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This is the second in a series of reports from my meetings last month with Department of Transportation officials in Washington, D.C. (see the first report, on DOT Secretary Mary Peters and “Air Woes”, right here). Your comments are welcome. There was a lot of buzz surrounding FAA’s Acting Administrator Robert “Bobby” Sturgell at the conference, due to the fact that he once flew fighter jets as a naval aviator and then later used that experience to become a flight instructor at the Navy’s Fighter Weapons School (that’s Top Gun school to most of us). I think people were half-expecting to see Tom Cruise or Val Kilmer sitting across the table from them. Instead, what I found was a trim-looking, 48-year old man who clearly had a lot on his mind. Sturgell seemed a bit distracted and tired, and he looked as though he was taking the responsibility of the world on his shoulders (think American Airlines & MD-80 groundings). Most of this responsibility comes in the form of the Next Generation Air Transportation System Integrated National Plan, or NextGen for short. A major part of our discussion revolved around how NextGen will bring air traffic control out of the Dark Ages. However, saying that and executing it are two different things, and I think that is what was weighing Sturgell down. Keep reading for a look at NextGen… |
How’s this for a quote?
“Your child’s Xbox video game system is more advanced than the air traffic control system that has been guiding aircraft in and out of increasingly crowded airspace since the 1950s.” (The Washington Post)
That sentiment from the Post is shared by many who work for the FAA and the airlines. Everyone seems to know that the current system is a major cause for massive delays, crowded skies, wasted fuel, and a myriad of other problems that make travelers miserable and airlines lose money. The hope is that NextGen will begin to change all of this by transforming the aviation system from relying on ground-based navigation to one that uses new technologies, such as global positioning systems (GPS) and Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B).
So, the current system can’t compete with the Xbox, and the “new” technology can already be found in most of our cell phones, so why can’t we get it on our planes?
Well, the process has been undeniably slow, but things are starting to move forward. NextGen systems will be tested in Florida and other areas around the Gulf of Mexico, and Sturgell believes that all planes will be properly equipped by 2020.
With NextGen in place, planes will be able to fly closer together, aircraft approach will be optimized, and runways could remain functional even in periods of thick fog like those experienced at SFO:
“Approaching the landing strip…planes digitally display integrated terrain and aircraft data on a head up display system, creating a better than visual’ flight situation awareness for the pilot.” (from FAA NextGen Videos)
You can get an in-depth review of the technology and all its functions from the FAA. The hope is that NextGen will greatly reduce congestion, while increasing safety and efficiency. Sturgell said that it would completely change the air traffic control system, making controllers more like managers of an automated system. Change is going to be crucial, because despite rising prices of airline tickets, most believe the number of air travelers will continue to grow into the future:
“In 2005, 738 million passengers flew on U.S. commercial carriers, compared with 579 million in 1995 and 395 million in 1985. We expect this figure to reach 1 billion passengers by 2015-less than a decade from now.” (from FAA Policies)
Again, it’s one thing to say we need change and another to make it happen. NextGen poses great budgetary and implementation challenges:
“To reap the benefits of NextGen, airplanes will have to be equipped with the linchpin technology, ADS-B. For light planes, the cost could be upwards of $10,000. For transport category aircraft (airliners), the cost of the avionics ranges from $40,000 to $160,000 per aircraft. Corporate aircraft costs fall in between these figures.” (from Aviation and Security Digest)
The amount of money required and the scope of the project have also, of course, inspired skepticism in many who have seen past FAA attempts to step into the modern world fail:
“We recognize that ADS-B has potential to enhance capacity, improve safety, and fundamentally change the way air traffic is managed. However, a full disclosure of costs, expected benefits, and risks is needed. … Given FAA’s history with developing new technologies and its approach for ADS-B, we believe that an extraordinary level of oversight will be required.” (Calvin Scovel, the Department of Transportation’s Inspector General)
With all of the challenges and the skepticism surrounding the project, Mr. Sturgell still remains optimistic about the FAA’s ability to put NextGen in place.
However, it was pretty clear to any one in the room that the former Top Gun pilot might be facing his toughest battle yet.
As if a bizarre amalgam of the comic-book fictional teen-age characters hailing from our Riverdale NY neighbor to the East and the Archie comics with which we grew up, FAA current and pro tempore Acting Administrator Bobby Sturgell expects us to embrace his Archie Andrews hay-seed demeanor, his Reggie Mantle malevolence of heart and worst of all, as demonstrated by the attached 10-page transcript (Transcript) of Sturgells recent NY press conference, the diction and grammatical skills of Big Moose saying Duh!.
