A disaster here and in Switzerland
Privatization & air traffic control
By Deirdre Griswold
The safety of airline passengers depends on a myriad of
decisions made during the design and construction of the
aircraft themselves, their maintenance, the exercise of
judgment by the crew and the handling of air traffic by
controllers on the ground.
Per passenger-mile, flying is the safest form of
transportation. But the horrible mid-air collision over
Switzerland on July 1 that killed 71 people, including 52
Russian schoolchildren, shows that the profit motive can
influence these decisions, with disastrous consequences.
The crash involved a Tupolev passenger jet operated by
Bashkirian Airlines and a Boeing 757 cargo plane operated by
the package delivery service DHL International. At first, the
Swiss company handling air traffic control, Skyguide, tried to
blame the Russian pilot for the disaster, saying he didn't
respond quickly enough to instructions from the tower.
But once the black boxes were found, it was discovered that
the pilot had followed faulty instructions from the Swiss air
traffic controller. He quickly descended, only to collide with
the cargo plane, which had also been given instructions to
descend.
The plane was equipped with an on-board anti-collision
system, which told the pilot to climb. These systems
communicate with other aircraft in the immediate area and would
know that the approaching plane was going into a dive. But the
pilot, after a few seconds' hesitation, followed the Swiss air
traffic controller's advice.
It later turned out that the controller was on duty alone.
The only other person working with him had gone on a break. The
European Union had just days earlier issued a report
criticizing the radar system Skyguide was using as
sub-standard. And an alarm system--which should have warned the
controller that the two planes were on a collision course--was
down for maintenance.
All these factors point to cost cutting by Skyguide, the
company that took over Switzerland's entire air-traffic control
system, including both commercial and military flights, when it
was privatized.
President George W. Bush wants to privatize air traffic
control in the U.S. The aviation news Web site landings.com
reported in early July that "President Bush took the first step
toward privatizing air traffic control services in the U.S.
last month when he modified Executive Order 13180 to create a
performance-based ATC organization. His statement that ATC was
not 'an inherently governmental function' left little doubt how
he felt about the issue of user fees for aviation safety
services."
National Air Traffic Controllers Association President John
Carr responded to Bush's action, saying that, "The
administration thinks it can dupe the American people into
believing we should follow the failed path of privatization and
jeopardize aviation safety to boot."
The disaster in Switzerland should stiffen the resolve of
controllers here to resist privatization and bring them greater
support from other unions and the flying public.
Reprinted from the July 25, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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