A series of high-profile near-collisions at airports in recent months have left many experts and travelers alike wondering what’s going on with the nation’s air transportation system.
Some of the potentially catastrophic situations included a FedEx plane that was cleared to land on the same runway that a Southwest 737 was preparing to take off from at Austin Bergstrom International Airport. That, just weeks after an American Airlines jet inadvertently taxied across a runway while a Delta plane was beginning its takeoff roll at JFK Airport in New York. And just days ago, a private jet took off without clearance at Boston Logan International Airport, crossing the path of a JetBlue flight that was preparing to land.
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All of those incidents came in the wake of January’s computer outage at the Federal Aviation Administration, which led to a nationwide pause in departures while the agency worked to restore the safety notification system known as NOTAM.
Experts across the industry are looking for ways to address these situations.
Are near-misses between planes on the rise?
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg acknowledged there has been an uptick in incidents, but said the statistics can be a little deceiving.
“We’re trying to take a bigger look and do some deeper analysis to see what’s going on,” Buttigieg told USA TODAY. “It’s enough that I’m concerned.”
Buttigieg noted that there have been a variety of causes, such as pilot error and controller issues.
“That suggests that there’s something happening more broadly, perhaps something related to the increase in activity and demand that took place very quickly after the sudden slowdown around COVID,” he added.
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What’s behind the near-misses?
Laurie Garrow, a professor of civil engineering that specializes in aviation at Georgia Tech, agreed with Buttigieg’s analysis.
“During COVID, there were many air traffic controllers and pilots who retired. Part of the reason we may be seeing more near-misses is because as an industry, we now have a much younger workforce that does not have the benefit of having decades worth of experience,” she said in an email to USA TODAY. “We may need to modify our training to help address this gap.”
Senators and safety experts have also been pushing for more robust funding of the Federal Aviation Administration, which is up for reauthorization later this year.
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In hearings on Capitol Hill, experts urged Congress to put more resources behind the regulator.
“This nation can never become complacent about aviation safety,” Jason Ambrosi, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, said in a February hearing before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. He added that the government should strongly consider funding technology improvements to “maintain or improve the current level of aviation safety.”
Similarly, in a hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, Phillip Washington, who is president Biden’s nominee to lead the FAA, said that more training is also required so that new technology can be used as effectively as possible.
“I think the installation of new technology is one thing, but the integration of that technology is quite another thing. So, the integration and the training of FAA employees is quite another thing, and I think we have to think about the integration,” he said. “A lot of the installation is already done, but I’m concerned about the integration of that technology to use it to its full capacity.”
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Zach Wichter is a travel reporter based in New York. You can reach him at [email protected], and Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at [email protected].