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New FAA Midair Incident Reporting Standards Implemented

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New FAA Midair Incident Reporting Standards Implemented

Old 07-09-2007, 05:24 AM
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Default New FAA Midair Incident Reporting Standards Implemented

Sounds like the FAA is once again trying to create numbers to make their performance look better... I have to agree with the statements made at the bottom of article.


From Avweb:

According to the FAA, 4.5 miles is the new five miles. USA Today reported last week the agency has adopted new reporting standards for air traffic separation errors that, among other things, give controllers a 10-percent margin for error in maintaining the once-sacrosanct five-mile spacing. The newspaper paraphrases Tony Ferrante, director of the FAA's Air Traffic Safety Oversight Service, as saying the half-mile fudge factor is designed to encourage controllers to tighten up traffic at busy airports without risking being cited for busting the five-mile barrier. The new standards also, at the stroke of a pen, dramatically reduce the incident rate by reclassifying some separation errors, adopting new standards for others and eliminating 25 percent of those that are now reportable. The FAA says the new system takes a more rational and realistic approach to the whole error-reporting system, but critics say it will hide the truth about the state of the increasingly crowded airspace. Bryan Zilonis, a regional vice president with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, helped design the old system and he’s upset with its being changed. "It's going to make them look like geniuses when really they've done nothing," he told USA Today. "You improve safety by reducing operational errors, not recategorizing them." Ken Mead, the former DOT Inspector General, said the FAA shouldn’t fuzz the rules when it comes to separation of aircraft. "Do you want planes coming that close together or not? If you don't, then you ought to say that," Mead said.
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Old 07-09-2007, 05:52 AM
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Interesting points, although I will have to say with today's technology over what it used to be, things can be slightly more accurate to allow tighter spacing.
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Old 07-09-2007, 10:30 AM
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Originally Posted by Ewfflyer View Post
Interesting points, although I will have to say with today's technology over what it used to be, things can be slightly more accurate to allow tighter spacing.
I would tend to agree with this. Many FAA regs were written in the days of piston-engine airliners.
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Old 07-09-2007, 11:25 AM
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Originally Posted by rickair7777 View Post
I would tend to agree with this. Many FAA regs were written in the days of piston-engine airliners.

Perhaps. But many radar ATC facilities still have equipment from that era. Further more, if we're "tightening" the standards, why are we expanding the window to allow for more slop?
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Old 07-09-2007, 07:24 PM
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I've been rolled twice in citations behind a DC-8 and a 737. both times in PHX Both times controller said we had greater than 5 miles seperation. The DC-8 rolled us past 90 deg. before we got it back.
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