NATCA DAILY PRESS CLIPPINGS
Monday, August 29, 2016
AIR TRANSPORT WORLD
NAV Canada: First 10 Aireon ATC satellites to launch in September
AVIATION DAILY
Runway Collision Concern Spurs NTSB Special Investigation
LAS VEGAS REVIEW JOURNAL
New McCarran Air Traffic Control Tower Finally Ready to Open Sunday
NBC LAS VEGAS
McCarran air traffic controllers begin using new $99M control tower
WDSU-TV NEW ORLEANS
Southwest Airlines flight from New Orleans airport diverted after mid-air engine issue
WACO TRIB.COM
Plane makes emergency landing at Waco Regional Airport shortly after takeoff
LOUISVILLE COURIER-JOURNAL
10 years after Comair crash, 1 change not adopted
AVIATION PROS
WAI Chapters Announce Plans for September 24 International Girls in Aviation Day
THE WASHINGTON POST
Editorial - Relaxing the rules on drones
AVIATION WEEK
Part 107 Is Here: What’s Next For FAA, UAS?
LOS ANGELES TIMES
False reports of shots fired at LAX create panic and prompt evacuation of some passengers
AVIATION DAILY: Runway Collision Concern Spurs NTSB Special Investigation
By John Croft
WASHINGTON—Alarmed by a rising number of the most severe types of runway incursions, the U.S. NTSB has launched a one-year special investigation report in cooperation with the FAA, unions and industry.
Dan Bartlett, a senior transportation specialist with the NTSB, said the agency will include the FAA, controllers and pilots unions. as well as other industry participants. to help identify “some of the deeper causes and effects” of the incursions. Those are defined as a loss of separation between two aircraft, or an aircraft and a ground vehicle or pedestrian.
“The list of participants is getting longer and longer,” Bartlett said, speaking Aug. 24 at the Air Line Pilots Association’s annual safety meeting here. “I’m excited about the potential discoveries that may help us fix this.” Bartlett said the NTSB launched the investigation several months ago.
The “fix” is needed in large part because of the rising number of Category A incursions, a trend that appears to have started in 2014 and continued in 2015. The FAA categorizes incursions with severity levels A through D—with “A” meaning a collision was narrowly avoided and “D” meaning the incident had no immediate safety consequences—and separates the incidents into operational incidents (the fault of controllers), pilot deviations, vehicle or pedestrian deviations, or “other.”
Category A incursions increased from two in fiscal year 2013 to five in 2014 and 11 in 2015, according to the FAA’s Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing database. So far this year there have been six Category A incursions.
Category B incursions, defined as incidents that have a “significant potential for collision,” have been more level, with nine in 2013, nine in 2014, four in 2015 and nine so far this year.
The number of all types of incursions has also been relatively constant over the past two years, with 1,458 in fiscal year 2015 and 1,320 so far this year.
Concerned about the trends, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta convened a second government and industry Runway Safety Call to Action safety summit in June 2015 (the first Call to Action safety summit took place in 2007).
Following interventions put in place after the first safety summit, Category A and B incidents decreased by 44%, before rising again. Interventions from the second summit fall into three categories—visual recognition, communications, and procedures and awareness—with a variety of delivery dates for individual mitigations, procedures and technologies through 2019.
Although Bartlett is aware of the FAA’s actions, the NTSB’s investigation will make a broader and independent assessment of the problem, considering not only best practices from U.S. airports, but potentially foreign airports as well. “We have done some work with Dutch [officials] and they are asking some very good questions,” he said of the Dutch Safety Board, which is studying certain U.S. airports as part of an airport Amsterdam Schiphol runway-safety analysis. “The questions aren’t right or wrong, but are causing us to step back and take a look at the things we do and why we do them.”
He conceded that the NTSB study, which will be completed next year, could conclude: “We’re going down the right path.”
NATCA DAILY PRESS CLIPPINGS
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
FAA PRESS RELEASE
New FAA Rules for Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Go Into Effect
NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO
FAA Expects 600,000 Commercial Drones In The Air Within A Year
BLOOMBERG
VIDEO: FAA's New Drone Rules: The Opportunities and the Concerns
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
Southwest Airlines says deal in place with pilots, ending 4 years of talks
AOPA.ORG
IFR FIX: THE VCOA OPTION
DOT IG
FAA Lacks a Clear Process for Identifying and Coordinating NextGen Long-Term Research and Development
NATCA DAILY PRESS CLIPPINGS
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
NATCA’s 16th BIENNIAL CONVENTION, SAN DIEGO
The Delegate, event newspaper
Aug. 31, 2016 issue
ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Cerritos air disaster, 30 years later: Crash that killed 82 was pivotal in aviation safety history
NATCA DAILY PRESS CLIPPINGS
Thursday, September 1, 2016
NATCA’s 16th BIENNIAL CONVENTION, SAN DIEGO
The Delegate, event newspaper
Aug. 31-Sept. 1, 2016 issue
(Note: Second issue will be published and distributed on Friday morning, Sept. 2)
NATCA’s 16th BIENNIAL CONVENTION, SAN DIEGO
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AVIATION INTERNATIONAL NEWS
FAA Names Members of High-Level Drone Advisory Committee, including NATCA Executive Vice President Trish Gilbert
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Latest: Troopers say no survivors in Alaska midair crash
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
FAA threatens legal action against Santa Monica over airport
GOVEXEC.COM
Obama Issues Plan to Give Feds 1.6 Percent Pay Raise in 2017
ITF AVIATION BLOG
UPS pilots ratify new contract (press release from the ITF affiliated Independent Pilots Association)