The International Air Traffic Controllers Skifest of North America announces it's 23rd skifest to be held at Mammoth Mountain, California February 27-March 6, 2010.  All the information is available at www.skifest.us.  This is a great opportunity to spend a week with Air Traffic Controllers from around the world having fun and meeting new friends.  I hope you will check out the web site and join us in 2010!
 
Milt Scherotter
Skifest Organizer

Russian narcotics police and Federal Security Service authorities have arrested an air traffic controller on charges of using illegal drugs, regional authorities said on Thursday.
The dispatcher, 25, who was responsible for controlling air traffic at Vladivostok Airport in the Far East, was arrested while on his way home from work after smoking a cannabis joint.
"Controlling air traffic under the influence of narcotics could lead to an accident with heavy consequences as psycho-active components of the drugs remain in the body's system for a long period of time after use," a report on the incident read.
The dispatcher was arrested for driving while under the influence of narcotics, as well as being charged with the illegal possession of drugs.
According to scientific research, cannabis-based narcotics have been proven to delay reactions, hinder coordination and lead to a loss in concentration.

An airplane hurtling down a runway at Logan Airport yesterday morning narrowly averted colliding with a construction vehicle that strayed into an unauthorized area, triggering a federal investigation and halting all construction at one of the country’s busiest airports.

The incident, classified as the most serious type of runway incursion short of a collision, occurred at 6:36 a.m. and terrified air traffic controllers, who saw the vehicle dangerously close to the plane’s wing shortly after the flight was cleared for takeoff.

A near miss between two taxiing passenger jets at Sydney Airport has prompted a review of air traffic control procedure.

On July 17 last year, an Airbus A330 carrying 13 crew and 163 passengers bound for Melbourne started its takeoff without clearance by air traffic control, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said.

At the same time, a Boeing 747 had been cleared to cross the same runway.

The Airbus crew aborted its take-off when advised by the tower they did not have clearance.

In its report into the incident, the ATSB says the crew of the Airbus felt under pressure because the flight had been delayed, had agreed to change runways and had misunderstood an assigned departure heading as a clearance for departure.

Europe launched a long-term programme on Friday to upgrade its increasingly stressed air traffic control system by signing initial contracts worth 1.9 billion euros ($2.7 billion).

The deals were signed by 16 firms, institutes or airports and the SESAR partnership between the European Commission and the Eurocontrol air traffic organisation, to seek to prevent congestion of the European sky.

The aim of the programme, worth 2.1 billion euros, is to unify Europe's often-fragmented air management system and increase by three times its ability to handle air traffic by 2020.

The scheme should also improve air safety by a factor of 10, the Commission said, and reduce air fuel consumption by 10 percent.

New research published in the June issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons shows that a method used by air traffic controllers tracks patient data more effectively and with fewer errors compared with current hospital methods, primarily the use of clipboards.
Currently there is no standard practice for tracking the movement of patients from emergency rooms to the radiology suite, operating rooms, the intensive care unit, inpatient rooms or the discharge area. In addition, basic errors – such as misidentifying which extremity needs to be amputated – have resulted in increased mortality that could be prevented with basic safety measures. Both of these situations underscore the fact that patient safety has become a more visible vulnerability of modern medicine.

The Aspen-Pitkin County Airport (KASE) could be the first in the nation to use closed-circuit television cameras as part of its air traffic-control operations, airport officials announced Wednesday.

After five years of meetings, review and field testing, the Federal Aviation Administration this week approved use of the cameras as a way to improve visibility for air-traffic controllers on the proposed 1,000-foot extension of the airport’s runway. Jim Elwood, airport director, called the approval an “important milestone” as work continues on the environmental assessment for the envisioned runway extension.

The cameras will eliminate the need for a much taller airport control tower. They can be used in conjunction with the existing tower, Elwood explained.

An air-traffic control error led to a close call between two airliners flying to O'Hare International Airport earlier this week, the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday.

The incident occurred Monday and involved two American Airlines planes landing on parallel runways that are 4,800 feet apart.

The FAA assigned its highest level of severity to the incident, which is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.

A McDonnell Douglas MD-82 making a turn under the direction of an air-traffic controller crossed in front of a Boeing 767, the FAA said. The two planes were at the same altitude and only 0.35 miles apart laterally at the closest point, according to a preliminary FAA review.

American Airlines will test fuel-saving technology and tactics on a Paris-to-Miami flight this week that the carrier and federal officials hope will help make the case for a new navigation system.
The plane on Thursday's flight will take a direct route guided by global-positioning technology instead of staying within the usual jetliner highways.
It will also ascend and descend more gradually and use other measures, some of which are already becoming standard, such as taxiing out to the runway on one engine instead of two.
American said it will be the first U.S. carrier to test the full range of fuel-saving and emissions-reducing tactics on a trans-Atlantic route. The test is being conducted with the Federal Aviation Administration.

An air cargo plane took off in the wrong direction at Kona International Airport last week and was headed toward a go! Airlines plane that was coming in for a landing on the same runway.

The air traffic controllers union blamed the incident on short staffing at the Kona airport, where contractors -- not federal, unionized controllers -- direct air traffic.

The incident does not qualify as a near collision, because both aircraft were never closer than 3 miles apart, Federal Aviation Administration officials said. The FAA has classified it as "pilot error."

The incident raises safety questions. It happened at Kona International Airport on May 19, at about 8 a.m. when an Alpine Air Cargo plane was given permission to take off.