US air traffic control facilities rely on trainees
In a report released Monday, the Department of Transportation Inspector General stated that Southern California’s Terminal Radar Approach Control Facility (TRACON) relies heavily on inexperienced trainees as well as Northern California’s TRACON near Sacramento. They will make up more than 40 percent of controllers later this year.
Nationally, about 27 percent of the controllers at radar facilities are trainees, the report said.
Controllers’ workload at Southern California TRACON has increased 19 percent since 1997, and overtime has increased nearly 400 percent since 2006, the report said. The facility handled nearly 2.25 million operations last year.
The report also said that overtime by controllers working in the tower at Los Angeles International Airport has increased more than 800 percent since 2006.
The report recommended FAA take immediate action to address staffing and overtime concerns.
Swine flu has agents steering customers away from Mexico
Although agents are still selling Mexico, some, like Just Cruisin’ Plus in Nashville has suspended selling destinations to Mexico “until there is an end in sight for the problem,” according to Sherrie Funk, president.
Similarly, Jeri Pollyea, an independent contractor with Protravel International in Sherman Oaks, Calif., said that because she expects stronger advisory language from the State Department, she “will not recommend my clients to take a vacation there right now.”
Mary-Ellin Doolittle, an independent contractor with Valerie Wilson Travel in Ponte Vedra, Fla., said she is hesitant to sell Mexico and will advise clients so.
Mexican Swine Flu Spreads To Europe
Spain became the first country in Europe to confirm a case of the swine flu when a man returned from Mexico was found to have the virus.
… his condition, like that of 20 cases identified in the United States and six in Canada, was not serious. A New Zealand teacher and around a dozen students who recently returned from Mexico were also being treated as likely mild swine flu cases.
While the swine flu virus has so far killed no one outside Mexico, the fact that it has proved able to spread quickly between humans has raised fears that the world may be facing the flu pandemic that scientists say is long overdue.
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