The graphic (website) version of this newsletter can be accessed at:
http://pages.prodigy.net/rockaway/newsletter436.htm
Quote of the Week: "You improve safety by reducing operational errors,
not
recategorizing them," Bryan Zilonis, a regional vice president of the
National Air Traffic Controllers Association union In a USA Today story
talking about new FAA plan to bring planes closer together without it
being
considered a "near collision"
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Aviation Conspiracy Newsletter
#436................................................................................July
8, 2007 Past newsletters can be accessed at:
http://pages.prodigy.net/rockaway/ACNewsmenu.htm
The PASSUR air****t
flight
tracking system at many major U.S. air****ts
http://www.passur.com/sites.htm
(you must have Java installed to view it). If you want to get the
newsletter
sent to you every week, sign up to AviationWatch. Bill Mulcahy
rockaway@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Changing Rules For "Near Collisions!!!"
---------------------------------------------------------------------
As Bill Sees It (Editorial): FAA Reduces Safety To Reduce Air****t
Delays!!!
How does the FAA reduce the number of near collisions? They don't do it by
reducing the number of near collisions, but by changing the definition of
what is considered a near collision!!! This new rule change will allow
the
FAA criminals to suddenly look like they are making the skies safer
because
it will show, on paper, that the number of near collisions is drastically
reduced. Of course, the fact that planes will be flying closer to one
another and the chance of a collision will be increased is not im****tant,
only the APPEARANCE of less near collisions are!!! The whole purpose of
this
incredible scam is to allow the FAA to increase air****t capacity (more
planes) and show that they are reducing delays. The reality will be a less
safe aviation system. Air traffic controllers and even pilots are
objecting
to this new unsafe system. Apparently the FAA is going to continue to push
the safety envelope by changing long standing safety rules until there is
a
major disaster.
Northeast Airspace Redesign Plan Decision Starting To Awaken Future
Victims:
Next month the FAA is due to announce their new routes over New York, New
Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania. Their victims are starting to wake up
(pardon the pun) to the realization that their peace and quiet of their
homes will soon be a thing of the past. The FAA's victims are also waking
up
their politicians like Senator Hillary Clinton who don't want the bad
publicity while she is trying to get the democrat nomination for
president.
Hillery, like New York's other senator, Chuck Schumer, has been a staunch
sup****t of aviation expansion. Schumer is keeping quiet about the Airspace
Redesign Plan because he has more than four years until his next election.
I'm sure he feels the dummies who voted for him will have forgotten this
issue by then. Only last year Hillary and Schumer "applauded" the start of
AirTran's (formerly ValuJet) service starting at New York's Stewart
Air****t.
DemocRATS always talk about the "jobs" air****t expansion bring, but never
mention the noise and air pollution impacts until there is a proposed
change
in routing and a community is agitated. Then they suddenly transform into
environmentalists. They are just as bad as the alleged "pro business"
republicans, who are at least honest about their pro-business stance.
FAA Encourages Planes To Fly Unacceptably Close Together!!! A new method
of
gauging the risk of midair collisions has drawn critics, who say the new
system recently implemented by the FAA could conceal the actual danger of
airplanes flying in close proximity to one another. According to USA
Today,
under the old method an incident would be classified as high risk, if two
aircraft at the same altitude came closer than five miles from one
another -- the minimum distance allowed by regulations -- and were flying
head on, forcing one or both pilots to take evasive action. The new system
would classify such an encounter as low risk, as long as the two planes
came
no closer than four miles. The FAA says the new classification will cut
the
number of incidents considered high risk by half, simplifying the
re****ting
process. The most minor incidents wouldn't be counted at errors at all --
which will serve to decrease overall error totals by about 25 percent.Last
year, the FAA counted 1,104 operational errors, of which 610 were deemed
high-risk under the old system. Editor's Note: Air traffic controllers and
even pilot's unions are against this plan which once again shows that the
FAA listens only to the aviation industry which wants to jam more planes
into the sky regardless of the dangers. When a plane collision occurs they
will be the first to blame the FAA; and rightly so.
http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=970d0e9b-9c8a-4c71-92a5-9aa9bc2897f7
http://www.usatoday.com/news/wa****ngton/2007-07-05-faa-collision-risk_N.htm
New York: Sen. Hillary Clinton Calls For More Hearings Before FAA Airspace
Redesign Decision: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-New York) is calling on
the Federal Aviation Administration to schedule meetings in the Staten
Island area to address the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia Airspace
Redesign project, which would change flight patterns. "Considering that
this
is the first major overhaul of area airspace in almost 50 years, the issue
of noise mitigation by the proposed plan on Staten Island is very
im****tant,
especially considering the fact that the proposed Ocean Routing flight
plan
would send a significant number of flights over parts of Staten Island
from
10:30 p.m. to 6 a.m.," wrote Ms. Clinton. Next month, the FAA is expected
to
announce its pick for the first redesign of the region's airspace, which
is
expected to reduce delays and improve reliability at air****ts in New York,
New Jersey and Philadelphia, which are among the nation's busiest, and
notorious for some of the worst delays in the country. The FAA's preferred
alternative, Integrated Airspace, would reroute planes departing from
Newark
over the New Jersey Turnpike and other industrial areas, instead of the
current left turn flights make above the North Shore of Staten Island. It
is
expected to shave off about eight minutes of delay per departure. But
among
the concerns for residents below the friendly skies is the noise that will
come from the changed flight routes.
