‘I’m concerned’: Buttigieg takes a look at the increase in near-collisions at airports
cleared to land on the same runway that a Southwest 737 was preparing to take off from at Austin Bergstrom International Airport. That, just weeks after an American Airlines jet inadvertently taxied across a runway while a Delta plane was beginning its takeoff roll at JFK Airport in New York. And just days ago, a private jet took off without clearance at Boston Logan International Airport, crossing the path of a JetBlue flight that was preparing to land.Department of Justice says JetBlue-Spirit merger would lead to higher fares
All of those incidents came in the wake of January’s computer outage at the Federal Aviation Administration, which led to a nationwide pause in departures while the agency worked to restore the safety notification system known as NOTAM.
Experts across the industry are looking for ways to address these situations.
New DOT dashboard makes airline seat selection policies more transparentWhat really caused the NOTAM system to go offline?
In hearings on Capitol Hill, experts urged Congress to put more resources behind the regulator.
“This nation can never become complacent about aviation safety,” Jason Ambrosi, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, said in a February hearing before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. He added that the government should strongly consider funding technology improvements to “maintain or improve the current level of aviation safety.”
Similarly, in a hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, Phillip Washington, who is president Biden’s nominee to lead the FAA, said that more training is also required so that new technology can be used as effectively as possible.
“I think the installation of new technology is one thing, but the integration of that technology is quite another thing. So, the integration and the training of FAA employees is quite another thing, and I think we have to think about the integration,” he said. “A lot of the installation is already done, but I’m concerned about the integration of that technology to use it to its full capacity.”
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Zach Wichter is a travel reporter based in New York. You can reach him at zwichter@usatoday.com, and Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at ndiller@usatoday.com.