Remarks As Prepared For Delivery
Thank you, Paul. I’m honored to be here. I also want to thank you, Trish, and NATCA for hosting another great safety conference.
It’s always an honor and a privilege to join you at the Archie League Awards and share in your recognition of the fine work the FAA does on a daily basis.
This is particularly true in times of crisis, when you have to solve a problem and you have to get it right the first time.
I’m particularly pleased to be joining you tonight because this is the first speech I have given since the Administration released its proposed fiscal year 2018 proposed budget last week.
I’m sure your attention – like that of many in this industry – is focused on a recommendation by the Administration that we develop a long-term plan for restructuring how we provide air traffic control services.
We’ve seen a number of the alphabet groups come forward with their positions on this proposal, and I know that NATCA has registered its thoughts and concerns.
I am encouraged that we are beginning what I expect will be a serious, thoughtful dialogue on the long-term needs of the FAA.
These conversations are extremely important as we look ahead to ensure that we provide a safe and efficient organization – one that will meet the needs of the traveling public, and considers the future needs of our nation’s airspace.
The job you do as controllers has changed exponentially since the days when Archie League first waved signal flags at airplanes at the edge of a runway in St. Louis.
Throughout my tenure at the FAA, you have heard me say that we need to focus on the how. We all know what our mission is, but I have stressed that we need to change how we do business.
Without a doubt, the path we have traveled together over the last five years has made all of us at the FAA much smarter and more nimble.
I’ll be the first to acknowledge that we’d all like to move faster. We have had to deal with shutdowns, short term extensions of our authorizations and appropriations, and the daily challenges of ensuring the safety of the aviation system.
I firmly believe that any fair review of the past few years makes clear that we have accomplished a great deal.
ERAM is now in place throughout the system, and new technologies such as ADS-B and Data Comm are helping you do your jobs in ways that were never possible before.
At the same time, we continue to harness the precision of satellite navigation through our Metroplex airspace projects and other efforts to replace outdated procedures with more efficient PBN routes.
This progress is due to the collaborative approach we have taken with industry and with you, our labor partners.
I expect we’ll hear many points of view in the coming weeks about what happens next as we engage in these discussions.
No matter where you are in the debate, I think we all want the same thing – an air traffic system that is second to none.
We expect to have more details when the President submits his full 2018 budget to Congress in May. In the meantime, we will continue to work with Congress on our current funding for 2017.
A few weeks ago, I spoke to a group of aviation industry leaders at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Aviation Summit in Washington.
I told the group the same thing that I now share with you. This public policy conversation we are undertaking will only yield the best results if we keep the American people at the forefront.
All you have to do is pick up an aerospace magazine or look at the latest technology blog to see that the fundamental definition of aviation has changed dramatically just in the last few years.
True, the commercial airlines and general aviation community still make up the vast majority of what we do today, and maybe they always will.
But we’ve got a whole new cast waiting in the wings. They range from small unmanned aircraft to commercial space launches and even space tourism.
The day isn’t that far off when the skies around major metropolitan cities will include a steady stream of drones delivering packages. We’ve even seen a few early proposals for pilotless airborne versions of Uber or Lyft.
And I haven’t even mentioned the various research projects into reducing or eliminating sonic booms that could make it possible for supersonic civilian flights across the U.S.
One thing I am certain of is that all of these users will expect to use the National Airspace System to their benefit. We’ve been calling our efforts to do this “integration,” but another word for that is “inclusion.”
Somebody is going have to decide how to allocate this extremely valuable asset – the public’s airspace – in an equitable and fair manner.
If we are to succeed, none of us can be in a place where our strategy is to protect what we’ve already got.
Everybody’s got a valid point to make, but we aren’t talking about building the air traffic system of today. We’re also building the air traffic system for tomorrow.
Regardless of the structure that might take, we can’t let safety take a back seat.
Over the decades, the FAA’s dedicated workforce has taken its stewardship of the nation’s airspace seriously. America’s unparalleled safety record is proof of both your vision and your professionalism.
On issue after issue, NATCA has worked with us to make this happen. Together, we’ve addressed issues like electronic distractions, fatigue, and runway incursions, among others.
We’ve collaborated on many safety programs like ATSAP, the ATO’s Top 5 Hazard List, Recurrent Training, Take a Stand for Safety, and others.
I encourage controllers to continue to share safety information and insights with us.
Through the non-punitive culture fostered by ATSAP, controllers have submitted more than 127,000 safety reports since the program started nine years ago.
Those reports enabled us to more accurately identify areas of risk, and we’ve issued 176 corrective actions as a result.
Risk-based safety efforts like these, and many others, reflect an understanding that everyone here can agree with—that while today’s system is safe, we have to continually adapt to address emerging safety concerns.
Your expertise makes you uniquely qualified in the upcoming debates over the future of what you do, and I look forward to seeing where the conversations take us.
Before I close, I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge the reason we’re here tonight – and that’s because some of our colleagues performed their work particularly well when it counted most.
I’d like to briefly highlight the story of one of tonight’s award recipients.
This past July, a Navy F-18 fighter experienced an equipment malfunction while on the way to Asia for a training exercise.
The pilot was forced to shut down one engine and declare an emergency. To make matters worse, the weather around the Aleutian Islands was deteriorating, with visibility down to only a quarter mile.
To say this is a forbidding area is putting it mildly. As you may know, it’s the same area where they film that show “The Deadliest Catch.”
The pilot needed a lifeline and he got it from Jessica Earp, a controller in our Alaska En Route Center.
Jessica’s knowledge of the Alaskan airspace and her quick thinking got this pilot safely to a runway on a tiny island in the Bering Sea.
We are going to hear other compelling stories a little later, and I want to be the first to congratulate the winners and all of those who were nominated.
Whether it was mechanical problems, lack of experience, inattention, or some combination of those, all of these situations led to moments in which controllers were the last line of defense between a pilot and a potentially unpleasant ending.
These controllers would be the first to tell you that what they did was NOT heroic.
They simply came to work that day and were presented with a situation in which they had to think quickly and make the right call.
They’ll tell you something you already know: Every time a controller puts on that headset, he or she is one event away from getting this award next year.
It’s the nature of what you do.
I know I speak for myself and the rest of the traveling public when I say to all of you: I’m grateful you’re there.
Thank you.