With hands trembling in a manner more befitting Nixons sweating to the camera, or the Jon Lovitz Compulsive Liar character from Saturday Night Live expounding yet more hot air, Bobby Sturgell came to LaGuardia Airports Marine Air Terminal in Queens, NY on Thursday May 22, 2008, with his usual band of hack aeropublicists and other enablers in tow. Sturgell thereupon and once again lied to the media, lied to air traffic controllers, and lied to all of us New Yorkers. It is laughable and outrageous that Sturgell did so while touting that the FAA had been very transparent with everybody. (Transcript, p.10). Sturgells manifold May 22, 2008 lies are now not only lawfully audiotaped, but also textually documented for all the world to see in the attached Transcript, also posted and available at:
http://ejectsturgell.blogspot.com
When challenged by a Pound Ridge NY citizen about the failed US$53.5 million boondoggle known as the NY/NJ/PHL Airspace Redesign, the slippery Sturgell sought to duck the question once, then twice. Then, after realizing he was forced to answer with news-cameras rolling, he spouted recycled FAA lies and beat a hasty retreat from the podium, leaving USDOT Counsel D.J. Gribbin to clean up the mess he had just left.
Arrogantly condescending to the audience as of his opening remarks some of this is going to be very technical in nature, he assured all of us Sturgell then bested comedian Norm Crosby for butchery of the English language. Sturgells vocalized-pause count:
-Sturgell said [U]h no less than 150 times - with even one actual Duh thrown in for good measure.
-Sturgell muttered [U]m no less than 31 times.
-Sturgell exclaimed gonna no less than 13 times.
-Sturgell remarked Yknow or versions thereof no less than 16 times, as if he were late Yankee great Thurman Munson in a post-game interview ironic here, in that Munson was a pilot killed in a plane crash.
-The remainder of the transcript is littered with Sturgell-exclaimed folksy remarks like yall, comin, lemme, K, git, and a whole other panoply of stutters, throat-clearings, Freudian slips, and other hilariously-unintelligible utterances. The count of the number of Sturgells run-on sentences, and sentences commencing with prepositions, is so extraordinarily high, that Sturgell today in his late-40s would not even be able to survive 5th-grade English class conducted by Mrs. Ruth Perens at P.S.#59(M).
Very technical, indeed. The FAA did not want to release the below Transcript, and would never volitionally release this Transcript, because it very technically makes Bobby Sturgell look and sound like an imbecile and stuttering fool idiot legacy case. Yet this is the man in whose hands all of America currently puts its faith and trust regarding aviation safety. Quiet Rockland again calls for the immediate lawful removal of Bobby Sturgell from office. He is unfit to lead, and he is even an unacceptable hazard at a public-speaking lectern.
While Quiet Rockland looks forward to its friends in the aviation and air traffic controller communities further dissecting the many bald misstatements in Sturgells transcripted comments below, the following are of initial note:
*Sturgell persists in blaming New York for the entire nations air travel woes. This is an FAA set-up. FAA allowed the over-scheduling of northeastern skies on purpose, to post facto justify the Redesign. The cause of the nations air travel woes is in fact and instead the inept boob known as Acting FAA Administrator Bobby Sturgell.
*Sturgell continues to view the airlines as his customers and the military as his partners. He and FAA forgot that passengers are his customers, and that he and FAA owe a legal duty to people on the ground.
*Sturgell announces various measures as panaceatic. The fact is, that he was forced into most if not all of them some of them kicking-and-screaming. The fact is that Sturgell should have caused most all of them to be put in place 5 years ago when he joined the FAA. Weather Avoidance Program? What was the FAA doing previously not avoiding severe weather? Ridiculous. The FAA only acts when forced, and not otherwise. Otherwise they just punch a clock and take a check, and then cash-out to the private sector when they are done.
*As for reduced separation, Sturgell seeks to fly the planes closer together. Oh, great. This is the same moron that brought you the cracks in the Southwest planes in which hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting passengers flew - and this is the same moron whose agency then threatened aviation inspector whistle-blowers if they talked about it. Good luck to you, if he flies your plane closer together with respect to someone elses. Ill drive my car instead.
