The inspector general of the Department of Transportation has issued a report blistering the department's own Federal Aviation Administration for its sorry record during the Clinton-Gore administration.
What's up?
Well, to begin with, the lopsided increase in air traffic control errors by the FAA when compared with the increase in airplane traffic since 1996.
ABC News is reporting that:
Not only has the FAA failed to reduce the alarming increase in the number of operational errors in the nation's air traffic control system, but it also has let them spike out of all proportion with the increasing number of aircraft in the sky.
While air traffic has jumped 12 percent since 1996, the percentage of operational errors in which air traffic controllers permit two planes to fly closer than they are supposed to has risen by more than four times that amount in the same period, 51 percent.
What's more, the FAA itself forecasts that air operations will increase yet another 30 percent by 2011.
From October 1995 through September 2000, mistakes involving violations of minimum aircraft spacing requirements increased to 1,154 from 764.
And most of those involved aircraft in flight, a serious safety risk.
The FAA insists it has been working hard to reduce errors, and it attributed some of the increase in errors to more accurate reporting of mistakes.
"We actively encourage reporting and have taken adverse action against personnel who intentionally cover up operational errors," said FAA spokesman Frasier Jones.
The department's inspector general was not impressed.
The IG's report stated flatly that the FAA "has been ineffective and not shown a sense of urgency in reducing operational errors."
Nor is the FAA doing much better on the ground. The number of planes placed at risk on runways increased by 22 percent in the past year.
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