Vol. 11-8 September Part 2

September 1997, Volume 11, Issue 8

One on One

Aviation subcommittee chair speaks out on variety of air traffic control issues

Congressional offices employ several people who open constituent mail, take calls from concerned parties and meet with individuals who want to voice concerns. All opinions voiced by these means are taken into consideration by members of the United States House of Representatives and Senate. Rep. John Duncan, R-Tenn., Chairman of the Aviation Subcommittee of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, told The Air Traffic Controller he is more than willing to hear about problems facing air traffic controllers and will do what he can to help. He also addressed a myriad of aviation topics.

The Air Traffic Controller: Are you pleased with President Clinton's choice for Federal Aviation Ad-ministration Administrator Jane Garvey?

Duncan: I have met with Jane Garvey and am favorably impressed. I also heard many good things about her from people whose opinion I respect. I know there was some concern within the aviation community because her background did not include many years of aviation experienceshe is a non-pilot and so forth. But, her main job is to administer a very large bureaucracy and she has expertise in this area. Her positions as administrator of Boston's Logan Airport and deputy administrator of the Federal Highway Administration will help her be an efficient and successful leader of the FAA.

The Air Traffic Controller: The bill you introduced this year encourages contracting more work to the private sector. Do you believe privatization should be applied to air traffic control facilities?

Duncan: Air traffic controllers should have no concern whatsoever about my bill. It is no threat to them. The legislation contains exceptions for things inherently governmental in natureair traffic control can easily fit into that category. Secondly, it has exceptions for national security and things that are the core mission of a particular agency or department. I'll give you two examples of the areas this bill is aimed at. The National Park Service probably doesn't have any desire to pick up garbage in national parks. Nor does the Veterans Administration have a desire to do the laundry. These are functions that could easily be contracted out. The bill is mainly aimed at the myriad of commercial activities the federal government needs done.

The Air Traffic Controller: Do you believe contracted out facilities are as safe as FAA towers?

Duncan: Almost all contract towers have extremely safe records. At the same time, I realize there are always exceptions. If anyone knows of contract towers being greatly understaffed or operated in an unsafe or inefficient manner, they should immediately call it to my attention. Nobody has done that in the past. If a sufficient number of people in enough different locations give me reason to be concerned, I will hold hearings on this issue and look into it the best way I can. But so far nobody has provided me with any information which would cause me to believe these towers are unsafe.

In the case of aviation accidents, The National Transportation Safety Board is the primary agency in charge of investigations. I don't think they ever attributed an accident to problems in a contract tower or staffing shortages. If they ever do publish a report saying there is a serious safety problem as a result of under staffing at these towers, I would be very concerned and would address the issue and take necessary action.

The Air Traffic Controller: Will the committee hold a hearing on controller staffing now that the General Accounting Office and the National Academy of Sciences published their reports?

Duncan: We don't have a hearing scheduled at this point, but I would be willing to place one on the agenda to further study the staffing issue. The aviation field is an extremely big area. I always learn a great deal when the committee holds hearings, whether it is on staffing or other various topics.

The committee will soon hold hearings on the report from the Aviation Review Commission when it is published in August. I assume the group will release major recommendations we will need to study and we will possibly enact some of these proposals into law. accidents combined since the Wright Brothers flight in 1903, they are amazed. Those who work in aviation safety should be very proud of their performance. At the same time, they should maintain the desire to improve. I hope if I'm fortunate enough to be in Congress five or six years from now, I will be a better repre-sentative than today.

The Air Traffic Controller: Will Congress consider a "20 year and out bill" for air traffic controllers. If so, will Congress fund second career training.

Duncan: The main thing we would have to do is consider what the cost implications would be. Almost no one in the private sector is able to retire after 20 years. To be very honest, anyone who doesn't feel very fortunate to have their job, whether in or out of government, owes it to themselves and their employers to get into something else. I think air traffic controllers, members of Congress, teachers, doctors, lawyers, etc., should feel very fortunate to have the jobs they do. I wonder sometimes about people who are desperately trying to leave a job, especially after what I would consider a very short career.

The Air Traffic Controller: Do you believe it is important to research air traffic controller human factors issues such as stress and sleep habits?

Duncan: I don't see anything wrong with continuing to study human factors. But I will say there is tremendous stress in almost any occupation. A business man who mortgages his house and puts up everything he has to borrow $300,000 to start a small business which according to statistics will probably fail within the first five years, is under tremendous stress. Farmers, for example, are under tremendous stress with so many factors such as weather beyond their control. We frankly have to be sure to hire good people who are capable of managing the stress they are under. We should tell people being in air traffic control is not an easy job and if they want an occupation that is not stressful they should enter another occupation.

The Air Traffic Controller: What other issues does the committee plan to study in the 105th Congress.

Duncan: Our subcommittee had the most hearings of any in the entire Congress during the 104th term and we performed the first major overhaul of civil aviation laws for the first time since 1958. This year, we've been very active as well. We just passed a law allowing TWA families to sue under regular tort law so they can receive something for the deaths of their children. We passed this legislation in the House and hopefully it will be passed in the Senate and signed into law very quickly. The remainder of this Congress will be a very busy and interesting time.

I am pleased the new transportation appropriations bill provides funding for 500 new air traffic controllers. I hope the FAA hires these controllers as soon as they can reasonably do so without rushing into it and hiring people who may not be capable. But, the authorization to hire additional controllers is a sign of good things to come.

The Air Traffic Controller: Do you believe the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System will be delivered on schedule as promised by the FAA?

Duncan: The FAA has had numerous problems with STARS. I know Chairman Wolf, R-Va., recently requested a new investigation into this project. Our committee held a few hearings in the past and today I sent some additional information to the subcommittee staff requesting another hearing to look into the situation. The cost seems to be skyrocketing out of control and the FAA has had tremendous difficulty managing some of these very expensive procurements. Seeing that this doesn't continue to occur will be a major challenge the new FAA administrator needs to concen-trate on.

The Air Traffic Controller: There have been discussions about revisiting the issue of a new air traffic control corporation. What are your thoughts on theair traffic control system being run by the government or a private corporation?

Duncan: We held three days of hearings on this issue very early in the last Congress. The main point that came out of those discussions is the aviation community was united in opposition to the proposal. Sometimes you do good by enacting positive legislationand sometimes you are successful by stopping po-tentially bad legislation. Obviously, times and conditions change. The committee is planning to travel to certain locations in Europe. One of our stops will be to visit Germany and observe how its air traffic control corporation operates.

If a proposal for a private air traffic control corporation is presented, it would have to be improved from what the administration first offered. I don't see much sense in spending a lot of time on something that almost everyone is opposed to. One of the things I try to do in regard to everything is remain open to new ideas or suggestions. If you ever lose the desire to improve you're in trouble. We should always be looking fornew and better ways to do business.

I'm very pleased with the overall aviation system in this country; It's one of the few areas we lead the world. The record we have and the job aviation professionals are doing is miraculous. When I tell individuals we have more deaths in four and a half months on our nation's highways than we do in all of U.S. airplane