PATCO (the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization) was the Air Traffic Controller's union prior to the nation wide strike in 1981. These controllers were fired and their families financially crushed due to their continuous efforts to end the unsafe conditions, to bring increased safety to the air traffic system within the FAA, and to end the virtual panic that occurred during heavy traffic periods. The FAA would like everyone to believe that the strike was the sole reason for the termination of these specialists.
For these controllers each day consisted of hourly patterns of traffic flurries or rushes combined with the panic of working a system short handed, working often unusual traffic and airspace conditions, working in conditions of bad weather, working and training new controllers using inadequate On-the-Job-Training techniques, working periodic air traffic emergencies, and working with the continual equipment troubles which often led to periods of system failures. These situations often meant unsafe and dangerous conditions which too often led to the loss of required separation minimums (aircraft too near to one another, too near to obstacles, or too near to the ground).
The FAA preached that no additional controllers are needed, the equipment and air traffic system is completely safe, and separation incidents are the fault of negligent controllers. Unfortunately Controllers who disagree with the FAA's statements are considered disloyal employees and are harassed, not promoted, or fired (such was the fate of the PATCO controllers).
After reading the information below, I think you will agree that separation incidents are not the fault of the controllers. The FAA is to blame due to their dual role of promoting the growth of air carriers and promoting the safety of air travelers. Unfortunately growth is a priority over air safety, and this situation has contributed to the FAA's negligent approach to management, equipment maintenance, and inspections.
Before the strike, Developmentals (Trainees) were hired based on the competitive grade they received upon passing a tough entrance exam, a personal interview, and a physical examination. He/She was then assigned to an Enroute or Terminal facility.
A Terminal facility is the tower and/or approach control that controls air traffic in the vicinity of an airport.
An Enroute facility controls air traffic after it leaves an airport vicinity and until it reaches its destination airport vicinity.
The Trainee would first report to the assigned facility for a two week indoctrination and then be sent to the academy at Oklahoma City for a three month period. The Trainee could only pass or fail this intensive training, which meant the trainee faced being fired for not satisfactorily completing the Academy.
On return from the Academy, the Trainee assigned to the enroute facility would be given a map that depicted the airways contained in the airspace for the entire facility (a huge area). He/She was responsible for memorizing the map. This map looked very much like 15-30 intricately entangled spider webs containing names of airways and reporting positions. Normally two weeks were given to accomplish this task, and of course pass/fail was the only measure of the Trainee's ability.
After passing the map test, the Trainee was sent to the "Floor" where all the radar displays and controllers were located. Their assignment was to deliver Flight Data Strips from one or two data printers to 8-10 control positions in the assigned area of the facility. Delivering these data strips could be compared to running a continuous dash eight hours per day with two 20 minute breaks and a 15-30 minute lunch. A fortunate Trainee would begin manual control labs after six months of delivering these strips. Normally delivering strips lasted more than one year
Once a Trainee was sent to the four-week manual control labs, the Trainee was taught how to separate air traffic without a RADAR display. Using only radios, flight data strips, and landlines (telephones) the Trainee learned to separate the air traffic in his head. (Unbelievably this faulty method is still used today to separate all air traffic crossing the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans!) And as in most FAA training, this instruction was pass/fail. If a Trainee failed he/she was fired, or if very lucky sent to a Terminal facility. After passing the manual lab, the Trainee was returned to the floor to continue delivering flight strips (normally for at least six more months).
The Trainee's first OJT experience began on the "D-Side" as a controller's assistant. He/She would assist the controller working the RADAR display with an instructor listening to and directing or correcting the actions of the Trainee. 40 hours was the allocated training time for this position, and there was a "D-Side" for each of the 8-10 control positions in the particular area the Trainee was assigned. If the Trainee could not pass a proficiency check (or was not recommended to take the proficiency check), 20 more hours could be allocated. The Trainee however could be fired at this point, but most were given the additional 20 hours. Please remember that each day consisted of different circumstances due to equipment failures, weather, and traffic situations, and often the "Floor" was in a virtual panic during the rush periods. 40-60 hours was completely inadequate to train even the best Trainee for the situations he/she would soon encounter. So if the Trainee failed after the additional 20 hours, the Trainee was most often fired. The FAA disciplined the controllers with a callous hand.
