Controllers blame error on staffing

Following a near midair collision over Indiana, air traffic controllers are calling for better work rules and more employees to keep the sky safe.

Two planes were sent on a collision course Tuesday night in the air above northeastern Indiana by a 26-year veteran controller, according to controllers union.

But a collision was averted by mere seconds when one of the airplanes' monitors triggered an alarm that alerted pilots to the pending danger. The controller, working out of a facility in Aurora, is accused of directing a Midwest Airlines flight to descend directly into the path of a United Express flight.

The two where just 600 vertical feet and 1.3 miles from disaster before the Midwest pilot took emergency measures to pull the jet out of harm's way, according to the FAA. Federal rules mandate five miles and 1,000 vertical feet between aircraft.

"That is as bad as they get," said Aurora controller Bryan Zilonis, a National Air Traffic Controllers Association vice president. "You wouldn't want to get any closer than that."

The number of passengers aboard the flights was not available from the FAA. The United Express flight was heading into O'Hare International Airport from Greensboro, N.C. The Midwest Airlines flight was crossing that path on its way from Milwaukee to Dayton, Ohio.

The controller, who had just returned from a break on the tail end of a rush period, evidently dropped the electronic tag for the United Express plane from his screen and then soon forgot the plane was still in the sky before directing the Midwest Airlines flight to descend, said FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory.

An FAA investigation into the incident continues, so no official cause has been determined.

However, air traffic controller union officials blame the mistake on short staffing, which they say is leading to controllers having shorter breaks and more continuous time at the radar monitors. Zilonis said the controller in question may have been tired at the time. The controller's name is not being released.

"At least in my personal opinion, when you listen to his voice on the recordings, he sounds tired," he said.

Additionally, the Aurora facility has been the site of three severe controller errors since Oct. 1. Last year, the facility saw only one.

Cory provided shift data to the press regarding the controller, and it shows the controller had worked under the two-hour shift limit between breaks. Zilonis questioned the validity of the information but didn't provide any evidence to refute it.

Cory also disputed the controllers' contention that the Aurora facility is short- staffed. "The area was well staffed, more than usual," she said.

Yet, the controllers union says several of those on duty that night were trainees and limited to working only a few positions. They also argue the facility is short nearly 100 fully trained employees out off 340 because FAA officials were slow to hire trainees as a glut of retirees began leaving in recent years. It can take more than five years to fully train a controller.

The debate over staffing is tied up in an ongoing dispute between the FAA and union regarding failed contract negotiations and imposed work rules.