Southern California
Media Coverage | Fact Sheet
- "Air traffic controllers' union isn't satisfied with government plan" - Daily Breeze - Oct. 7, 2005
- "Air traffic retirees could hinder travel" - Inland Valley Daily Bulletin - Oct. 9, 2005
- "Power loss burdens air traffic contact" - San Diego Union Tribune - Oct. 11, 2005
- "Power failures hit area air traffic" - Orange County Register - Oct. 11, 2005
Television/Radio
- FOX - Estimated Audience: 364,438 - Oct. 5, 6 and 7, 2005
- CBS - Estimated Audience: 154,571 - Oct. 6 and 7, 2005
- ABC - Estimated Audience: 131,584 - Oct. 6 and 7, 2005
TOTAL ESTIMATED AUDIENCE COVERAGE: 650,460
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (also ran in San Bernardino Sun): Air traffic retirees could hinder travel
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
The Bulletin and Sun report, "With air traffic controllers retiring at alarming rates and few trained personnel to replace them, officials with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association are warning something must be done or passenger safety may be compromised. And with many more controllers expected to retire in the upcoming months, the lack of trained personnel will leave a gap too large to fill, predicted Tony Vella, local president for National Air Traffic Controllers Association for Southern California and an air traffic controller for Los Angeles International Airport...'The [Federal Aviation Administration] has not projected far enough in advance to hire the employees necessary,' Vella said. 'Now there really is only a couple of different ways this problem can be handled. They will either have to make controllers work a mandatory six days straight, or the [FAA] will have to slow down the amount of traffic to match the number of air traffic controllers.'
San Diego Union-Tribune: Power loss burdens air traffic contact
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
The Union-Tribune reported, "Radio contact between the regional air traffic control facility in Miramar and planes flying in Orange County airspace was hampered yesterday morning, causing some delays in departures and arrivals at airports there... 'It was a catastrophic failure,' said Tony Vella, who heads the union representing controllers at Southern California Terminal Radar Approach Control. That facility, which operates from the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, weathered the communication foul-up. It's the busiest such facility in the nation, handling air traffic throughout Southern California.
ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER: Power Failures Hit Area Air Traffic
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
The County Register reported, "A series of power failures bedeviled air-traffic controllers Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, forcing them to monitor airplanes with a much less efficient backup system... It was nearly a catastrophic failure, said Tony Vella, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. Vella said controllers used other frequencies and in some cases used arriving aircraft to relay instructions on to other arriving aircraft."
Daily Breeze: Air-traffic controllers' union isn't satisfied with government plan
Friday, October 07, 2005
The Daily Breeze reports, "The federal government plans to hire dozens of new air-traffic controllers to watch the skies over Southern California and answer critics who claim staff shortages are putting fliers at risk. But the controllers' union said those inexperienced rookies would still need years of on-the-job training to qualify as full-fledged controllers. The union has launched a campaign to demand better staffing at the control centers that direct air traffic across the country. Union officials claim that overworked controllers will make more mistakes, putting airplanes in jeopardy. They pointed to recent incidents over Southern California in which planes flew within a few miles of each other, closer than they should have been...'We're already stretched like a rubber band about to snap,' said Hamid Ghaffari, who represents the center's controllers.