On January 29, 67 people were killed in a collision with the army helicopter in the Potomac River in Washington, DC. Two months ago, December 12, 2024, the Senate of the US, Science and Transportation Committee said, “US Airlines Traffic Control System, Subcommittee Hearing on Human Resources and Safety. ” The testimony provided by the hearing creates a cruel reading without knowing that the tragedy is on the corner.
For example, Kevin Warsh of the Government Responsibility Office explained a report that had just been published, saying, “Emergency FAA measures are needed to modernize aviation traffic control: aging system.” The taste of the report is as follows.
After closing the national airspace in 2023 due to the interruption of the ATC (ATC) system, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) conducted an operational risk assessment to evaluate the sustainability of all ATC systems. The evaluation believes that 51 (37 %) of the FAA’s 138 system is impossible and 54 (39 %) is impossible. 58 of 105 non -sustainable and potentially impossible sustainable systems (29 sustainable and potentially impossible systems) have had an important operational impact on the safety and efficiency of national honor. FAA, however, has been slowing to modernize the most important and dangerous system. Specifically, as of May 2024, considering the age, sustainability rating, operational impact level, and expected modernization date for each system, the FAA had 17 related systems especially related. Investment to modernize these systems was not planned to be completed for at least six years. In some cases, it should not be completed for at least 10 years. The FAA also did not make a continuous investment related to these four important systems.
Or there is a commentary sample of Dean IACOPELLI, the head of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.
FAA communication is the backbone of air traffic control system. The FAA requires a wide range of communication services and networking to support NAS operation. [National Airspace System] Other agency function. The FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI) program provides these services and networking functions through the current service -based contract, and the service provider continues to update the basic technology. Most of the FTI’s telecommunications lines work in an old -fashioned and no longer supportive copper wire infrastructure because many local telephone companies are suspended from copper wire equipment all over the country. As a result, air traffic controllers across the United States are steadily increasing in unexpected interruptions in the air traffic system. With the recent suspension of the ground at the airports of New York and Washington, DC, the region emphasizes the risks and results of telecommunication network failures. To date, there are more than 30,000 services on more than 4,600 FAA sites, and it is necessary to switch to copper and fiber cable networks to avoid serious service and extensive flight delays. …
Even before the FAA’s communication crisis, the FAA was trying to alleviate the risk of notification of the Notam (Airmen) system, which became a source of great confusion throughout the NAS. NOTAM systems are essential for sharing and spreading important flight information between air traffic controllers and pilots. However, in early 2023, if the NOTAM system failed completely, the ground was stopped nationwide, resulting in significant delays. … Like the upcoming communication crisis of the FAA, the Notam crisis was not at the top of F & E. [facilities and equipment] Until the end of the collapse in 2023, the priorities occurred nationwide and ground stops. …
Automated platforms such as ERAM and STARS provide flight planning and surveillance information to air traffic controllers in real time. This platform is a basic system where NAS works safely for 24 hours in 7 days, 365 days, and 365 days. Over the past four years, aviation transportation levels have continued to increase to 6.2%per year, except for new participants. In the air traffic automation system, there is a component that ends the lifespan that needs to be replaced. Since the FAA receives less request than what is needed to maintain the system, the Air Traffic Automation has not been able to reduce the efficiency of the system by satisfying the increasing demands of NAS. In the near future, the controller must rely on this inappropriate technology to maintain the safety and efficiency of the NAS.
Or one example of David Spero: “Representative aviation safety experts who install, maintain, repair, and certify radar, navigation, communication, and power equipment including the US National Construction System (NAS).
[T]He has a survey results [of PASS members] The best concern indicates that it is associated with aging equipment, cumbersome procedures, incomprehensible or unavailable parts, system complexity, employees and education of manpower. At the rapid speed of changing technology, the FAA is falling behind in replacing aging systems. … The biggest challenge is that there is a lack of vision on behalf of the organs. The time it takes for the FAA to implement a new system is directly related to the fact that the NAS system and equipment are useless. For example, many facilities still depend on aging communication technology known as TDM (Time Division Multiplexing). TDM is a method of combining multiple data streams with a single communication channel by assigning a specific time slot for each data stream. The use of this old technology is not only inefficient, but also costly unnecessarily. The telecommunications company now uses Carrier Ethernet and is not needed to support TDM technology in the Federal Communications Commission. … Unfortunately, the FAA still depends on TDM and is claiming a premium from a communication company that no longer uses technology.
There are many additional complaints. The fundamental problem here can be a structural problem. The FAA is an aviation navigation service provider, but it is also responsible for supervising its performance. In addition, since the FAA budget proceeds through the political process, the FAA has the mercy of the budget by the Council Committee. Marc Scripner, the chief transportation policy analyst of The Isore Foundation, says many other countries have recently decided that this model will not work in recent decades. Instead, these other countries have established a separate company with aerial transportation navigation service provider. Sometimes it is owned by government, sometimes non -profit organizations, sometimes for -profit seats. The company is a separate financial institution. He has the authority to claim a commission for airlines and airplanes and has the authority to sell bonds to raise capital if necessary. The role of the government is limited to supervising the company. Scribner claims:
The United States was once a global leader in the field of airspace management. But in recent decades, we have fallen behind fellow countries that modernized aviation traffic control practices and technology. … Status -QUO ANSP [air navigation services provider] The US model has been a dominant model worldwide, which has resulted in air traffic control by the Ministry of Transportation. The model has been a big change since 1987, and the New Zealand government has restructured its own support for its own government, Aeronautical Airlines, and has begun to remove the air traffic control system from the Ministry of Transportation. In ten years, more than 12 different countries followed the lawsuit.
The Aviation Bureau separates the provision of air navigation services and is now recognized worldwide, as well as all other major companies (Airlines, General Aviation, AirFrame Manufacturers, Engine Producer, Pilot, Mechanics). For more than 20 years, this was an ICAO policy. The United States is one of the last advanced countries that have not performed this stage to eliminate the basic conflicts of operating a service in which aviation regulators carry out regulations.
The revenue source of ANSP operated by public utility is the cost -based user rate approved worldwide according to the principle of airport and aviation traffic control rates supplied by ICAO. Before converting these ANSPs to public facilities, these income almost always paid to each national government. In most cases, when ANSP is converted to utility, the user revenue flows directly to ANSP as a main source of revenue. This allows ANSP to issue revenue bonds based on expected revenue sources as airports do elsewhere and other places today. ANSPs other than the United States are made through predictable profit streams directly provided by users who can successfully funded large -scale capital modernization efforts.
Globally, three ANSPs have been transferred to the government as independent non -profit user cooperation models or partially privatized companies. The other 55 are operated as a entirely owned government company. As part of the legacy private aviation authorities regulating aviation safety, 19 people, including the United States, Japan and Singapore, are mainly developed countries (as well as developing countries, as well as in the United States, Japan and Singapore). The ANSP, which operates as a public utility that supports funds with user fees, is currently 62 and provides services to 83 countries around the world.
The past efforts to reconstruct the FAA in this alternative model are not because of the opposition from large airlines, but because of those who fly small airlines and flying small flights, and those who are afraid to run the FAA as a user fee. . Their cost. Whatever the political reason, I hope that the tragic intermediate aerial conflict against Washington will serve as a morning call. In this issue, you need to make some special interests and create an organizational structure that can quickly modernize the US aviation traffic control system.
