missing planes !!

The Federal Aviation Administration said it is upgrading radar
equipment to help prevent aircraft from disappearing from the computer
screens of air traffic controllers.

Controllers at the FAA's Washington Center in Leesburg have reported
numerous instances over the past month in which a plane or several
planes suddenly disappeared from radar screens for more than 30
seconds. Over the weekend, FAA officials upgraded radar in The Plains,
Va., that was responsible for some of the incidents. An FAA official
said the agency is also working to upgrade radar at two other locations
and is ready to respond if the problem recurs, using an aircraft and
vehicle equipped with spectrum analysis equipment.

"We are concerned because we want to know every anomaly that affects
the national airspace system," said Steven B. Zaidman, vice president
for technical operations services at FAA. "We have an active bunch of
technicians and air traffic specialists who continue to look at it."

Since the radar upgrade was completed in The Plains, FAA spokeswoman
Laura Brown said there continue to be problems with planes disappearing
from the scopes, but she said they are "less severe."

The union representing air traffic controllers said it was pleased with
the FAA's response. An FAA spokesman initially suggested that the
controllers had raised the safety issue as a negotiating tactic during
contract talks.

"We're very relieved the FAA is finally taking this situation
seriously," said Ruth Marlin, executive vice president of the National
Air Traffic Controllers Association, in a statement. "Controllers at
Washington Center have been forced to scramble on too many occasions
reacting to the mysterious equipment failures."

On at least one occasion, Sept. 27, multiple radars intermittently went
out, which FAA officials said was highly unusual. The FAA said the
problem has not occurred since then, although occasionally one radar
will "jump" and a plane will disappear for about 12 seconds and then
reappear.

Controllers direct traffic by referring to data on their screens that
identify an aircraft and its speed and altitude. During a radar jump,
the information about the plane remains on the screen, but the plane's
exact location disappears for 12 to 30 seconds. Airplane information is
delivered to controllers by radar that communicates with the aircraft's
transponder.

Controllers in Leesburg handle air traffic for a broad region from New
York to North Carolina and from the East Coast to West Virginia at
18,000 feet and higher. If controllers cannot temporarily view their
planes on radar scopes, they revert to non-radar procedures, which
involve spacing planes farther apart as a safety precaution. In some
cases when controllers said they had to do this, they claim it resulted
in small delays for some planes at some airports.