Air-Traffic Error Probes Cut as U.S. Close Calls Rise

U.S. aviation regulators don’t have enough investigators to examine close calls in the skies, which have risen more than 50 percent since 2009, according to a report by the Transportation Department’s Inspector General.

Even as air-traffic errors that bring planes too close together have jumped, and as new technology is expected to uncover more such incidents, the Federal Aviation Administration has reduced the number of employees reviewing these safety cases, the report found.

“With the implementation of FAA’s new procedures, the number of personnel investigating losses of separation has been substantially reduced,” the agency said in the report.

The report is the latest to examine the surge in errors that let planes get too close, also known as a “loss of separation.” Errors rose 53 percent in fiscal 2010 compared with 2009, to 1,887 from 1,234. There were 1,895 controller errors in 2011.

The FAA has maintained that most of the rise is due to improved reporting and not an actual increase in the risks of mid-air or runway collisions. The agency in recent years has started allowing controllers to self-report errors without fear of punishment, a program airlines have used for decades to identify safety issues.

The report by Assistant Inspector General Jeffrey Guzzetti found that at least some of the increase is due to an actual rise in errors.

Previously, at least one person in each of the 300 air- traffic control facilities in the U.S. was assigned to review error reports. In January 2012, the FAA consolidated the investigations into three offices across the country with 16 people to do the reviews, according to the report.