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Transport Secretary Sean Duffy has announced plans to enhance airport air traffic control systems with the latest technology over the next four years, but has used artificial intelligence (AI) to identify “hotspots” where close encounters between aircraft often occur.
The announcement comes when a US Army helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet collided with the Potomac River on January 29th after an update on an investigation into a crash crash near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia.
“We are here because 67 souls lost their lives on January 29th,” Duffy told reporters Tuesday, saying that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) had released its preliminary findings earlier in the day.
The findings pointed to 85 near misses or close calls at Reagan National over the past two and a half years. In the event of a vertical separation of less than 200 feet and a lateral separation of 1,500 feet between the aircraft, a close call was identified as an incident.
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Potomac River and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Arlington, VA, January 30 (Leigh Green, Fox News Digital)
Apparently shocked by the findings, Duffy questioned how the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had no idea about the frequent “hotspots.”
“We’re making a near mistake. If we don’t change our way, we’ll lose our lives,” he said. “It wasn’t going on. Maybe it was focused on something other than safety, but in this administration, we’re focusing on safety.”
The FAA deployed AI tools to sift through data, finding additional hotspots in US airspace near the airport, finding situations similar to what’s going on at Reagan National.
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Transport Secretary Sean Duffy is holding a briefing on the January 29 airplane crash near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. (Fox News/Pool)
Once the hotspot is identified, Duffy’s team will implement the changes to reduce intimate encounters between aircraft.
Duffy also said he learned that the national air traffic control system was 25-30 years old, some of which used floppy disks as if they were stuck in the 1980s.
The system is outdated, but the secretary emphasized it was safe. Despite the system being safe, Duffy said he needs to upgrade.
“This should have happened four years ago, ten years ago, fifteen years ago,” he said. “But now we’re at a point where we can actually do it, and we can make it really fast.”
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Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is holding a briefing on the fatal January 29 crash crash near the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, which killed 67 people. (Fox News/Pool)
Duffy said the task could take up to four years to complete.
This job involves bringing in a brand new air traffic control system that switches from copper wire to a combination of fiber, wireless and satellite systems.
Although radar systems today in the 1970s or early 1980s are working, Duffy wants to have cutting-edge radars and terminals with the right screens and the best technology.
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Stansted Airport Control Tower (NATS UK)
“We deploy resources for runway safety, which means we can’t use aircraft binoculars to see where the aircraft is, but it’s a new technology where the aircraft controller actually has ground radar sensors that allow the aircraft to see where the aircraft is,” he said.
“We’ve heard many new stories of Tarmac’s near-miss mistakes. And how do you mitigate that? Remove the binoculars and provide technology so that all aircraft can be seen on the screens they are located in.
“Doing this will greatly improve the safety of the system.”
Technology, on the other hand, isn’t cheap. The secretary admitted.
In an environment where government efficiency is looking for ways to reduce costs and save money, Duffy explained that making an upgrade in the name of safety is a worthy of investment.
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Duffy said he plans to introduce his plans to Congress over the next few weeks and incorporate their feedback.
Once he went through feedback, Duffy said he would return to Congress and ask for money in advance to facilitate the process of upgrading the air traffic control system.
“It’s not that the FAA doesn’t want to do an upgrade,” he said. “It’s taking too long. So they have to give us money. We’ll actually plan to do it really quickly later.”
Greg Wehner is a news reporter for Fox News Digital.
Story tips and ideas can be sent to greg.wehner @fox.com and Twitter @gregwehner.
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