After passing all the "D-Sides", the Trainee would spend about one year working these positions and delivering flight data strips. He/She was then sent to the four-week RADAR training labs. This lab taught the Trainee how to be the controller in charge of a sector (a RADAR control position), and this training would begin the final steps for a Trainee to become a journeyman controller. Again the training was pass/fail. So if the Trainee failed, the example used by management was to get rid of the Trainee. Lucky ones were sent to terminal facilities.
After passing the RADAR labs the Trainee would return to the "Floor" to begin OJT on each of the 8-10 RADAR positions in the assigned area. Again 40-60 hours were given for each position, and again the Trainee faced being fired for not passing (or not being recommended for) a proficiency check. Remember the working conditions!
You can bet there was little difference in the training methods used at the Terminal facilities.
Because of the limited staffing conditions, once a Trainee became a Journeyman controller he/she was often refused vacation; worked RADAR control positions without the assistance of a "D-Side" controller; and was now responsible for the training of others. Working as a controller is very difficult at best, and working control positions alone, or training others in an environment described above is even more difficult! Do we want to bet our lives on the inadequate training and working environment of these specialists? Currently the air traffic system is short at least 1000-2000 controllers, and the FAA will only approve the hiring of 500 over the next two years. By that time (due to retirements and other conditions) the system will be stretched so thin that a horrible tragedy will be inevitable!
Reagan letter to the President of PATCO and its members. Dated: October 20, 1980
Dear Mr. Poli: I have been briefed by members of my staff as to the deplorable state of our nation's air traffic control system. They have told me that too few people working unreasonable hours with obsolete equipment has placed the nation's air traveller's in unwarranted danger. In an area so clearly related to public safety the Carter administration has failed to act responsibly.
You can rest assured that if I am elected President, I will take whatever steps are necessary to provide our air traffic controllers with the most modern equipment available and to adjust staff levels and work days so that they are commensurate with achieving a maximum degree of public safety....
I pledge to you that my administration will work very closely with you to bring about a spirit of cooperation between the President and the air traffic controllers.
Sincerely, Ronald Reagan
The FAA's employee abuse caused many good people to be fired or reassigned (some even quit). This is one of the most important causes for the poor staffing levels and the poor relations between management and controllers then and NOW. After all every controller faced being fired everyday of training. And this is a tremendously difficult job - what a way to promote confidence and loyalty!
Our air traffic system needs major changes to maintain and increase its safety for the flying public. In 1981 the FAA did not agree with the PATCO controllers, and to publicize these problems the group illegally went on strike (can there be any doubt as to why, and the current conditions are worse). The President and the FAA fired these specialists without any attempt to resolve the problems, and unfortunately the public let them get away with it.
Due to government and public apathy, several aviation accidents which occurred since the strike (totaling HUNDREDS of lost lives) have been caused by problems/procedures that the men and women of PATCO tried in vain to resolve during that job action in 1981.
First of all, little has changed in the Federal air traffic system today, and it is still using equipment that was old in 1981. Staffing levels are now below that of 81, the traffic volume has greatly increased, at least two billion dollars of your taxes have been squandered by the FAA since the strike with little/nothing to show for it (the FAA used the money to try and automate the system into a "Computer-Controlled Environment" using little to no controllers - What a foolish waste of money, and it was doomed to failure from the beginning). Also the leaders of the FAA always quit after one or two years because their money wasting brings public criticism (but little has been done to change the wasteful practices). In 1996, the most respected whistle blower of this system (the Department of Transportation's Inspector General) quit her job because of the hazards ignored by the FAA , and the most horrible fact is that the FAA measures safety by counting TOMBSTONES! They use statement like: The death toll is lower than India... (is this good?) We should not be allowing situations to occur each year that cause the deaths of hundreds, sometimes thousands of people.
