Safety and Security

In the wake of the 9-11 attacks, travelers and air travel system employees are rightly concerned about safety and security. The air travel system faces challenges: how to modernize and save money without getting rid of redundancies in the system that help it handle natural disasters and terrorist attacks? We've got huge federal deficits and need to save money, but how should the system be streamlined in order to actually save taxpayers money?

Below, we've gathered some information about how the air travel system is being managed when it comes to our safety.

Are we doing enough to protect our skies from cyber-terrorism?

The lesson of 9-11 was clear: Be prepared. We are fighting terrorists who have shown that they will go to great lengths to hurt us. America must be prepared to defend itself against possible attacks — especially an attack on our air travel system.

Yet, serious questions have been raised about the security of America's air traffic control system. Have the people in charge of our nation's air security done all they can to thwart a possible cyberterror attack on the network that keeps track of airborne plane?

In March 2005, President Bush's information technology advisory committee warned that the country's computer networks — including the air traffic control network — are "highly vulnerable to premeditated attacks with potentially catastrophic effects."

Security experts have openly worried that if terrorists hacked into the air traffic control system, they could cause planes to crash or even invent dozens of phantom planes that would "create total chaos in the air traffic control system."

According to the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO), the air traffic control system's "significant weaknesses" leave it wide open to hacker attacks. The GAO found that even after the attacks of 9-11, the Federal Aviation Administration "had not yet fully implemented an information security program" to stop hackers.

Who should own America's airlines?

To protect America's transportation system, important security functions must be placed in the competent hands of people we trust. That's why Americans reacted so strongly to the proposal that would have turned over control of our ports to a company from the United Arab Emirates.

But apparently, some policy makers haven't gotten the message.

Now, the Department of Transportation (DOT) is attempting to essentially hand over control of America's airlines to foreign investors. The rule change that the DOT is seeking would allow foreign investors to control both the business decisions and operations of America's airlines.

Several members of Congress, from both parties, have raised concerns that selling America's airlines to foreign companies would jeopardize our security. Some major airlines are also opposed.

"If the proposed sale of U.S. port operations to a foreign government-owned company raised significant red flags, then the turning over of control of U.S. airlines to foreign entities unquestionably raises those same legitimate concerns," said Congressman Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ). "This decision effectively leaves our critical infrastructure to the highest bidder."

The DOT continues to press on in its effort to effectively hand over America's airlines. On June 7, Congressional committee leaders — supporting the DOT plan - killed a provision that would have kept airlines in American control.

But, later in June, the DOT foreign ownership plan was stopped — temporarily, at least. On June 14, legislators in the U.S. House of Representatives voted by an overwhelming 291-137 margin to block the plan. Despite Congressional criticism of the plan, the DOT continues to push for foreign ownership to be included in the final version of Congressional appropriations bills.

It remains to be seen whether this potentially dangerous plan becomes reality.

Are Staffing Shortages Compromising Safety?

Congress's General Accounting Office has found that current FAA management has often tilted decisions away from safety.

At Chicago O'Hare airport, one of the busiest in the world, the National Traffic Safety Board identified several major issues that threaten to compromise safety: "They include excessive noise and unnecessary conversations in the tower cab that could distract other controllers working traffic; difficulty maintaining attention while performing a specific controller task for long periods; infrequent safety briefings conducted by FAA managers; and inadequate training for some jobs in the busy tower."

The safety board said the findings "suggest that [O'Hare's] controller scheduling may not allow controllers to obtain adequate sleep between some shift changes."

Craig Burzych, president of the controllers union at O'Hare, said "the FAA is making staffing challenges worse by temporarily upgrading some controllers to supervisory jobs in response to the NTSB probe. The result is too few controllers to run the airfield, he said."

Copyright 2006. All Rights Reserved.