FAA Funding Collides With ATC Overhaul and Airplane Fire Threats

FAA Funding Collides With ATC Overhaul and Airplane Fire Threats
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The public has sporadic interest in air travel news; seat size and ticket prices get attention, as do stories of badly-behaving flight attendants. But two issues being debated in Washington deserve somethought for their significance as safety issues with wide-reachingimpact.
On Wednesday, the Federal AviationAdministration issued yet another warning about the danger of carrying lithiumion batteries on airplanes. This was ostensibly timed to coordinate with Florida SenatorBill Nelson's new proposed legislation to ban shipping lithium ion batteries in bulk as cargo onpassenger flights.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board have beenwarning for years that lithium ion batteries harbor a trifecta of threats;
  • they are a source of ignition,
  • they provide their own fire fuel
  • they can create explosions as well as producing toxic gases
"If FAA testing has found that fires orexplosions caused by lithium-ion batteries can lead to a catastrophic loss ofan airplane, then why on earth would anyone want to prohibit safetyregulators from banning large shipments of these batteries on passengerairliners?" the senator said in a press release accompanying his proposal.
In fact, that Nelson's bill is an attempt to bust through preciselythat; a legislative ban on what the FAA can do to ensure passenger flights are not brought down by lithium ion battery fires as several cargo flights have been. (It is a subject for another day why we care more about passenger flights than cargo flights that can just as easily crash into residential neighborhoods, as El Al Flight 1862 did in Amsterdam in 1992.)
In 2012, U.S. lawmakers acted to prevent the FAAfrom taking any action more restrictive than what International Civil Aviation Organization does. Since at this pointICAO deals with lithium metal (non rechargable) but not lithium ion batteries, (the kind in all your electronic gadgets). The effect is that FAA's attemptsto go farther to prevent a battery-initiated disaster have been thwarted. If it sounds incredible,that's because it is.
So far airline attempts to deal with the threat have been piecemeal. Just in time for theholiday gift-giving season many airlines at the urging of the International Air Transport Association, prohibited travelers from carrying hoverboards and their large lithium ion batteries onto planes, a decision that caused the actor Russell Crowe to tweethis outrage when he and his children could not board a Virgin Australia flight six weeks ago.
Still, when the federal bureaucrats get active to fix a threat andlawmakers obstruct, one can only shake one's head in bewilderment.
It gives me little confidence in theoutcome of the second subject being discussed in Washington, the privatizationof the nation's air traffic control system.
This is a hugely complex subject with long-reaching consequences I won'tpretend to suggest I can foresee. Though the public debate ought to boil down to thisquestion, "Who can better handle safely separating airplanes with the emerging21st Century technology?"
Instead all parties are talking about who will own the infrastructure and how will it affect the fees airlines and private aviators pay. Airlines 4 America, a national trade association that, notsurprisingly, is a proponent of business sees switching air traffic control fromthe government to a not-for-profit company not yetidentified, as all upside. So does the controller's union, National Air TrafficControllers Association. Delta Air Lines and Air Line Pilots Associationoppose it, as does the business aviation community.
Concerns about the FAA's inability tooversee and implement new airspace technology, and a shortage of trainedcontrollers are long standing problems. Still, I find it hard to imagine that aprivate company governed by a board of industry insiders is going to be any swifteroff the mark to deal with these challenges. In fact, it seems distancing thisessential service from the accountability of the FAA could worsenthe situation.
As I waffle, I am certain of one thing, roughair is ahead and we'll all need to pay attention to successfully navigatethrough it.

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