Airport Passengers' Air Safety "At Risk"
A retired air traffic controller has accused Britain's air traffic control agency of putting passengers' air safety at Heathrow Airport "at risk".
The controller told the BBC that National Air Traffic Services (Nats) is focused more on providing services than safety.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the former controller said an "errant culture" exists at Heathrow which "is a danger to the public".
He accused Nats of "[trying to] put [aircraft] as close together as we really dare within the limits of the law".
The controller, recently retired after a 27-year career, argued that Nats places pressure on Heathrow air traffic controllers to maximise the number of landings at the busy airport in order to service demand.
This, he says, is tantamount to "cutting corners" and is leading to a dangerous situation for the travelling public.
'Whistleblower' Wrote Air Traffic Control Safety Report
Before retiring last month, the 'whistleblowing' controller wrote a 33-page air traffic control safety report for Nats investigating potentially-dangerous safety breaches on the approach into Heathrow.
The controller said he reviewed 12 incidents in the year to October 2007 where aircraft apparently broke separation minima on approach.
He wrote that a particularly serious incident occurred over Reading, Berkshire, in late September 2007, when airliners from BMI and Air France came within 1.8 nautical miles and 100 feet of each other when the minima is 2.5 nautical miles.
In the report, which the controller showed to the BBC, he wrote: "The controller [on duty] quite deliberately, although not maliciously, put aeroplanes in a 'fail-dangerous' situation, in order that he could maintain the runway service rate. And in so doing he endangered the travelling public".
The controller, who said this incident saw "greater risk than I have ever seen in 27 years of air traffic control", proved the safety risks that came from trying to get as maximise the runway use at Heathrow.
He wrote: "A premium on optimum air traffic control performance...has encouraged controllers to implement inappropriate plans of action and continue with them after it has become clear that [they] cannot be satisfactorily executed".
The controller told the BBC that he felt Nats are "throwing away some of the safeguards because it is the easiest way of moving the aeroplanes".
Nats Defend Air Traffic Controller Safety Accusations
Alex Bristol, a senior manager at Nats' Swanwick control centre - which controls flights into Heathrow - refusted the air traffic controller's safety accusations, saying that safety is "the primary concern, at all times".
Although he admitted that the Reading incident was an example of "extremely poor air traffic control technique", he defended the accusation that the agency is putting pressure on controllers to reduce the distance between aircraft in order to get as many flights as possible servicing the airport.
Mr Bristol said: "We have hugely skilled controllers who have been trained over many years. We have systems and procedures in place which ensure safety. We have a reporting system and culture which I believe to be second-to-none in Europe, certainly, and probably in the world".
He added that controllers have received extra training in the light of the report.
A Nats statement released later said that the incidents investigated by the controller were not regarded as serious breaches, or "airproxes", and that the agency would continue to work to improve training where improvements were identified.
Source - Airport International's London Reporter
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