Air traffic controllers inexperienced in Orlando
ORLANDO (AP) – Orlando International Airport may be one of the busiest airports in the country, but federal officials say too many of its air traffic controllers have too little experience.
U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General Calvin Scovel cited Orlando as having the nation’s highest percentage of controllers in training to become certified when he testified before Congress. Orlando has the 11th largest passenger volume in the U.S.
Forty-seven percent of air traffic controllers at the Orlando airport lack certification – about double the percentage of uncertified controllers nationwide.
Across the country, rookies are replacing retiring controllers who started work as replacements during the 1981 controllers strike.
Critics say new hires are also trained faster and have less expertise when they start work. Some come from jobs as waiters and bank tellers.
In the past, controllers had to become proficient at six work stations in the control tower plus 15 other stations in a separate radar room to become fully certified. In January, the FAA split the work force so controllers become certified in either the control tower or the radar facility, but not both. The change will cut training time from three years to one.
“They’re putting kids right in the big leagues,” said Mitch Herrick, a Miami controller and lobbyist for the union. “The federal government likes to say it has hired 2,000 controllers. They’ve hired 2,000 kids who don’t know anything.”
The Orlando airport has had an unusually large number of controllers retire, and they are being replaced by trainees who are learning the skills needed to become certified, said Alex Caldwell, a spokeswoman for the controllers union.
Payroll records from an employees union show about half of the 32 controllers at the Orlando airport have five years or less experience.
“Safety is our primary concern,” said Craig Chandler, North Florida manager for the FAA, which operates the towers and employs controllers. “We would not do anything to jeopardize the safety of the flying public.”
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and 13 members of Congress signed a letter in December asking the FAA to further study Orlando’s training split instead of implementing it in the final weeks of the Bush administration.