FAA

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Deal With Coburn Prevents FAA Shutdown

He'll get to insert language in upcoming bill

(Newser) - The FAA won't be shutting down after all. Under heavy pressure from fellow Republicans, Tom Coburn relented last night, removing a hold preventing the Senate from passing a transportation bill that would keep the FAA's doors open. The bill passed with flying colors, with only Coburn and five...

Coburn Holds FAA Hostage With One-Man Filibuster

Agency could face a second shutdown

(Newser) - The FAA could soon be shut down again, costing thousands of workers their jobs and the government $30 million a day in airline ticket taxes, all thanks to a single Republican senator. Tom Coburn is exploiting a Senate procedural rule requiring unanimous consent to switch from working on one bill...

Congress Strikes Deal to End FAA Impasse

Shutdown has idled 74,000 workers

(Newser) - Congress has reached a bipartisan compromise to end the partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration that has left 74,000 transportation and construction workers idled, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said today. The deal would allow the Senate to approve a House bill extending the FAA's operating authority...

Obama to Empty Congress: End FAA Shutdown

But there's no one in town to do it

(Newser) - The White House called on Congress to end a standoff over the FAA that has put 74,000 people out of work—but there were absolutely no signs it would do so, in part because everyone’s left town. Press Secretary Jay Carney said Obama was “looking at different...

Congress Goes Home Without Ending FAA Shutdown

GOP, Dems disagree about subsidizing service to rural airports

(Newser) - Congress has gone home for the summer without reaching a deal to end a partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration . Some 4,000 FAA employees and around 70,000 construction workers have been put out of work by the shutdown, caused by a partisan standoff, the Washington Post reports....

FAA Forced Into Partial Shutdown

Airport construction work halted across country

(Newser) - As debt ceiling talks drag on, the Federal Aviation Administration is already feeling the effects of lawmakers' failure to agree. The agency was forced into partial shutdown yesterday after Congress failed to extend its funding, the Los Angeles Times reports. Construction work at airports around the country has ground to...

Air Traffic Controller Caught Watching Movie on the Job

For three minutes, planes heard Samuel L. Jackson instead of instructions

(Newser) - Note to air traffic controllers: Watching a DVD at work may help to keep you awake, but ultimately it's not much better than napping. A controller in Oberlin, Ohio, learned that lesson the hard way early Sunday, when his microphone was accidentally activated and began transmitting the audio from...

Yet Another Air Traffic Controller Caught Napping

That's the seventh this year; FAA changing work schedules

(Newser) - Another air traffic controller has been suspended for sleeping on the job, this time at a Miami radar center. That's No. 7 this year, notes CNN . This one's especially priceless because the entire crew got a lecture on professionalism—emphasis on not falling asleep—prior to the start...

FAA's Air Traffic Head Resigns After Sleep Incidents

Another controller nodded off in Nevada yesterday

(Newser) - The head of the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization resigned today, amid a wave of reports of air traffic controllers sleeping on the job . Hank Krakowski submitted his resignation this morning to FAA chief Randy Babbitt, the Washington Post reports, who promised a “top to bottom” review of the...

Four More Dozing Air Traffic Controllers Suspended

FAA will add controllers at 26 airports

(Newser) - The epidemic of snoozing air traffic controllers continues: Four more have been suspended for nodding off on the job, the FAA announced yesterday. One of those was a controller at Nevada's Reno-Tahoe International Airport, who slept for 16 minutes early yesterday as an airborne ambulance carrying a patient landed with...

Second Napping Controller Found ... With Blankie

Knoxville air traffic controller intentionally slept, FAA says

(Newser) - After a DC air traffic controller fell asleep on the job , the FAA learned of a second one who did the same thing—but this one did it intentionally. The Knoxville air traffic controller went so far as to find cushions and a blanket to use for his nap, Reuters...

Wisecracking Pilot Lands on NYC Beach

TV show-inspired pilot makes risky landing after passenger becomes airsick

(Newser) - Landing a single-engine aircraft on a beach takes skill but the FAA isn't impressed with a young pilot who brought his plane down on New York City's Rockaway Beach on Monday night because of an airsick passenger. Wisecracking pilot Jason Maloney, 24, offered air traffic controllers a variety of excuses...

Southwest's Problem: Its Planes Fly Too Much

Efficient short-haul operations may have contributed to rupture

(Newser) - Southwest Airlines may be a victim of its own efficiency. The airline's much-touted short-haul operations require each plane to fly an average of six times a day, and the stress of all those landings and take-offs may be partially to blame for the cracks found in some of their older...

Feds Order Emergency Checks of 80 Planes

Older 737s to be inspected after Southwest crack

(Newser) - The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered emergency inspections of 80 older Boeing 737s similar to the Southwest plane that suddenly cracked open last week during a flight. The order covers aircraft built with a specific process in the '80s and '90s and those that have more than 30,000 flight...

Snoozing Controller's Excuse: 'Stuck Mike'

Supervisor who fell asleep on the job has been suspended

(Newser) - The air traffic supervisor who fell asleep early Wednesday at Reagan National Airport, forcing two planes to land on their own , was suspended yesterday. Federal officials say the veteran controller was also given a drug test, although the FAA will not confirm the testing or the results. The Washington Post...

This New FAA Rule Could Kill You

No more emergency oxygen masks in airplane lavatories

(Newser) - The FAA recently ordered the emergency oxygen masks removed from the lavatories of all US commercial planes, a directive it says will protect the public from potential terror attacks—but which could also kill anyone who happens to be in the airplane lavatory during a rapid decompression event. The FAA...

Air Traffic Control Errors Soar 81%

But FAA say it's just because more are being reported

(Newser) - The number of air traffic control errors reported to the FAA has taken off over the past three years, climbing 81% from 2007 to 2010. More than 1,800 incidents were reported last year, according to USA Today , including 43 classified as the kind of error most likely to cause...

Planes That Fly Over US Pose Security Threat: Expert

Flights passing over, not landing in nation could house 'dirty bomb'

(Newser) - The thousands of cargo and passenger flights that fly over but don't land in the US each week aren't subject to full security screenings—and pose a potentially deadly risk to Americans, reports the Washington Post . The cargo aboard these flights isn't screened to federal standards, and passenger names aren't...

FAA Safety Program Riddled With Holes

Airplane maintenance not rigorously checked by FAA

(Newser) - An FAA program designed to ensure safe practices at US airlines has lapses that could cost travelers their lives, the AP reports. A report by the Department of Transportation's inspector general found that the oversight program was riddled with holes—the most glaring lapse being in the program's review of...

FAA Not Sure Who Owns Thousands of US Planes

Chaos prompts terror fears; agency calls for re-registration

(Newser) - The FAA lacks key information on who owns some 119,000 private and commercial aircraft in the US, prompting concerns that terrorists or drug traffickers could use the paperwork mess to their advantage—something the latter group is already doing. The FAA is calling for all owners to re-register the...

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