Reiterating her call for more air traffic controllers, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Monday warned President-elect Barack Obama’s nominee for Transportation secretary that chronic staff shortages at Los Angeles International Airport and the main radar facility that guides aircraft between airports pose an “alarming risk” to aviation safety in Southern California.

In a two-page letter to Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.), Feinstein recommended that the Federal Aviation Administration take immediate steps to hire more controllers at LAX and the Southern California Terminal Radar Approach Control in San Diego.

“For years, the controller staffing situation has only become more severe,” Feinstein wrote.

“Retirements have outpaced projections, training goals have not been met, trainees have dropped out of the program at alarming rates and the supply of available military-trained controllers has dried up,” she said.


The senator’s letter informed LaHood that the U.S. Department of Transportation, at her request, began an audit in June to evaluate air traffic control staffing and its effect on safety at LAX as well as the Southern California and Northern California radar control facilities.

The inspector general’s report is expected to be released in the months ahead.

FAA officials said the LAX control tower and the Southern California radar control facility are staffed within the authorized ranges and that the agency is continually hiring new air traffic controllers to replace those who are retiring.

According to the FAA, controller errors are down this year at LAX compared with 2007, though the level is higher than several years ago.


Although FAA officials continue to assert that the system is safe, Feinstein said that all parties, including the FAA, have acknowledged that high turnover rates are straining the region’s air traffic control system.

Feinstein cited the staffing levels at the Southern California radar control facility, which have fallen from 236 fully certified controllers in April 2004 to 162 in October, the lowest level in the facility’s recent history. The installation, which has a staff of 220, is responsible for guiding aircraft to six commercial airports and several dozen general aviation airports. Its authorized staffing level is 194 to 237 controllers, including trainees.

LAX, one of the busiest airports in the nation, has 44 air traffic controllers, a number within the authorized staffing range of 39 to 47. Thirty-six are fully certified for the airport. Five are partially certified controllers and three are trainees with no certifications yet.

Feinstein noted that the number of trainees at the South California radar control facility has reached almost 29% of the total staff. Experts, she said, believe that the FAA’s apprentice-based program breaks down when more than 20% of the controllers are still in training.


Next year, Feinstein added, the facility could have up to 100 trainees.

“I appreciate the senator’s efforts to keep pressure on the FAA to do something,” said Mel Davis, a representative of the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. and a controller at the Southern California radar control facility. “If you look at the results, the FAA’s actions have not been effective. In the past few months, we have seen 40 people come and go.”

In her letter, Feinstein suggested to LaHood that training be revamped to handle a large influx of recruits and that incentives be created to retain veteran controllers and attract qualified people from other parts of the country.

Air traffic controllers say, for example, that the high cost of living in Southern California hampers recruiting efforts here.


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dan.weikel@latimes.com