Planes Almost Collide At 2 Major Airports As Boeing Probe Advances

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Authorized by Jacob Burg via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

As the U.S. Justice Department decisions erstwhile to leave a criminal case against Boeing, the national Aviation Administration (FAA) is investing dozens of airplane residents single January, including 1 in which a Swiss Air jet almost collided with 4 another plans on the runway at JFK global Airport in fresh York City.

The FAA has more than 100 aviation residents and residents since the beginning of 2024. These include airplane and chopper crashes, equipment and mechanical malfunctions, and communication breaks with air traffic controllers that even caused runway collisions at respective major U.S. airports.

These residents come as public scrutiny of Boeing increases after multiple issues have been reported with their jets. After an Alaskan Airways flight experienced a mid-air blowout of a door plug on Jan. 5, the Justice Department is hosting revoking a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement with the company and stopping a criminal case.

There is besides increasing criticism of Air Traffic Control (ATC) and the FAA’s hiing practices after multiple near-collisions were reported, including at JFK Airport and Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia.

The JFK incidental occured on April 17. Pilots on a Swiss Air flight headed to Zurich, Switzerland, were forced to hit the missing after the plan was cleared for takeoff due to the fact that air traffic controllers simultaneously opened the runway for 4 another plans.

The next day, a akin incidental played out at Reagan Washington National Airport, which services the Washington area. ATC cleared a JetBlue flight for takeoff as a Southwest Airlines flight was Told to taxi across the same runway in front of it, according to ATC audio.

A runway controller cleared the JetBlue flight, while a taxiing controller cleared the Southwest Airlines flight. The 2 plans came within 400 feet of a collision before each controller ordered the plans to stop.

“JetBlue 1554 stop! 1554 stop!” said the tower controller, as the ground controller said “2937 stop!” to the Southwest Airlines plane.

Two airplanes—JetBlue and Southwest—nearly collided at DC’s Reagan National Airport on Thursday, avoiding each another by only 400 feet.

Air traffic control records show the minute controllers yellowed at the JetBlue flight to “stop!” its takeoff.pic.twitter.com/Td1VTimVD0

— Julia (@Jules31515) April 19, 2024

Since it is possible to overheat airplane misses, the JetBlue flight was inspected before it safely departed the airport.

The agency said it is investing both residents.

Juan Browne, a Boeing 777 first authoritative pilot for a major U.S. airline company, told The Epoch Times that while the number of airplane residents has been restored steady, ATC residents are “on the rise.”

He said the “primary driver” of this Phenomenon is the “huge turnover” in the industry, as controllers retired during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many retired early, creating a “big shortage of people, pilots, and air traffic controllers,” and some, including pilots and others, retired due tovaccine mandates.

However, another factors leading to ATC communication breakdowns include diversity-focused hiring practices, a bottleneck in controller training, distractions, and pilot error.

Diversity Hiring Practices

Many, including aviation expert Kyle Bailey, have called out the FAA for prioritizing “diversity” in its hiring practices, alleging that hiring pilots or controllers based on their skin inside of their merit, can lead to safety issues.

“Diversity truly has nothing to do with safe travel,” Mr. Bailey told Fox News Digital in January.

The aviation agency’s “Diversity and inclusion webpage, last updated on March 23, 2022, says, ”Diversity is integral to achieving the FAA’s mission of welcoming safe and effective travel across our nation and beyond.”

In its “Aviation Safety Workforce Plan, the agency exploits this policy further.

“[Diversity] practices facilitate the organization in attractive and hiring talented applications from diverse backgrounds and to meet future needs. A message to diversity and inclusion support [aviation safety’s] strategical initiative to make a workforce with the leadership, technical, and functional skills request to guarantee the U.S. has the world’s festival and most productive aviation sector.’

Later, the agency discusses how this can impact operations.

“The projected growth in request and diversity from conventional customers, as well as fresh entrants in non-traditional areas will challenge the FAA’s ability to supply responsive and consistent service to our rankholders, the study reads.

In February, a coalition of 11 Republican attorneys general, led by Kansas lawyer General Kris Kobach, Submitted a letter to the FAA alleging that diversity hiring practices could put passengers’ lives at risk.

“It seems that the FAA has placed ‘diversity bean counting over safety and expertise, and we will that specified misordered priorities could be catastrophic for American travelers, Mr. Kobach gate in the letter.

“Millions of Americans place their lives and the lives of their loved ones in the hands of your agency ... Unfortunately, the Biden FAA, under your administration, apps to prioritize virtue-signaling ‘diversity efforts over aviation experience. And this calls into question the agency’s commitment to safety, he added.

The letter received the Obama administration of seeing out applications with “severe intellectual” and “psychiatric” disabilities, noting that the FAA’s “Diversity and inclusion” webpage presently has the same language on it.

