faahope Anonymous

I would like to know who gets to fine the FAA? For, not having valid, practiced contingency plans, and endangering every life in the U.S.

If you have 1 or 2, of the 21 ARTCC centers anywhere, in the U.S. go ATC Zero, you will create havoc in the skies beyond belief. The sad part is that the FAA is also responsible for the radar for the military.

May 13, 2008 at a public meeting I asked Rick Ducharme Deputy Vice President of Terminals Services, Has any ARTCC center ever assumed another centers airspace? His answer was No! According to his statement the FAA has never practiced their contingency plans.

If they had, when Memphis Center went to ATC Zero in September of 2007, and again this month August 2008, the 5 surrounding centers would have assumed their assigned sectors of airspace as designed in their contingency plan in the ACT2 system.

I have a map that was used in a presentation to the International Civil Aviation Organization that was presented in Bangkok, Thailand in July of 2007. It shows the contingency plan for Kansas ARTCC. It is very impressive it shows the 7 surrounding centers each taking their piece of the airspace. What happens to those that are only touching 1 other center like Florida?

Rick Ducharme stated at that May meeting that Jacksonville ARTCC center would assume Miami airspace if a disaster takes Miami ARTCC center ATC Zero. That is their backup plan. I asked if Jacksonville center moves their boundaries to assume Miami airspace who would assume the Jacksonville airspace. He has no answer.

Search on the web for 1900.57B and look at the directive for the FAA operational contingency plans. On page 4 it talks about having enough money in the budget to cover all these plans and training. On page 15 under training it says that “ATC and Technical Operations personnel MUST be trained on their specific duties and responsibilities. At a minimum, refresher training on operationally relevant items seen during an actual event (e.g., automation failure or radar outage) MUST be conducted for all operational personnel and, where appropriate, administrative personnel.”

I know a lot of air traffic controllers that have never hear of the ACT 2 system and have never seen a contingency plan. I dare anyone to walk into any ARTCC center and at random ask a controller if he knows what sector he needs to take over in the next centers airspace if they go ATC Zero.

3 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Clay213 Anonymous

How does every wingnut with an agenda end up commenting on articles like this on this site so often?

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xdavidwattsx Anonymous

"Search on the web for 1900.57B"

No thanks, I'm good.

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snowboard9 Anonymous

Agree with faahope and interesting information. Seems like you have something of passion and background to add.

For years, it seemed to me the FAA failed to address air traffic control infrastructure concerns. This is just representative of government without self governance.

3 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )