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Travelers blissfully unaware of air traffic problems

March 14, 2000 By JOHN M. ROMAN Of the Times Staff

TINICUM -- Hundreds of airport passengers routinely arrived and departed on flights yesterday morning unaware of Friday nights air traffic control system failure -- the third in a year.

But one bystander from Radnor, who met his son arriving home for spring break in Boston, had been caught up in the glitch himself when he arrived home Friday from Houston on business.

"I heard this problem when I came in; I was on the taxi driveway," said Richard Chu, 55.

"We were held up for 30 minutes and the pilot told us because of radar problems," he said. He was supposed to arrive at 8:30 p.m. Friday, but landed in Philadelphia about 9:30 p.m. after a three-hour flight from Houston.

Unlike his fathers flight Friday, Kevin Chus plane was only about five minutes late, landing about 10:10 a.m. at the U.S. Airways gate. Kevin, 20, a 1998 Radnor High graduate, attends Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

"We were on the ground waiting when they told us the radar was down," Richard Chu said. He said his flight actually was about 20 minutes late because it was late leaving Houston.

"My wife and I always feel that the Philadelphia Airport needs more upgrades -- especially the handling of the volume of passengers and traffic," said Chu, who flies on business nationwide about once a month.

"Congestion is the word my wife and I like to use to describe Philadelphia Airport," he said.

Gloriann M. Ellis, of Chadds Ford, an associate real estate broker, was at the Midway gate entrance after a trip to San Diego, Calif.,waiting to be picked up by a relative.

She had visited her son, who works at a top restaurant in La Jolla, Calif.

"As big as the Philadelphia metropolitan area is, you would thinkthat they would update their systems more often," she said. She was on a six-hour flight that departed 11 p.m. Sunday. With a lay-over in Chicago, she arrived here about 9:15 a.m. on American Airlines.

Phyllis VanIstendal, a spokeswoman for the airport,said all inquiries about the air traffic control system failure were being referred to the Federal Aviation Administration office, which is responsible for operation of the control tower.

Holly Baker, a FAA spokeswoman at the Atlantic City office, said one of the eight processors in the automated radar tracking system went down, which caused the outage.

Three bad circuit cards were found in the processor and were replaced in the hardware. However, she said the backup system automatically kicked in so they still had the radar "and never lost sight of where the planes were." The system lost alphanumeric data on the altitude, speed and identification number of a flight "so they still had the blips on the screen.." Baker said.

"When they go to backup system, they basically just slow down the traffic to ensure safety and safe separation of the aircraft," she said.

There were four arrival delays and 36 departure delays, she said. About 30 aircraft were in the air when the system failed about 8 p.m. Friday. The airports computers were disrupted three times for about three minutes each time.

"At no time were there any safety issues..he system was safe," Baker said. "I know theyre planning to upgrade the system, but the schedule has not been released yet," she said, when asked about the nearly 40-year-old radar system.

It failed twice last year, prompting Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., to tour the control tower in June and push for new air traffic equipment at the airport.

Specter held a press conference yesterday regarding the system failure. He subsequently issued a letter to Rodney Slater, secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

"There has been another serious event this past weekend involving three separate disruptions caused by malfunctions of a radar tracking system, Specter wrote. "It is imperative that action be taken to determine the cause of the problem and to correct it forthwith," he stated.

"This is a life-and-death matter. It is simply intolerable to have the radar tracking system at the Philadelphia International Airport out of operation for several minutes," Specter said.

Specter also cited radar outages May 5, 17 and 24, 1999, at the airport, which were discussed at the Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee hearing Feb. 10.

Norbert Poloncarz, vice president of the Tinicum commissioners, said, "the airport is never upfront with the dangers over Tinicum. "We always hear about these incidents after they occur," he said.

"Apparently they need state of the art equipment, but Im sure if the residents in the community were also behind the push to prevent incidents such as this, it might be beneficial and might expedite the funding process to get it here," Poloncarz said. "As far as (Aviation Director Alfred) Testas concerned, its unfortunate -- hell be the fourth director in the last five years.

"I dont think he got fired for this..ts an FAA function," he said. "How about the safety of the citizens in Tinicum?" Poloncarz asked. "If there was a reporting system and documentation, we could make our appropriate appeals to our federal representatives and tell them its urgent our safety be protected also."

Poloncarz said the township also didnt immediately learn about an incident about 1:25 p.m. Feb. 22, when a bird struck a departing aircraft, damaging the engine. It landed without incident, he said. U.S. Rep. Robert Brady, D-1, whose district includes Tinicum, said the latest radar problem at the airport is a nonpartisan and peoples issue.

"God forbid, somebody should get hurt, he said. "Were very lucky it didnt happen. "I will be happy that Sen. Specter is taking the lead and I will support and work along with him to come up with a final conclusion to alleviate this problem so that it can never happen again," Brady said.

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), March 14, 2000