Nearly 60 percent of the air traffic control towers and other key aviation facilities run by the Federal Aviation Administration are more than 30 years old and plagued by leaks, mold and foggy windows that can make it difficult to see the aircraft, an audit has found.

The audit of 16 FAA facilities selected at random by the Department of Transportation's Office of the Inspector General found "obvious structural deficiencies and maintenance-related issues" that would keep the guys from This Old House busy for years. Beyond leaky ceilings and faulty climate-control systems, the most severe problem was condensation-clouded windows that made it difficult to see the airfield. The air traffic control tower at Edwards Air Force Base — the airport used by the president — was among those with foggy windows.

A spate of air traffic controller reporting as being sick, has led to the closure of two of the four runways at Madrid Barajas airport today Saturday, leading to long delays.

Airlines are reporting average delays of 90 minutes, and the Guardia Civil has had to intervene to calm down some passengers angry at the delays. In the face of the tension some companies decided to close their information desks.

The situation is expected to worsen as the day continues. AENA the Spanish Airport Authority, said that seven of the 23 air traffic controllers at Barajas had reported sick.

Iraq officially began to govern its skies this week, but it has enough trained air traffic controllers only to manage the highest heights above the country.
That leaves the U.S. still in control of everything below 24,000 feet, meaning that American air-traffic controllers handle everything from the runway to 23,999 feet.
U.S. and Iraqi officials say that they're hopeful that Iraq will say goodbye to all its American air traffic advisers by 2011 — the year designated in the security agreement for the total withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq — as Iraq's airline industry grows for the first time in decades.

The Federal Aviation Administration has reached a settlement with an air traffic controller who said he was retaliated against for warning that a takeoff and landing procedure in Memphis, Tenn., had led to near midair collisions.
The FAA agreed Dec. 4 to return Peter Nesbitt to air traffic control duties and transfer him to Austin, Texas, at the same salary, and to pay his relocation and legal expenses, said Leslie Williamson, a spokeswoman for the Office of Special Counsel, a federal agency that investigates whistle-blower complaints.
Nesbitt, who has more than 20 years experience as a controller, had asked to return to the control tower at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, where he worked prior to the Memphis International Airport control tower.

The pilot who was in the cockpit of the India Post (formerly Alliance Air) aircraft may face severe penal action, ranging from suspension to cancellation of the commerical pilot's licence if found responsible for the blunder at Kolkata airport on Wednesday.

A major disaster was averted when the pilot of an Air India flight with 449 Haj pilgrims on board noticed the cargo aircraft on the foggy runway just as it was about to land.

Though Air India, that operates the Boeing 737-200 leased to India Post, is putting up a brave face and claiming the pilot could not have made the elementary error of wandering into the danger territory, sources in air traffic control insisted the error was that of the pilot.

Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) Director General Ruben Ciron, said in the weekly radio program “Para Sa Iyo Bayan” of Vice President Noli de Castro that he immediately ordered the relief of the air traffic control team’s supervisor and three others in the team.
But he ruled out sabotage from the air traffic controller personnel who left the control tower unattended and left three inbound flights delaying its landing Friday at the Zamboanga International Airport.
Zamboanga City Airport manager Celso Bayabos believed it was more complacency on the part of the five air traffic controllers.

A Philippine Airlines flight circled Zamboanga for almost an hour before it could land because no one was directing traffic from the control tower there yesterday, airline officials said.
They said Fight PR123, with 153 passengers, left Manila for Zamboanga at 5:06 a.m. and arrived there at 6 a.m., but no one from the control tower responded to the pilot’s repeated request for landing clearance.
The officials quoted the pilot as saying he kept asking the tower for clearance, but no one answered until 6:51 a.m., when the aircraft had already consumed 1,300 kilograms of fuel.
Zamboanga City airport manager Celso Bayabos said it was the first time such incident had occurred, and apparently because five air traffic controllers reported late.

The Nigerian National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) has called on the Federal Government to remove the remuneration of its members from the civil service structure in line with the requirement of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
NATCA President, Jibrin Haske Ibrahim, told newsmen in Lagos yesterday that air traffic control was too sensitive for its practitioners to be under the civil service structure, especially in terms of remuneration. He said the current structure under which air traffic controllers operate was inimical to air safety, adding that air traffic services required dispatch uncommon under the bureaucracy of the civil service.  

Nearly two thirds of air traffic controllers in Taiwan have difficulty communicating with foreign pilots, mainly due to the pilots' English accents, a survey released by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) showed Thursday.
The MOTC conducted the survey between April and July on 2,003 pilots of six Taiwan air carriers and 261 air traffic controllers of the Civil Aeronautics Administration. Responses were obtained from 38.2 percent of the pilots and 93.5 percent of the air traffic controllers.
According to the survey, 74.6 percent of the air traffic controllers said they have difficulty communicating with foreign pilots.
The main reasons for the problems were found to be the level of English proficiency of the air traffic controllers and the English accents of foreign pilots from non-English speaking countries.

An air force report Wednesday blamed Brazilian air traffic controllers and two U.S. pilots for a midair collision over the Amazon that killed 154 people, but found no evidence the Americans intentionally turned off a transponder that warns of approaching aircraft.
The 277-page Brazilian air force report said Lepore and Paladino did not have sufficient knowledge of the aircraft's avionics, resulting in the inadvertent switching off of the plane's transponder and the collision-avoidance system.
"There is no indication that allows us to conclude that the transponder was intentionally turned off," the report said.
The Brazilian flight controllers failed to notice that the transponder was on standby and did not warn the American pilots that they were flying at the wrong altitude and on a collision course with the Boeing, the report said.