*Sturgell and FAA seek to make it sound like they voluntarily agreed to publish flight plans and cease wrong-way Newark departures out of the goodness of their own hearts. Thats another FAA lie. The FAA did so because the ATCs and media revolted against them; and Quiet Rockland complained to the FBI, Inspector General, every single member of Congress, and every other relevant public official.
*Sturgell continues to seek to blame the weather, the ATCs, and the pilots for air traffic delays. He blames everyone but himself for his own incompetence. He blames everyone but his FAA for its own organizational malfeasance.
*The dollar cost-savings and time-savings that Sturgell routinely cites in the Transcript, are unsupported fictional and delusional numbers. FOIA them. FAA will never send you bona fide support for any of them.
*In response to one reporters question below, Sturgell stridently denies that the economic downturn currently experienced by airlines will alleviate air congestion in the northeast. Thats nonsensical. It already has. Sturgell refuses to concede that the market has already taken care of congestion, because he and his aeromercantile cronies are so deeply invested in their additional money-making scheme known as the NY/NJ/PHL Airspace Redesign. After Sturgell gets thrown out of his current acting job, which will inevitably happen, and shortly at that, Sturgell too will indubitably cash-out to the aeromercantile private sector just like his FAA predecessor Marion Blakey also did. Sturgell repeatedly and persistently lies on this issue to protect his own bank account and those of his friends.
*The GAO is ‘STUDYING’ the Airspace Redesign??? That’s HYSTERICAL, Bobby Sturgell!!! THE GAO IS AUDITING AND INVESTIGATING YOUR AIRPACE REDESIGN - AND YOUR GOVERNMENTAL CAREER IS OVER, THE MOMENT THE GAO REPORT ISSUES!!!!!
*Finally, every time you read one of Sturgells unintelligible utterances or vocalized-pauses in the below Transcript, very carefully look at the very next statement he makes which follows it. Nervous speakers like Sturgell often stutter when they are about to lie much like Thurman Munson might have gone out to the pitchers mound to tell a rookie not to stick out his tongue on a delivery when he is about to throw a curve-ball. Sturgell gives himself away - and even 25 years of further analysis wont help a compulsive liar of Sturgells magnitude. He needs to be pitched out of office now.
Comment by John J. Tormey III — June 6, 2008 @ 1:19 pm
For the last twenty years the new Air Traffic Control System has been just around the corner, but it never happens! You should have a blog category for this. Someone has to keep the subject and the need for a new system in front of the public and the politicians. If you want to find out why the “new system” never happens look at who is benefiting from the status quo.
Comment by Jim Keenan — August 28, 2008 @ 1:34 pm
Acting Administrator Bobby Sturgell and his Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) continue to subject Americans to a steady-stream of jumbo-jet aircraft near-misses, unsuspecting flights on defective and unsafe airplanes, and other near- and actual disasters such as a recent fiery explosive crash in Moab Utah in which 10 innocent people were killed. Taken together, aviation mishaps are in epic numbers since Bobby Sturgell took over as Acting FAA Administrator over a year ago, as borne out by current NTSB accident statistics themselves:
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/month.asp
Recent FAA-floated publicity balloons faux-touting claimed new technologies, going green, perfect flights, and stories of how carefully FAA self-reviews, are only superficial charades intended to placate and distract the American people. The bottom line? Bobby Sturgells fake regulatory agency FAA continues to tell us it is somehow OK for FAA and the airlines, whilst back-slapping each other, to enlist publicists to tell Americans that air travel was never safer. Meanwhile planes continue to fall apart in un-inspected disrepair, FAA management is exposed as criminally threatening dutiful aviation inspectors, and passengers along with innocent others on the ground are continually put in harms way. FAA is a ghoulish and grotesque revival of the Oberstar-decried, Schiavo-decried Tombstone Agency - the taped-up-in-red embodiment of the notion that If the plane doesnt crash, were doing great - the notion that a federal agency is not required to anticipate and navigate around safety problems, but only react if there are one or more tombstones.
There are 10 more tombstones in Moab, Utah.
How many more will YOU tolerate?
Those passengers were innocent Americans.
Quiet Rockland again asks all members of the United States Congress, journalists, the aviation community, all other American citizens on each side of the aisle, and all other world citizens to Just Say No to Bobby Sturgell, and help repopulate the FAA with responsible officials for a change.
Quiet Rockland
http://ejectsturgell.blogspot.com
Comment by John J. Tormey III — September 27, 2008 @ 11:52 pm