GovernmentExecutive.com

Air traffic controllers and their supervisors at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport routinely suppressed operational blunders that could have resulted in mid-air collisions, government investigators reported last week.

The unreported incidents of aircraft flying too close to each other occurred about once a month for a period of seven years, violating Federal Aviation Administration orders, and were considered by investigators to be a "significant and specific danger" to public safety and the public's trust in the air traffic control system.

The incidents were disclosed to the Office of Special Counsel by whistleblower and 18-year air traffic controller Anne R. Whiteman, a Copper Canyon, Texas, resident, who maintains the problem is unresolved.

Whiteman first disclosed two incidents of unreported near-collisions in the Dallas Fort Worth Airport Terminal Radar Approach Control to the Transportation Department's inspector general office in July 2002.

She alleged that on-duty supervisors - then air traffic manager Ross Schulke and current manager JoEllen Casilio - declined to examine radar and flight data, interview the air traffic controllers and pilots, or notify headquarters of the operational errors or flight path deviations involved in the near collisions.

In both incidents, aircraft came within the minimum separation requirements of 1,000 feet or three miles once an aircraft is within 40 miles of an airport.

The inspector general investigation validated Whiteman's reports, according to the OSC report to President Bush.

A September 2004 nationwide inspector general audit of operational error reporting was conducted. It found that only 20 of the FAA's 524 air traffic control facilities have automated reporting systems, and they generated more than half of the reported errors in 2003.

The facility manager, operations manager and supervisors were required to demonstrate acceptable performance during their appraisal cycle, and one controller was decertified for committing an unreported operational error.

For reporting these incidents to the inspector general, Whiteman told Government Executive that she was removed from her position, harassed and put in a locked office with a supervisor where she could only leave with permission.

"The problem has been left unaddressed ... it is more dangerous than when it started," Whiteman said. "I was told that there would be an investigation into the reprisals against me, and that has never taken place."

Whiteman maintains that the managers who intentionally flouted procedures, who remain in their jobs, need to be removed and held accountable if any change is to occur. Whiteman since has been promoted to a supervisory position in the airport's control tower, but says she misses her old job as an air traffic controller.

"It continues to be a huge cover-up," Whiteman said. "The potential still exists for something disastrous to happen."

FAA spokesman Greg Martin said the agency, OSC and the department inspector general continue to scrutinize the facility, and corrections are being made. He maintained that the country is experiencing its safest period in aviation history.

"People were disciplined, action was taken against them," Martin said. "[The Washington, D.C., FAA office] commended [Whiteman] for coming forward and certainly the courage of some of the actions that she faced by her fellow controllers."

"[Dallas-Fort Worth] was an anomaly. Is there absolute perfection in the reporting of errors? No, but we have a variety of reporting options to make sure we do get all of them. [Dallas-Fort Worth] did not follow those procedures."

In a letter to President Bush ending OSC involvement in the investigation, Special Counsel Scott Bloch said the agency's report on the situation contained all the information required by law, and the findings appeared to be reasonable.

Payback

The Bureau of Customs and Border Protection must pay back money to import specialists who were excluded from overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

A June 23 ruling from the U.S. Court of Federal Claims found that CBP import specialists in GS-12 and -13 positions were wrongly denied time-and-a-half pay for overtime work going back to the early 1990s.

The lawsuit was filed by the National Treasury Employees Union on behalf of about 100 of the 300 import specialists in the 12 and 13 grades. It was decided by the court based on the experience of one CBP import specialist who, the court agreed, represented the entire group. Employees who joined the suit will receive monetary relief for overtime back pay.

NTEU states that they will pursue a remedy with CBP for the overtime violation, including a reclassification of all import specialists in the 12 to 14 grades to non-overtime exempt.

CBP argued in the case that the import specialists were exempt because they were administrators or professionals. An analysis of their daily duties by the court found otherwise.

COMMENTS

• These whistleblowers need to be stopped. These supervisors want dead bodies on the ground and the whistleblowers are interferring with their efforts. It is right to put this person in a locked room and keep her there, she is nothing but a troublemaker. GovExec.com reader Posted July 1, 2005 7:31 AM