Air tragedies waiting to happen

The DOTC is playing Russian roulette with our lives… at least those of us who travel by air quite often. Over the past few days, we have been told that facilities and operating conditions at NAIA are putting the lives of air travelers at serious risk.

First is the blog of fellow journalist Raissa Robles. Last Sunday, she posted an exclusive report in her blog about how NAIA’s air traffic congestion is worsening. I thought that was nothing new or serious… same old story of incompetence and corruption. But I was mistaken. It was worse than I thought.

The takeoff and landing of planes at the runways of the NAIA complex, Raissa reports, is now “going beyond safe limits”.  Raissa said she was shocked when an official told her that.

Apparently, congestion on NAIA’s runways has led to constant flight delays of as long as 80 minutes, usually with plane loads of passengers sitting idle on the tarmac at the country’s premier international airport. Or worse, as my associate, Carla Paras Sison commented on Raissa’s posting.

Carla and her family were on a plane last weekend that hovered over NAIA for 30 minutes before being allowed to land. Imagine the additional fuel uselessly burned and carbon emitted as well as potential dangers of more planes also circling.

According to Raissa, her government official source told her that during peak hours: Takeoffs and landings are less than one minute apart; there are even times there are 36 landings per hour – or landings less than two minutes apart; and even as many as 45 landings per hour – or one landing every 80 seconds.

Raissa wonders: “It boggles the mind how our air traffic controllers are able to prevent disasters on a daily basis. I know we have some of the best air traffic controllers in the world. But they are overworked. I hope the government looks into this problem with utmost urgency.”

As if Raissa’s report isn’t scary enough, PhilStar reported last Monday that a DOTC audit has declared NAIA air traffic system to be below international standards. Apparently, an air traffic management system worth P511 million installed at the NAIA by minions of Ate Glue, does not meet international civil aviation standards.

The audit, presented to the DOTC’s civil aviation officials during a meeting last Friday, revealed the system has at least 20 major deficiencies or “non-conformity” to international aviation standards. The CAAP Employees Union earlier said the Manila ACC project is one of the graft-ridden projects undertaken by the DOTC during the Arroyo administration.

Among the serious deficiencies cited in the audit report is a lack of provisions to make the system “error-tolerant.” The system was never assessed for safety nor was it checked if it met the strict standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization, the CAAP auditors said. The system was found to be unserviceable and lacking in vital “interconnections.”

“Our air controllers don’t want to use it because it is not working and is problematic and they don’t want to be responsible if a tragedy occurs in the NAIA or in the other airport when they use it,” a source told PhilStar reporter Rainier Allan Ronda. Two major airlines have alerted the CAAP to two “near-collisions” when the CAAP tested the system and used it to direct air traffic at the NAIA last March, it was said.

So they are still using the old air traffic system, installed in the 1980s. While the Aquino administration should investigate the original P291-million contract to set up the Manila ACC in 2010 and the additional revisions that added P220 million to the project cost, the more urgent need to do what it takes to assure the safety of passengers.

In the wake of these problems, I cannot understand how Glicerio Sicat, DOTC Undersecretary for Civil Aviation and Railways could express confidence that “we will be able to get back the FAA’s Category 1 rating within the year or early next year.” Actually, government is well beyond issuing hopeful press releases they will accomplish something like this. The prevailing attitude now is “Shut up and just show us!”

The FAA downgraded the Philippines to Category 2 from Category 1 in December 2007 after a safety audit found government’s handling of the local aviation sector to be below international standards. Significant safety concerns (SSC) on the country’s civil aviation systems has also been issued by the United Nations international aviation watchdog, the International Civil Aviation Organization, in December 2009.

A ban on Philippine flag carriers and registered aircrafts by the European Civil Aviation authorities is also affecting the number of European tourists coming here. Because of the ban, Europeans who come here cannot be covered by their usual travel insurance.

Regaining Category 1 status will allow Philippine Airlines to change to their aircraft they use on US flights to the more economical Boeing 777 and add new destinations in the US like San Diego and Chicago. It will also allow rival Cebu Pacific to start trans-Pacific flight operations, something that taipan John Gokongwei told me a couple of years ago, he wanted to do as soon as possible. The downgrade prevents Cebu Pacific from flying to the US at all.

If Sicat is to be believed, of the 22 items identified by the FAA as safety concerns, only two remain unresolved. These are the lack of qualified safety personnel and the absence of an integrated information technology (IT) system to modernize the sector’s database. In this regard, Sicat said they have hired 22 former pilots to serve as full-time Flight Standards Inspectorate Service (FSIS) inspectors. Very few pilots are willing to serve in government and be paid government salary rates.

Maybe DOTC should look into the privatization of the air traffic control service. I caught a report on CNN last week about how Canada has successfully privatized and dramatically improved the reliability of this service. NavCanada, the private firm handling the service is supposedly a model even for the US to emulate.

Secretary Ping de Jesus must move a lot more quickly on this matter of life and death. I don’t think he wants to bow out of his illustrious government service with blood on his hands if some accident happens because of these problems at the airport. He should be losing sleep on this one.

Osama on Twitter

Minutes after the killing of Osama bin Laden was announced by President Obama, Twitters starting twitting wise cracks about the terrorist-in-chief. Here is the best one I have read:

They should have captured Bin Laden alive and made him continually go through airport security for the rest of his life.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. He is also on Twitter @boochanco