ROMULUS -- Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Sunday night will begin shifting to a new air traffic control system that both a federal inspector general and a union for air tower technicians say is being rushed into use without adequate testing.
   The system has stirred controversy in El Paso, Texas, and Syracuse, N.Y., the only two airports where it is fully in use.
   Technicians say symbols representing airplanes have disappeared off the screen of the new Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) for minutes at a time.
   Kenneth Mead, the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation, said in a letter Monday to the Federal Aviation Administration that the system had not received customary independent testing and he has "serious reservations" about whether it is ready for "real-world use."
   Starting Sunday night, Metro Airport is slated to start using the system's 20-inch-by-20 inch color monitors. Aviation officials stress it is the system's hardware that Detroit is receiving. Complaints relate to the system's software, which isn't scheduled to be used at Detroit until early next year.
   "It's like putting a new monitor on your computer -- all else stays the same," said Elizabeth Isham Cory, a spokeswoman for the FAA in Chicago.
   But Gil Alfaro, an official with Chapter 100 of the Professional Airways Systems Specialists in Detroit, said there are processors in the new monitors that use the new software. The roughly 20 union members in Detroit, mostly technicians who must troubleshoot problems, are not yet trained on that software, Alfaro said.
   "They lead people to believe that we're only using the monitors, but you still need to use part of the STARS system to drive the monitors," Alfaro said Thursday.
   With more than 32 million passengers in 2001, Detroit is North America's 10th-busiest airport and is the busiest to begin shifting to the new system. The FAA plans to install the system at 172 U.S. airports.
   The full system was turned on Monday at Syracuse after the FAA invoked a never-before-used clause in its employee contract and ordered technicians to certify the system. In El Paso, Mead said controllers had to track airplanes manually because the system didn't properly display the flights.
   "The data from the radar will drop off and you won't know the radar data is missing for four to 12 minutes," said Heather Awsumb, a spokeswoman for the technicians' union in Washington, D.C.
   In Detroit, Alfaro said it's not clear whether a technician will certify partial use of the new system Sunday night. The system passed a weekly test Thursday for the first time in two weeks after technicians discovered a file was missing that prevented emergency signals from airplanes from being displayed, he said. Testing continues, he said.
   "If we are not satisfied, we will not certify," Alfaro said.
   Cory said she's not aware of any failed tests. "There are no issues with STARS at Detroit," she said.
   Mead told a House subcommittee in March that the system is $700 million over its original $1 billion price tag and four years behind schedule. It also has 71 specific software problems that could prevent the system from operating as designed, or could threaten safety and security, Mead said.
   In a letter Wednesday to Mead, FAA Administrator Jane Garvey said she disagrees with his conclusions.
   "You identify trouble reports as reason for concern and doubt," Garvey said. "The FAA sees the timely discovery of these trouble reports as evidence of a rigorous testing process and aggressive risk management."
   Unions representing controllers and pilots have not expressed concerns about the new system.

Detroit News

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