http://blog.silive.com/advanceupdate/2007/07/clinton_calls_on_faa_to_addres.html
New York: FAA To Explain To Community Increase Of 200 To 600 More
Overflights A Day!!! Ramapo, New York - Two Federal Aviation
Administration
officials are to appear on a cable television show Thursday to answer
questions about a plan that could bring 200 to 600 flights each day over
Rockland County within four years. The airplanes would fly at low
altitude,
from 5,000 to 6,000 feet, and raise noise levels in parts of Ramapo and
Orangetown that are not now in any flight paths. Steve Kelley, program
manager for the FAA's airspace redesign, and FAA noise expert Scott
Carpenter will appear on "Ramapo Live," a weekly program hosted by Ramapo
Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence, to discuss the proposal and questions
from the public. The program will be shown from 8 to 10:30 p.m. on
Cablevision channels 77 or 78, and on 75 in Suffern. It also will be
streamed live on the town's Web site, www.ramapo.org. "I think he
understands that Rockland has many concerns, and we need a format to
discuss
those concerns," St. Lawrence said, referring to Kelley. Editor's Note:
I'm
glad they will be on TV because if they were at a community meeting they
might get hurt.
http://www.nyjournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070706/NEWS03/707060378
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070708/NEWS03/707080382/1019
Crowded Air****t Causing Mega Delays This Summer: The evidence is quickly
adding up: After more than a decade of troubled air travel, the summer of
2007 may be the most tortured yet, with congestion growing daily, and more
frequent meltdowns that ripple across the nation, stranding passengers for
days. The airlines' on-time arrival performance in the first five months
of
this year was the worst in 13 years, the U.S. Department of Trans****tation
re****ted Tuesday. Only three of every five flights departing O'Hare
International Air****t were on time over those months, ranking O'Hare last
among the busiest U.S. air****ts. And that was before the weather got
really
bad. Nor do the statistics capture the most distinctive dynamic of this
summer's air woes-the moments when the nation's hub-and-spoke network of
air****ts seem to seize up altogether, causing passengers to miss not just
one flight, but the next and next and many more, because planes are full,
or
grounded, or both. Some of the ingredients in this stew of frustration are
familiar, such as a burst of bad weather in June that shut down hub after
hub, and the labor troubles dogging some airlines. Some are quirky, such
as
unrelated computer outages at the Federal Aviation Administration on June
8
and at United Airlines 12 days later. But some result from attempts by the
airlines to scratch out profits after years of losses, conditions that may
not improve any time soon. With a record 209 million passengers projected
to
pass through the nation's air****ts this summer, airlines are trying to
keep
airplanes as full as possible. When it works, the airlines make a modest
profit and passengers get low-priced fares. But when things go wrong,
airlines have little room to maneuver, and delays and cancellations
multiply
quickly.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-airwoes_bd08jul08,1,4899474.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed\
@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Im****tant Aviation News Stories ThisWeekSome say
FAA move could hide midair collision riskBy Alan Levin, USA
TODAYhttp://www.usatoday.com/news/wa****ngton/2007-07-05-faa-collision-risk_N.htmWA****NGTON
- Federal aviation regulators have changed the way they trackmistakes that
bring planes too close together, a move that some safetyexperts say could
hide risks of midair collisions. Federal AviationAdministration officials
say their new system will enhance safety andsimplify a ***bersome process
for classifying midair incidents.Instead of using a complex formula, the
FAA's new system ranks the severityof such incidents solely on how close
planes get.For example, jets at the same altitude must stay 5 nautical
miles apart.Under the old system, an incident would be classified as
high-risk if twoplanes breached the 5-mile limit, were flying directly at
each other and acollision was avoided by the pilots taking evasive action,
according to FAAregulations. Jets headed directly for each other could
cover those 5 milesin about 20 seconds.The identical cir***stances would
be classified as low-risk under the newsystem if the two jets got no
closer than 4 miles. According to FAA data,the number of incidents
considered high-risk will fall by more than halfusing this new
formula.Near-collisions are considered a key gauge of safety in the
air-trafficsystem. There were 1,104 such errors last year, including 610
judgedhigh-risk under the old formula.In addition, the most minor
incidents will no longer be counted as errors inFAA statistics,
automatically decreasing error totals by about 25%."It's going to make
them look like geniuses when really they've donenothing," says Bryan
Zilonis, a regional vice president of the National AirTraffic Controllers
Association union who helped draw up the old system."You improve safety by
reducing operational errors, not recategorizingthem," Zilonis says.The
changes involve how the FAA tracks "operational errors," incidents inwhich
controllers allow aircraft to come closer than rules allow.Each error is
classified for risk. Under the old system, many incidentscategorized as
high-risk were actually minor, says Tony Ferrante, directorof the FAA's
Air Traffic Safety Oversight Service.The new system takes that into
account, Ferrante says. It also is designedto improve capacity at
congested air****ts by encouraging controllers tobring planes closer to the
limits without fear of being cited forviolations, he says.Under the new
system, controllers who breach the standard by 10% - allowingplanes to get
4.5 miles apart instead of 5 - will not be considered inviolation.Several
aviation experts voice concerns about the new system.Former Trans****tation
Department inspector general Ken Mead, whose officewrote several re****ts on
midair incidents, says he fears that the FAA is, ineffect, endorsing
bringing planes closer together without conducting thecomplex safety
analysis required to justify the change."Do you want planes coming that
close together or not? If you don't, thenyou ought to say that," Mead
says.George Donohue, a former FAA official who now teaches at George
MasonUniversity in Virginia, says the multiple factors considered in the
oldsystem were necessary to understand how controllers made mistakes. "It
seemsto me that they are going in the wrong direction," he says.
|
