the Biden administration and
airline officials got together
outside of Washington, D.C. To
search for an answer.
>> Reporter: Close calls on
America's runways are landing
under new scrutiny.
>> Are we emphasizing efficiency
over safety?
>> Reporter: Wednesday, the
federal aviation administration
hosted a rare emergency safety
summit bringing together ins
investors and regulators
including secretary Pete
buttigieg.
>> When you have all of these
things happening at once it
points to make sure the system
is strengthened.
>> Reporter: Near collisions
continue to climb outside of
Miami and Reagan airport.
>> Aborting takeoff 2003.
>> Reporter: The FAA is
investigating a total of seven
dramatic runway incursions since
the beginning of this year.
In an interview, buttigieg told
me there's an uptick in nation's
airports.
>> What we're finding, pilots,
ground crews and controllers
alike seem to be experiencing
this uptick, some who describe
it as kind of a rust.
But that needs to turn into a
concrete diagnosis and specific
action steps.
>> Reporter: Airlines insist
safety is always their top
priority.
But labor unions say airlines
are pushing the limits, as they
struggle to bounce back from the
pandemic.
>> The dot is right behind you.
It's happening out there.
These incidents, things we've
been talking about well over a
year ago are starting to show up
on the flight deck and
operations.
>> Reporter: So far, the FAA
sees no apparent common trigger
of these incidents but the
national transportation safety
board said change cannot wait.
>> What I want to see is action.
The whole point of the NTSB is
lives safe and that has been the
focus.
>> Reporter: Right now, the NTSB
is not launching an
investigation into that incident
at Reagan national airport.
It happened last week but only
coming to light just now.
The head of the union of air
traffic controllers makes this
one particular point as to the
cause of close calls.
He said that air traffic control
facilities like towers and other
places are critically
understaffed and buts the onus
on the FAA and congress to
secure money to hire more
people.
>> Pete Muntean, thank you.
Here to discuss, Mary Schiavo.
Thank you for joining, Mary.
Let's start with the most simple
and troubling question, is it
safe to fly?
>> You know, that was one of the
topics at the conference today.
Of course, the conclusion was it
is safe to fly but that was part
of the problem.
There was a consensus at the
conference that complacency
because it's so long there has
been a wage airline disaster
that people take safety for
granted.
And everyone has gotten consumed
and continue to stretch the
rubber band and not think it's
going to break.
>> I guess that's what the
secretary of transportation Pete
buttigieg was referring today,
talk about the uptick in near
collisions.
To his words he called it a kind
of rust involving pilots and
ground crews and controllers.
Is there anything more specific
to which this can be attributed?
>> He actually came up with five
factors today, counted
reasonable.
Unfortunately, the ways to solve
the problems are a little more
difficult but I call them the
five Cs.
Complacency, we've been safe so
we assume we'll be safe.
Covid, covid was one of the
causes.
That's where the rust came in.
We all got rusty during covid
because air demand was singing
down.
Churning, they say a lot of new
people are coming into the
system.
A lot of near misses, collisions
have been with newer people, big
planes, small plane thrown in.
When you turn people around,
they don't have the experience
and training.
There was a big concern about
equipment.
They said quilt and parts and
maintenance are not being timely
performed, again, perhaps,
because of the shortage of
staff, et cetera.
But a real issue with the
equipment out there.
And finally, cash.
There was a lot of complaint
that they want more money, more
employees, more controllers,
more everything.
But all of those take time.
In the meantime, the other
problem was we have so much more
traffic and a lot of
bottlenecks.
And I think the logical
conclusion is some of those
bottlenecks have to have relief.
They can't have that much
traffic.
>> Airline industry says there
are 25,000 flights a day in the
U.S. Carrying 2.3 million
passengers every day.
There's always a chance of
disruptions, of course, weather,
computers problems and other
things.
What does the airline industry
need do to improve?
>> Well, I think, first and
foremost, we have concentrated
so much traffic in just today,
the number they used was 35.
I would say it's even fewer
airports than that.
35 airports.
And we don't have some of the
most modern equipment.
For example, we had equipment
that would give alerts to pilots
if you're about to have a
collision on the runway.
But it's not mandatory.
It's not widely available.
The European union was looking
to put that in place.
Then, finally, there is one
common theme for all of these
near misses.
And in almost every case,
there's a communication error.
There's confusion about the
runways and so you have to
eliminate the confusion through
training and better awareness.
And, finally, almost all of
them, there's a human failure.
So if someone messed up, it
wasn't usually equipment.
So there are common themes and
those have to be fixed.
>> Yeah.
My car is almost seven years
old, and it has a feature that
alerts me if they think I'm
going to hit the person in front
of me.
I would think that every
airplane would have that.
>> Well, yeah.
You know, this is really
interesting that was one of the
things the NTSB brought up
today.
They said one of our
recommendations is 23 years old.
I happen to remember that, I was
in the department back then.
They tested some of this
equipment back in Dallas in
20 -- oh, 20 years ago.
And it was doable back then in
about 2000, they tested.
And that was the equipment to
give pilots the alert, just not
air traffic controllers the
alert.
For example, if you're confuse
at the runway and you aren't
getting the right
communications, the controller
yelling stop, abort isn't going
to get through where the new
systems would actually give the
alerts to the pilot.