Air Traffic Control Towers: Key Facts After Arizona Crash star-news.press/wp

Tens of thousands of airplanes take off, land and perform the touch-and-goes at Marana Regional Airport in the south of Arizona every year. Without air traffic control, it is a calculated dance that requires pilot communication.

Two small aircraft collided in Midair Over one of the runways on Tucson’s outskirts last week. One hit the ground and set fire to fire, sending a black smoke shower. The remains of two people were found in carbon wreck. Another plane was able to land, with those passengers destroyed.

The collision was Latest airlines Mishap to draw attention in recent weeks. Circumstances, however, vary widely with each case and experts who study air accidents say they do not see any connection between them.

Chatter over the air waves provided some clues about what happened in Arizona. The main flight instructor who was in the air with students who heard the commutation over the radio: one plane was trying to touch and go when another stretched his propeller.

Erwin Castillo, who works for a pilot fee, recalled the hearing of a pilot scream: “Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! Only hit us.”

The federal investigators will be determined as a collision, a detailed process that will last for months.

While some observers suggest that the control tower could make a difference, experts say they don’t have a tower does not mean that the airport is less safe; Pilots have only a different set of communication procedures for tracking.

Of the 5,100 public airports across the country, only about 10% have tower staff of people who direct the flow of traffic. These are the busiest airports, with complex operations and large amounts of commercial flights.

For airports without control towers, pilots rely on radio communication and “see and avoid” principle to ensure safe. The concept is drilled in the pilots from the first day and is applicable regardless of the type of air space, said Mike Ginter, retired Navy Aviation and the Vice President of the Air Force and Pilot Security Institute.

It was realized that he was behind the wheels of the car and practicing all the security rules learned in Ed starters.

“You don’t have to tell the State Police to get driving to the supermarket to get the groceries. You just go out, and you look both ways before turning on the pointer and ride, saying there was a basic chief of security which are built into pilots.

The system has worked well, given the clear number of airplanes that come and daily go from small airports and approximately 26 million hours of flight time recorded by General Pilots.

It was a summer day 1956. year when two commercial flights left Los Angeles within a minute in minutes – one on the way to Chicago, and the other to Kansas. Flying under visual rules of flight, planes collided through Grand Canyon in Arizona, killing all 128 people on board. Site collision is now national historical sights.

Although American air traffic is more than doubled since the end of World War II, it was the disaster that helped invest efforts to overhaul the aviation security.

Legislation was introduced in 1958. year to create an independent federal agency that would ensure the safe and efficient use of the National Airspace. The bill was signed within months, and the first administrator of the Federal Aeronautics Agency was appointed.

Responsibilities developed, and the Agency became a federal aviation administration such as modernized air traffic control systems.

Through FAA, Airports can apply for federal grants Modernize and build towers for air traffic control which are private company staff and contract workers, not FAA staff.

Almost 180 airports of Nationwide meets the conditions for funding within the program, and most are looking to upgrade existing tower – some of that date from the 40s and others who were supposed to be temporary.

The application of funding allocated to the program in the last four fiscal years shows that the handship of the airport is the obtained money in particular for the study, environmental work and the construction of new towers. This includes airports in the bend, Oregon; Boulder City, Nevada; And Mankato, Minnesota.

In the case of Marane, the airport was first accepted in the 2019 program year, but the coronavirus pandemic stopped the efforts to build the towers for a five-year term. The Zvorniki Airport said they are now on their way to completing the project by 2029. years.

U.S. President Donald Trump betrayed Memo At the end of January to the best transport officials, by ordering the current air security assessment after the Helicopter Army and the commercial passenger jet across the Potomac in Washington, DC sixty-seven people were killed.

Trump asked questions about employment practice within FAA, suggesting previous democratic administrations He crossed the merit-based employment.

Some FAA jobs are eliminated As Trump simplifies the federal labor and follows the abyss and subsists, but less than 1% of the Agency for more than 45,000 workers were trial employees aimed as part of the job cuts, Federal officials said.

In addition, the administration said no Air traffic controls or critical security personnel They were fired as part of the effort. But groups of work and industry say even without cuts, and air traffic control towers are already not enough to oppose.

Trump said that it will support legislation aimed at modernizing the nation air traffic control system. In the letter referred to by members of the Congress last week, the industrial group airline for America pushed for urgent financing for critical technology and air traffic control as well as air control staff.

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The associated print writer Sejal Govindarao in Phoenix contributed to this report.

2025-02-25 09:34:00

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