The US Transport Minister Sean Duffy planned on Thursday to completely revise an air traffic control system in which some components are more than 50 years old.
After dozens of near-misses between aircraft this year and the fatal crash of Mid-Air in January of an Airlines Airlines and a Black Hawk helicopter of the army.
What you need to know
- After dozens of near-misses and a deadly collision between an American Airlines flight and a Black Hawk helicopter via Potomac in January, the aviation industry and the political pressure on a great revision of the air traffic control system are growing
- The transport secretary Sean Duffy says that the plan contains new communication systems that replaced the copper wire with fiber optic cables and rebuilt towers in some cases
- It could cost more than 12 billion US dollars. Duffy says that the appropriation of the congress must come at once
- Duffy says with immediate financing it could take place in three to four years
“Controllers hand over these paper strips from one to the next as they transfer control over an airplane. This should be digitized,” said Duffy as he held up the paper. “If systems sink into the equipment … we do not call the manufacturer to buy spare parts for this equipment. You know where we are going? Ebay.”
He said some towers would have to be rebuilt completely, but the rest of the plan would focus on aging technology.
This means that the radar and communication systems for the use of fiber optic cables are upgraded instead of copper wire, which led to a failure at Newark, in which controllers have lost contact with aircraft in the air for at least 30 seconds.
“This system is a flip -on,” said Duffy about how old the technology is. “However, if we have created a brand new, state -of -the -art system that we want to do, you can actually get updates like your iPhone. If we will not actually fulfill the mission that we do not actually announce today, you will not only see Newewarks in Newark, but you will see Newakks in other parts of the country.”
For a price, Duffy leaves it to the congress.
“So you heard the 12.5 billion US dollars,” said Duffy. “It will be more than that.”
The other part of the equation: air -fare controller. At the moment, 14,000, but 3,000 others are needed to fully fill the system.
The FAA played Catchup. The training academy in Oklahoma was closed during Covid.
Dr. Sharon Devivo is President of Vaughn College, who is now one of five schools who are entitled to provide the Akademie training. The setting has accelerated with 1,800 controllers.
“You didn't collect 1,800 because you get a lot of retirement,” said Dr. Devivo. “So there is an obligatory retirement age of 56 for air traffic controls, and therefore it always adds people because they lose people, so that their net profit is actually quite small. I think it was only six a year earlier.”
The FAA offers bonuses for controllers, but there is a streak of burnout, such as those who took a dream vacation after the Newark incident.
According to Duffy, this could be done with immediate financing in three to four years.