WASHINGTON — An expert panel assembled to address a series of near collisions of commercial airliners at US airports has recommended several changes it said are necessary to keep air travel safe.
Inconsistent funding, outdated technology, short-staffed air traffic control towers and onerous training requirements are among the issues “rendering the current level of safety unsustainable,” the Federal Aviation Administration’s National Airspace System Safety Review Team said in its final report, released Wednesday.
“The confluence of the issues we identified results in an erosion of safety margins that must be urgently addressed,” the report said.
The review team, which includes former FAA executives, a former National Transportation Safety Board chairman and former aviation union leaders, was established in April and tasked with examining the air traffic control system and delivering recommendations on how to enhance safety, the FAA said at the time.
Wednesday’s report gives the agency’s new administrator, Michael Whitaker, who took office last month, a roadmap for changes and upgrades.
The way Congress budgets for the FAA is undermining the agency’s ability to operate, the report said. It called for changes including exempting the agency from the impacts of a government shutdown – that could happen again as soon as the end of this week.
Additionally, investments in overhauling FAA technology have actually worsened the agency’s technology, the report said. Newer systems are layered on top of older systems, and few of the old systems have been decommissioned or replaced, according to the report.
The panel also called for significant changes to the way air traffic controllers are trained. It said using upgraded simulators could reduce the years-long pathway to certification by 30 percent, and “unnecessary and outdated curriculum” could be cut from the training.
The report comes as the National Transportation Safety Board is conducting separate investigations into several of the near collisions. It said in two recent reports – one involving a near collision in Boston and a collision involving two private jets in Houston – that pilots acknowledged air traffic controller instructions to wait, but took off anyway.
The close calls at several airports this year come as air travelers have been returning to the skies following a dip in air travel during the Covid-19 pandemic and as air traffic controllers contend with an understaffing problem.
