I wonder when this will come to a breaking point. We all talk about hiring minimums and the dangers of having 250hr wonders in the right seat of an RJ, but I think this is a far worse issue that may boil over sooner than we think. 
MORE THAN HALF OF NEW HIRES AT MAJOR MIAMI RADAR CENTER HAVE RECEIVED NO TRAINING AT ALL
01/28/2008
CONTACT: Steve Wallace, NATCA Miami Center, 954-401-1348
MIAMI – Six out of every 10 new hires at Miami Center, South Florida's largest Federal Aviation Administration facility, are not receiving adequate preparation for their future air traffic controller jobs because of a worsening controller staffing crisis that has left the FAA without enough fully certified controllers to train them. That has led to an unprecedented number of new hires quitting the FAA and creating new and devastating consequences for the FAA's last remaining hope of keeping the system together.
Instead of the FAA recognizing and planning for the expected exodus of experienced controllers in Miami -- worsened by the forced imposition of draconian work rules 16 months ago, as well as a 30 percent pay cut for new hires – the agency instead poured large numbers of trainees into the facility to try and fix the problem of staffing that has affected the safety and efficiency of air travel both in South Florida and nationwide. But that has made the problem worse by massively degrading the level of training that is essential for preparing the next generation of controllers for perhaps the most challenging period of air traffic control in the nation's aviation history.
FAA policy regarding an effective training environment mandates that trainees should make up no more than 30 percent of the controller staff at an en route center. But at Miami Center, the nation's eighth busiest en route center (the largest of the FAA’s facilities that mostly handle flights between airports), there are 102 trainees, comprising 34 percent of the staffing total of 299. Sixty percent of the trainees have no functional training. These 62 developmental controllers have been forced to wait up to 16 months after their first day on the job to receive any real training. Students have reported that their training materials and books are outdated and incomplete and have been told by management to obtain the current information themselves.
Because the 197 veteran controllers at the facility are overburdened with training, not to mention guiding the flying public safely home, students have reported that they were either never assigned a mentor or their mentor was not able to meet with them even though the training guide states that each student will be provided with a mentor.
"A center's safety record is based upon the experience that air traffic controllers bring with them to the scopes every time they plug in," said Steve Wallace, NATCA's Miami Center facility representative. "Miami Center's staff of veteran air traffic controllers is rapidly dwindling due to poor working conditions caused by the agency's imposed work rules and the new training environment at Miami Center. Three veteran controllers retired on January 3 and three more are expected to retire by the beginning of February – a preview of what could be an even bigger year for veteran controllers retiring to escape the FAA's ever-tightening stronghold."
Since July 2007, 11 trainees have resigned. "This is unprecedented and absolutely unheard of," says veteran controller Tom Adcock, NATCA's assistant facility representative.
Ex-trainee Shesly J. Gonzalez, in a resignation letter dated Oct. 9, 2007, addresses the shoddy working conditions for trainees and veteran controllers, writing, "I have never felt so small and insignificant as I have been made to feel by the FAA. There is a growing tension in Miami Center that can be felt upon entering the control room. The staffing crisis has reached a point that forces fully certified controllers to work 10-hour days, six days a week. The controllers are exhausted, causing morale to be low and making it a very negative atmosphere to work in, not to mention the adverse implications that this has on safety."
Wallace sums up the rapidly deteriorating situation: "Due to the anticipated need for more air traffic controllers, Miami Center management altered the training plan for developmental air traffic controllers in hopes of progressing them faster through the various stages of training. While this is a welcome thought, the process by which they are attempting to accomplish this diminishes the integrity of the system and puts the individual at risk as well as the flying public. In essence, Miami Center management is jeopardizing our safety record at the expense of the individuals that have been hired to keep our ATC system running."
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By Blair Watson
updated 4:59 p.m. ET, Wed., Jan. 30, 2008
Higher-than-forecasted air traffic controller retirements and total controller attrition over the past few years have left the United States with the lowest number of fully trained and certified controllers since 1992, according to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.
By the end of 2007 there were 11,250 fully qualified controllers working at the Federal Aviation Administration’s 314 facilities. In 2006, there were 11,706, and in 1992, 10,696. According to NATCA, since 2004 the FAA has significantly underestimated the number of controllers who will retire, and this has contributed to the current controller shortage.
Earlier this month, NATCA President Patrick Forrey said that remaining veteran controllers no longer can handle peak volumes in Atlanta, Chicago, New York and Southern California safely. Forrey indicated that a controller staffing emergency exists in the four locations, which are among the most congested in the country.
“They are being asked to handle so much volume with so little rest and with fewer eyes and ears that they are fatigued, and when you are fatigued you make mistakes,” said the union leader.
The FAA’s chief operating officer, Hank Krakowski, acknowledged that staffing is “tight” at “a few facilities.” But he emphasized that “nothing in our data shows any increase of errors where staffing or fatigue have been contributory. We do not believe we are running an unsafe system.”
Krakowski said the FAA is aggressively hiring new controllers and is pleased with their skills and progress in training. New controllers can take up to three years to become fully certified for all tasks at busy facilities.
NATCA said in an Oct. 22, 2007 news release that while there were 3,618 controller trainees system-wide, approximately one-third of them were not certified on any position and could not work alone without a fully certified controller beside them. The association’s Web site states that only 40 trainees out of 1,800 controllers-in-training became fully qualified by the end of last year.
The union also says many FAA facilities have more trainees than resources available to train them, resulting in delays of up to 16 months before they begin to receive any real training. Because of the long wait to start training, some trainees have quit, according to NATCA.
NATCA claims that the contract imposed by the FAA in early September 2006 is a major factor causing controllers to retire as soon as they are eligible instead of remaining in the system. The contract included pay cuts, freezes, imposed work rules, and provided no benefits for trainees, including those with military controller experience. Mandatory retirement for controllers is typically six years or more after reaching retirement eligibility.
According to the FAA, 828 controllers retired in 2007, 29 percent more than predicted. Data on the NATCA Web site show that controller attrition in FY 2007, which ended on Sept. 30, totaled 1,558 personnel. The number included 856 retirements, 201 resignations, 126 removals, 10 deaths, and 365 promotions to FAA supervisory positions.
The House passed a reauthorization bill late last year involving the FAA that would force new negotiations between the agency and controllers. The Senate has yet to vote on its version, which does not go quite as far. The Bush administration opposes reopening the contract.
“The air-traffic controller staffing crisis has industrywide consequences, including more and longer flight delays and an increased use of mandatory overtime that results in an exhausted and burned-out work force,” wrote Jim Hall in an Oct. 30, 2007 article in The Tennessean. Hall was chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board from 1994 to 2001 and is the managing partner of Hall & Associates LLC, a transportation safety and security consulting and government relations firm.
The second-largest reason for U.S. airline flight delays is a congested air traffic system, according to data from the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The data show that the total number of minutes of delay in 2007 was 23.3 million.
Meanwhile, air traffic in U.S. airspace continues to increase. According to the FAA, U.S. airlines transported 738.6 million passengers in 2005. The agency's latest forecast estimated the 2007 passenger total would be 780 million, a 4.6 percent increase over the previous year. The FAA forecast says “U.S. commercial aviation remains on track to carry one billion passengers by 2015.”