Title: Air Controller Discipline Probed by U.S. in Near Plane Crash
Abstract: This article takes a look into the disciplinary problems at U.S. air traffic facilities.
Summary: The author discusses the struggle of the Federal Aviation Administration’s efforts to reprimand air traffic controllers. About forty percent of the controllers who have come under scrutiny for their poor judgment and lackadaisical performance of their job which have resulted in tragedy and/or near mishaps were allowed early retirement or have kept their jobs. With the help of their union contract or the Merit Systems Protection Board for federal employees which was established to protect federal employees against abuses by agency management.
The latest to show problems was in June 2011. An air controller near Gulfport Mississippi, who had been repeatedly disciplined, was the subject of a government safety investigation. The controller instructed two planes to take off toward each other into a near mid air collision.
Another incident in which the air traffic controller was in line for termination occurred in 2009 at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, in which, a controller was blamed in part for a fatal mid-air collision because the controller was joking with an airport employee about barbecuing a dead cat while on duty. The FAA was also thwarted in attempts to fire a controller at JFK International for allowing his kids to make radio calls to aircraft.
After the incident in Mississippi, the FAA suspended and decertified the controller who made the errors. Prior to this incident the controller identified by the NTSB as Robert Beck, had been suspended two or three times and received disciplinary action on several other occasions. In the investigation by the NTSB that followed the incident, it was found that the tower was not properly staffed, and revealed a number of deficiencies within the