Canada’s air traffic controller system is in far better shape than the one in the U.S., but a shortage of workers is still worrying, local experts said.
Air traffic controller technology and staffing has come into the spotlight in the wake of the plane crash at LaGuardia Airport that killed two Air Canada Express pilots on March 22. The plane crashed into a fire truck whose crew appeared to have been permitted by an air traffic controller to cross the runway at the same time the plane was landing.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy spoke at a news conference about a shortage of staff working at air traffic control towers around the country, as well as woefully out-of-date technology running the traffic control systems. Reports have pegged the shortage of air traffic controllers at about 3,000 in the U.S.
École de technologie supérieure professor Georges Ghazi believes understaffing and poor technology is already having an effect on overall safety, and that will only get worse as air traffic grows in the coming years.
While reports have stated that two air traffic controllers were working at the control tower on the night of the LaGuardia collision, the accident appeared to have been triggered after one controller was co-ordinating ground and air traffic at the same time.
“I think there is a bit of both, with a problem of manpower shortage and technology problems,” Ghazi said. “I think the controller was clearly overloaded at the (moment of the crash), and potentially that led him not to take the right decision. If there were more controllers working at that time, there would have been a better distribution of tasks, and we probably wouldn’t have had that problem.”
He added that there appeared to also have been a problem with the technology that is supposed to be in place to prevent such conflicts between ground and air vehicles.
“I know that LGA (LaGuardia) has technology that lights up runways when they are occupied,” he said. “If a truck is crossing, it should, in theory, see that light and ask the control tower for further clarification.”
Ghazi added that some airports have all their ground vehicles equipped with transponders. That allows controllers to access a visual map of all vehicles at the same time, which can help them better see all the pieces in play.
“The last thing we have to look at is that the controller had told the truck to stop, so why didn’t they stop? Was there a problem in hearing the message? The investigation will determine that.”
Speaking to The Gazette, John Gradek, a McGill faculty lecturer in aviation management, said Canada has one advantage over the U.S.: The technology used by air traffic controllers in this country is far more advanced than most other countries. Most of the technology has been updated at major airports in Canada, whereas some parts of the U.S. system rely on technology from the 1960s run by Windows 95 and floppy disks.
Duffy has asked the U.S. Congress to pass a $12.5-billion funding package to overhaul the technology.
“I’m not saying that this crash would have been prevented if we had all of the equipment deployed, but it’s important if we care about air travel safety,” Duffy said last week. “If we care about having a brand new air traffic control system.”
As far as staffing is concerned, the situation is familiar in Canada.
Nav Canada, which manages the air traffic controller system in Canada, says that despite a hiring spree in recent years, the company is still 200 air traffic controllers shy of its target of 2,100. Spokesperson Maryam Amini cautioned against “drawing parallels between events and recent media coverage in other jurisdictions and air traffic management in Canada — particularly as the incident in question remains under investigation by the appropriate safety authorities.”
Gradek agreed that despite a shortage of staff both in Canada and the U.S., air travel remains relatively safe. If air traffic control towers are missing staff, they will ensure that their workload reflects the number of controllers.
“It impacts operations for sure,” Gradek said. “There is no risk to the system or to the safety of flights, because the control towers will not handle any more than what they are physically able to deal with.
“You’re not going to be overloading the controllers by having more flights than those controllers can handle,” he added. “All the other flights are held up and we have things like ground stops, where there is a break for all takeoffs for a few hours.”
Ghazi, however, disagreed, and believes the shortage of workers is a real problem for safety, as controllers are often overtaxed with a higher-than-normal workload.
“Air traffic is growing exponentially, and that engenders a lot more delays and requires a lot more tactical management, which will require a lot more effort for air traffic controllers to supervise all this,” he said. “They have to communicate with lots of people in a short time span, and with no ambiguity, or else we see problems like what we saw.”
Duffy also said LaGuardia is well staffed compared to other airports, with 33 out of a target of 37 people on staff.
Gradek challenged that assertion, saying a 10 per cent shortage is still a problem, as it means some controllers will be overworked, which could even lead some to walk off the job.
“And that does happen,” Gradek said. “In fact, the U.S. is poaching (from other countries) to hire more workers.”
An air traffic controller is a highly specialized job that takes up to 30 months to be trained, so those who have the training are in high demand because of shortages throughout the industry.
“Right now, the technology we are using in Canada is global state of the art,” Gradek said. “In the U.S., they have been patching it up over the years. The systems are so archaic. They really have to go in and revamp everything.
“Sometimes you’ll see air traffic controllers calling a ground stop because their computers are updating the most recent version of Windows,” Gradek said. “Duffy knows that, and so does the FAA, and they have been clamouring for a major investment to take this thing out of the 1960s.”
Despite the old technology, Gradek doesn’t believe passenger safety is being compromised. The impact of the failings of the air traffic control system is more delays for a flight to take off, he said.
