US air traffic controllers ‘need new training’ after near disasters

Washington — The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) wants new training for air traffic controllers after the February 2023 near-collision between a FedEx aeroplane and a Southwest Airlines jet in Austin, Texas.

The two aircraft came within about 52m of each other when the FedEx Boeing 767 was forced to fly over the Southwest 737-700 to avoid a crash in poor visibility conditions. It was one of at least half a dozen close calls last year that raised concerns about US aviation safety and the strain on understaffed air traffic control.

NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said at a board meeting to determine the probable cause and make recommendations that the incident could have been catastrophic without the actions of the cargo carrier pilots.

Homendy noted the number of serious runway incursions jumped in 2023 but has fallen in the first part of 2024.

An air traffic controller had cleared both jets to use the same runway. He told the NTSB in an interview released last year he had assumed the Southwest aeroplane would have already departed before the FedEx plane landed given his “expectation bias” that Southwest planes were quick to depart.

The Cancun, Mexico-bound Southwest flight, with 123 passengers and five crew aboard, safely departed. There were three crew members on the FedEx plane.

The NTSB raised significant concerns about training of Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controllers in low visibility conditions like those in the Austin incident. The NTSB staff is calling for additional training as well as additional communications between controllers and flight crews.

The Austin control tower had not conducted training on low visibility operations during at least the two years before the incident, the NTSB said.

The FAA is struggling to address a persistent shortage of air traffic controllers and

has been forced to waive minimum flight requirement

s in New York as a result. At several facilities, controllers are working mandatory overtime and six-day work weeks to cover shortages. The FAA agency is about 3,000 controllers behind staffing targets.

The board is again urging the FAA to install surface detection technology to detect near miss incidents at all major airports, which it has done for more than 30 years. Austin did not have the surface detection technology in 2023 and the FAA has vowed to install technology there by the end of 2024, the NTSB said.

Reuters