University Daily Kansan / Friday, October 23, 1987
9
Nation/World
FAA maintains sky is safe despite more close calls
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A 50 percent increase in the number of near-collision reports for commercial aircraft is causing concern among some aviation safety experts, but the Federal Aviation Administration maintains that the statistics do not mean greater risk to air travelers.
During the first nine months of the year, the number of pilot reports on near-collisions involving at least one commercial aircraft jumped almost 50 percent over the same period last year, the FAA said Wednesday. The increase was due to more aircraft during the January-September period were 43 more than in all of 1986.
Allan McArtor, FAA Administrator, said in an interview that the higher number of near-collisions was of concern to the agency, but that the figures should not be interpreted as a reduction in aviation safety.
"Taken by themselves (they) are not good indicators of exposure to risk in the national air system," McArtor insisted, adding that the number of reports "rising or falling is not in itself very meaningful."
Other safety experts disagreed. Jim Burnett, chairman of the National Transportation Safety
Board, said he was worried about the higher figures and said they reflected "a major increase in the risk" of flying.
"If you look at total neal mid-air collisions, they continued through the summer at very high levels. . . Somehow we're going to have to get a handle on that," Burnet said. "The mid-air collision numbers certainly represent, in my view, the increased risk of mid-air collisions that we've been subject to over this past summer."
The NTSB chairman raised strong concerns about air safety last spring, suggesting that the FAA was allowed to monitor all flights, the air in some areas of the country.
Joan O'Brien, a safety specialist for the Air Line Pilots Association, said the statistics supported pilot concerns about the increasing threat of a aerial collisions. "It just points to an overall problem in the system that is not being adequately equipment and procedures by too few people."
During the first nine months of the year, the FAA received 857 new-collision reports or an 888 period, involving all kinds of aircraft. The number
of reports that involved at least on commercial aircraft increased even more sharply during the nine-month period from 258 last year to 383 this year, up 48 percent.
During the busy summer months of June through August there were 159 near-collision reports involving at least one commercial plane, an increase of 50 percent over the summer of 1986. The sharpest increase, 69 percent, came in August when there were nearly two such incidents reported a day, according to the FAA figures.
But McArtor said that if the number of reports had declined by 50 percent he would not feel any more comfortable about aviation safety.
Nevertheless, he said. "We have a very busy air system. We know that. We're taking very aggressive action to minimize the exposure to risk." He cited actions by the FAA increasing the minimum in-flight distance allowed between commercial and private aircraft and installation of airborne collision avoidance devices in airliners over the next few years.
The FAA has yet to investigate all the reports received this year.
Grab it
Ken Wicker, Overland Park senior, reaches down to grab a Frisbee white riding his bike. Wicker was tossing the disc around with some of his friends in front of Frisher Hall on Wednesday.
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