WASHINGTON (AP) — Union officials say new airport towers due to go into operation this fall in San Francisco and Las Vegas will first need extensive remodeling to make room for technology that dates back to the early days of air traffic control.
The towers were designed for equipment to electronically track planes, rather than using the historic system of passing paper strips from one controller to another to hand off responsibility for a plane.
Paul Rinaldi, president of the air traffic controllers union, says the prototype electronic system the Federal Aviation Administration plans to use in the towers breaks down too often to be relied upon. Controllers must be able to quickly revert to paper strips, but the towers have no place to put the equipment necessary to use the old system.