The Costs of Solving the Air-Traffic Mess

April 25th 2008: An update to a previous article

A previous article described the event processing requirements needed to support “Global Air Traffic Management“. The main theme of a number of articles published on this site is that the underlying event processing requirements for many global monitoring systems such as air traffic control, epidemiology monitoring, climate change monitoring etc. are very similar. Perhaps they could all be supported by the same basic event processing infrastructure.

However, hidden in that article is the caveat,

“As with any system integration, there will be political issues, especially where funding is concerned. These issues go beyond the scope of this article.”

Now, in the case of air traffic control systems, these issues have bubbled up to the surface of the New York Times, and elsewhere!

Download the article: The Cost & Politics of the Air-Traffic Mess

Politics is also surfacing with technical concerns. Matthew Wald in the New York Times, April 25th 2008, “Fault-Finding in Dallas Between Controllers and Pilots Becomes a Problem for the FAA”, surveys the issues.

“Air traffic control supervisors in Dallas, caught in 2005 hiding instances in which planes had passed too closely, switched to blaming pilots for the incidents when they were actually the controllers’ fault, aviation officials said Thursday.”

The article goes on to summarize the main technical issue very simply,

“The F.A.A. relies on accurate data so it can identify trouble spots and fix them before they contribute to a crash, he said. One category of trouble spots is air traffic routes that are difficult to navigate and, like a badly designed highway intersection, pose a disproportionate danger.”

and the political issue as well,

“Another problem is that bonuses for controllers and supervisors depend in part on the rate of reported “operational errors,” like close encounters. “You don’t want to have an incentive for people hiding the ball,” he said.”

Clearly, an automated monitoring system would go a long way towards a solution to both problems.