security and prevent the type of problems that tormented the Newark, New Jersey, Airport Since its radar system briefly failed last week.
Transport secretary, Sean Duffy, plans to unveil a plan of several billion dollars to revise the country’s air traffic control system on Thursday, while the Federal Aviation Administration strives to quickly solve technology and endowment problems in Newark and to avoid a similar crisis elsewhere.
In the midst of the troubles, one thing seems clear: an aging system has trouble managing the more than 45,000 daily flights of the country.
It is not certain that Duffy’s plan that President Donald Trump supports will obtain the necessary funding of the congress to be more effective than previous reform efforts in the past three decades. But Duffy says it is necessary. Already more than $ 14 billion has been invested in upgrades since 2003, but none radically changed the operation of the system.
“We are there. We will repair it. We will build a brand new system for all of you and your families and the American people,” said Duffy.
But the details are rare. It is not known whether the plan will involve privatizing the air traffic control system while Trump supported his first mandate. Duffy did not highlight this possibility. Thursday’s announcement is expected to attract dozens of unions, which would probably oppose privatization, as well as to trade groups, industry representatives and family members of the victims of the January accident.
History of problems
For years, the system works well enough to be largely neglected by all administrations, said professor of the University of Illinois, Sheldon Jacobson, who studied the risks in aviation. “But quite well is not good enough when it comes to plane trips because people’s lives is in danger.”
Jacobson is skeptical that Duffy’s proposal will succeed. But there could be renewed support following the collision between an American Airlines plane and an army helicopter on Washington DC in January, and an airplane that Overturned and caught fire in Toronto.
The weaknesses of the country’s air traffic control system have been highlighted for years in reports and hearings. More recently, a review of the Government Accountability Office published in March said that 51 of the 138 FAA systems were considered to be unsustainable and that 54 others were potentially unbearable. A 2023 breakdown In the opinion of the FAA, the aviator system forced the landing of each flight to the national scale for more than two hours.
“We are dealing with an out of the exhaust system and we have an obsolete infrastructure,” said the former CEO of Continental Airlines, Frank Lorenzo, who helped establish a large center in Newark that United Airlines was maintained years after the acquisition of Continental. “We didn’t really give him the attention it needs.”
Obsolete technology
The President of the National Air Traffic Cuellers Association has declared to the congress that the majority of FAA telecommunications infrastructure in more than 4,600 sites relies at least in part on aging copper wires, instead of more reliable fiber lines which can manage more data. Unexpected failures linked to these lines regularly cause ground stops in airports and seem to have led to problems in Newark.
Air traffic controllers in the Radar system in Philadelphia use to direct planes in and outside Newark Airport I am offline for at least 30 seconds April 28. This installation is based on radar data sent to New York lines that may have failed, some of which are old copper telephone lines. The FAA is based on these lines because Newark controllers were moved from New York to Philadelphia last summer to solve endowment problems.
The FAA said on Wednesday that it planned to replace all the former copper sons with optical fibers and add three new data lines between New York and Philadelphia. The agency also works to obtain additional trained and certified controllers.
It was not immediately clear how long the step would have the stage, but Duffy said that he hoped that the situation in Newark would improve by summer, that is to say a planned track construction project. Several controllers remain on leave of prumatology prolonged after the failure of the radar, which aggravated the staff shortages in Philadelphia.
In response, the FAA has slowed down traffic inside Newark to ensure that flights can be managed safely, leading to cancellations. Duffy also said that the FAA will meet all airlines to determine the number of flights that the airport can manage. Wednesday, Newark led the nation with 42 canceled departures and 46 arrivals canceled, according to flightaware.com. It is even after United reduced 35 daily flights to the airport from last weekend.
Some upgrades have been completed
The FAA has made additional improvements as part of its NextGen program which was created in 2003. Progress includes the development of ADS-B system This provides more precise aircraft locations for controllers and other plans. This system was a focal point of The investigation From the January accident because the Black Hawk helicopter did not use it to broadcast its location at the time of the collision.
Duffy also tried to overeat the hiring of the air traffic controller by shortening the time necessary to access the Academy and by improving student success rates. The FAA also offers bonuses to experienced controllers to discourage early retirement.
A major challenge to upgrade the aeronautical infrastructure is that the FAA must maintain the current system by developing a new system – then find a way to change transparently. This is partly why the agency continued more progressive improvements in the past.
“The problem has existed for decades. It is not because of negligence, but because it is a difficult problem to solve,” said Jeff Guzetti, who is a former accident investigator who also worked in the office of the Inspector General of the Transport Department for several years which was focused on aviation. “And this requires money and good management. And the FAA has had shortages of both money and, in some cases, good management for years. ”