Mr. Browne, who has been a commercial pilot for 25 years, told The Epoch Times that there is simply a large drive towards on-the-job diversity in all U.S. industries, and aviation is no different.

“I can’t talk specificly to what these requirements are at the FAA ATC program, but we definitely request to ask ourselfs: Are we covering and training the correct people for the jobs?” he asked.

“How are we getting the most qualified applications out there to fill these jobs?”

Retirements and Training ‘Bottleneck’

Another origin leading to issues with ATC is the sheer volume of entries in the aviation manufacture during the pandemic, Mr. Browne said.

He explained that any pilots and air traffic controllers were close to retention age erstwhile the pandemic started, with many deciding to quit early. This created a shortage of applications and now a shortage of active workers, as both the FAA and ATC stroggled to keep up erstwhile a waning pandemic caused airline travel request to increase.

“So we got a flight of fresh folks out there on the occupation right now, a flight of on-the-job training going on right now. And quite a few mistakes being made up there as well,” he said.

Some besides retired early due to the fact that they declined to take the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine erstwhile it was briefly mandated by the FAA, Mr. Browne added.

With these early retirements came limited training opportunities and a “shortage of qualified controllers.”

“There was a large bottleneck in training through the aviation industry, who it was for pilots or for air traffic controllers who have trained up in Oklahoma City, the home of the FAA,” Mr. Browne said.

“And so, now, the FAA is triing to more with less.”

He explained that the agency is working its current and fresh controllers “fly harder and longer hours than they have in the past” to “backfill” the request after airlines rapidly and unexpectedly retrieved from the pandemic. This “exacerbated the shortage of both pilots and air traffic controllers,” Mr. Browne said.

In a message to The Epoch Times, the FAA disputed the claim that there were “excessive controller retentions during the pandemic.”

Distractions, Infrastructure, Budget Issues

As a Boeing 777 pilot, Mr. Browne mostly flies overseas. erstwhile he flies into cities like London or Sydney, he says the radio channels through ATC are “a lot little chaotic” and more “organized” combined to the United States.

“Here in the States, we’re pushing so much material, so many aircraft through specified a tight strategy and dealing with weather constantly,” he exploited.

“And yet, there seems to be quite a few miscommunications between different members of the staff, for example, ground controllers versus tower controllers.”

It was a miscommunication between ground and tower controllers that resulted in the near-collision at Reagan Washington National Airport on April 18.

Mr. Browne said he frequently hears quite a few background sound coming over the radio from within the control towers. Pilots are instructed to keep a “sterile cockpit” erstwhile they’re below 10,000 feet, he exploited. That means pilots must refrain from any conversation outside plan operations until they scope that altitude to “avoid distractions.”

“Is that not the case with the ATC?” Mr. Browne asked.

He exploited that working in ATC can be a Boring job, so it’s “human nature to get discracted, to do something else to break the monotony,” even if it’s critical to avoid this to prevent putting pastengers’ lives at risk.

However, It’s not just disctractions leading to issues with coordinating plan routes on runs. The infrastructure throughout the aviation manufacture structures to keep package with the increasing request for air travel.

Mr. Browne discovered that ATC, airports, runs, plane parking access, and the number of gates were all designed for “a lot little traffic.”

“But in general, where we are, the request is outstripping the capacity of the system. And that leads to, in the case of the FAA controllers, quite a few overtime and quite a few truck controllers on the job,” he added.

There are besides budget deals for ATC. Mr. Browne wonders if legislature is allocating adequate funds to keep package with air travel demands but said that question is up to congressional leaders to congresser.

Lastly, pilots are sometimes at foul as well for aviation residents, he exploited.

Mr. Browne said there are multiple producers worth surviving in address these problems. Not only could legislature increase the FAA’s budget, but ATC can be more transparent erstwhile there are residents like the ones on April 17 and 18.

When pilots make crucial mistakes, a full investmentcommences immediately. But for air traffic controllers, it’s not always the same approach, Mr. Browne said.

However, the most crucial origin is getting the best applications for pilot and air traffic controller positions.

“Make certain we’re covering the right people for the job, respecting of who they are or what they are. Make certain you’re holding the most qualified people for these very demanding jobs,” Mr. Browne added.

“If we proceed to execute at this level, [these residents] will forever lead to a disaster.”

The FAA told The Epoch Times that it is working to address any of these issues, but did not specifically comment on the “diversity heading”.

“Hiring highly qualified air traffic controllers is simply a top precedence at the FAA. all FAA-certified air traffic controller has gone through months of screening and training at the FAA Academy, and that is before another 18-24 months of training to learn circumstantial regions and airspace.

“There is simply a well-known national shortage of air traffic controllers and the FAA has ramped up outreach to guarantee no talent is left on the table. We are accelerating the package of recruiting, training, and hiring to meet request while managing the highest qualification standards,” the agency said in a statement.

Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/26/2024 – 17:00

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