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photostill · 02-05-12, 23:14

It seems the article is head hunting for some one to be responsible. It again appears much isn't being said.

One of the items that hasn't been mentioned is that the air traffic controllers are working with what is now obsolete equipment. Not just in the Honolulu International Airport but across the nation. Upgrades in computer abilities, radar advances, tracking software, have made these sorts of incidences one that would be one of the past 'used to be a concern'. To date none that I know of have actually been upgraded to the new standards. The FAA is aware of it, believe me. They would like to see all the airports have these newer setups but it's a matter of costs. Changing over is incredibly expensive and requires down time for the tower to put it all in place.

Then there is the elephant in the room. No one is speaking to or about the elephant. Air traffic controller is one of the highest pressured jobs there is. Ronald Reagan found out just how hard it was to replace fired controllers with new ones when he busted PATCO, the air traffic controllers union. Oh, he could get new people, no problem. What he couldn't get with new people was experience. People with the knowledge of how to handle stress. The head controller, watches his people, not the planes. He looks for signs of psychological crack up. Yes it happens and at the screen.

The FAA until recently had a big deal about controllers getting a catnap during their breaks. That was a no-no that would sent them home off the job. Revisiting the whole incident with a controller taking a cat nap, found that it would be beneficial to relieve some of the stress if they could get a nap from time to time. Areas are now supposed to be set up for that purpose with the understanding that a controller coming out of a nap does not hit the job for around 20 minutes, so that he is fully awake.

As an odd side note, not really having to do with controllers other than the directions they give pilots, most of the US airports are finding out they need to renumber the runways. The numbering on the runways, reflects the bearing the pilot needs to take to center on the runway during approach. Magnetic drift is responsible for about 1° off on the compass every 5 years. In long distance travel an error of 2° can put a plane at the wrong airport.

Quote:

"Recently, the drift has caused our runways' orientations to be closer to the next increment on the magnetic compass," Tampa International Airport spokeswoman Brenda Geoghagan told LiveScience in an e-mail.
For example, the west parallel runway, which was named 36Left —18Right to designate compass points of 360 degrees and 180 degrees, is being renamed to 1Left — 19Right, to indicate 10 degrees and 190 degrees, since the runway designations are separated into 10-degree increments.