Consider the evidence from the ValueJet crash which shows that the FAA does not adequately inspect our nation's air carriers, the TWA 800 crash may also prove this point, aircraft parts (flaps and engine pieces) continually fall out of the sky, the recent midair over India is an example of the flaws in our own system (after all the same precautions were being used there as here in the USA), and a collision occurred over an airport runway in Illinois. This airport did not have a control tower because the FAA assumed it unnecessary. On Wednesday February 5th 1997 two F-16s narrowly missed a Boeing 727 carrying 80 passengers approximately 70 miles east of Atlantic City. (This is FAA CONTROLLED AIRSPACE!). The Boeing Jet was forced to dive, then climb, and then climb higher to avoid the collision, with little to no help from our inadequately staffed/maintained ATC system (Remember that the controllers do not have radar to provide safety over our oceans, they have only an often faulty mental image to provide aircraft separation). Then two days later three separate incidents occurred (four more F-14s violated the airspace of one passenger jet while F-14s did the same over Texas, and New Mexico)! When Are we going to stop this; are we to wait for a catastrophic collision? And the government (as of 2/18/97) denies the hazards of this rapidly failing system. But the NTSB did admit: "The potential for very unfortunate results was there". Now remember that on Nov. 21st 1996 on the Today Show an FAA official stated: "Statistics prove that one could fly everyday for 2500 years without experiencing a mishap." What a foolish comment! Hundreds of people lose their lives every year, and I estimate that statistics would average the number of flights for those unfortunate folks to less than two weeks of flying! So is the FAA correct in their assumption? NO! In just the one accident in Illinois (which had a relatively low death-toll) fourteen people died because of the FAA's lack of safety consciousness. In August 1997 at the National airport, both the primary and backup radar systems started malfunctioning at about 2:30 pm. This was extremely dangerous, and luckily no mishaps occured. In January 1998 A Southwest Airlines jet Flight 1451, a Boeing 737 with as many as 80 passengers on board, was on its final approach to Burbank Airport when it came dangerously close to colliding with two commuter planes, coming within 100 feet of one of them. And we must remember the crash in Kentucky last year when everyone except the co-pilot died. An overworked FAA tower controller cleared them for takeoff without looking out his huge windows to confirm that the plane was on the correct runway. The runway being too short attributed to the worst accident in the USA in years! On March 6, 2008 documents obtained by CNN allege that management officials at the Federal Aviation Administration, the agency responsible for commercial air safety, knew that Southwest Airlines planes were flying "unsafely" and did nothing about it. All this (and there is so much more that we would not ever finish this article. For more accident information, please see "Review Past Accidents" below.) I'll repeat, ALL THIS information/incidents continues to prove that the FAA is not placing saftey FIRST. Let's not allow this to continue! - we all must help to change the FAA, and we must hurry or the FAA will continue to make more false assumptions about safety!
There is some good news, after years of exile, PATCO has recently been re certified as the union representative for a group of non-federal, contract towers. This is very important because this group places your safety above their own personal or financial security!
As for the remaining fired controllers; a small handful has been allowed to return to work in the FAA, yet the FAA continues to deny positions to some 4000+ PATCO applicants (even though there is a tremendous need for more controllers). The FAA dangerously disregards the needs of the flying public, and I feel we must sternly voice the need for improved aviation safety. Fired controllers do this by writing the Senate, the Congress, the President, and by publicizing the lack of leadership and the many failures of the FAA.
The best people to protect the safety of the nation's air travelers are those same air travelers. Please write your Senator, Congressman, and the President to let them know that our aviation administration must work with its employees, must hire 2000-3000 more controllers as recommended by NATCA (the current controller's association) and the Government Accounting Office (GAO), and must upgrade the massive amount of ancient equipment/procedures still being used today. Also inform our leaders that you want these problems resolved before more tombstones are tallied by the FAA. Your life is very valuable and it is worth the little time it will take you to help promote the safety of our skies, but do not count on the FAA to make the necessary changes. You must notify our government representatives NOW!
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