Danger warning after delay in air traffic control upgrade

AIR traffic controllers are working under severe pressure after transport chiefs showed "astonishing complacency" over delays to a pounds 340m new control centre, a House of Commons select committee said yesterday.

It was "remarkable" that the controllers' chiefs had pressed on with the highly-complex technology for the centre after the US scrapped a similar system, the Commons transport committee found in a report.

MPs said an independent audit should be set up to consider whether the system would ever work satisfactorily. The committee also expressed concern over the implications for air safety, pointing out that UK air traffic control had handled 1.6 million aircraft movements in 1997, up from just over one million in 1989.

But the Civil Aviation Authority, the body which regulates safety in Britain's skies, said National Air Traffic Services "is currently enjoying unprecedented success".

"There is absolutely no evidence to support claims that safety levels are falling because of the delay." the CAA said in a statement in response.

The much-delayed new centre at Swanwick in Hampshire - to replace the centre at West Drayton in London - will not be ready before winter 1999- 2000 at the earliest because of computer software problems.

NATS had told MPs that only 5 per cent of the computer errors at Swanwick remained in the system. But independent specialists had estimated fixing the 5 per cent could take 95 per cent of the time left to the project team to uncover problems and re-program.

The report said the audit should, among other things, find out "whether the increasing demands on the personnel and equipment at West Drayton are such that there is an increased risk of an accident".

The committee heard evidence of low morale and heavy workloads among controllers. One controller told MPs there was a serious problem of controller error at busy centres because of continuous high traffic levels.

"The delays to Swanwick have meant that the London Centre [West Drayton] is having to cope with the constant increase in traffic and air traffic controllers and the equipment they use are under severe pressure," said the report.

The MPs said NATS - which runs air traffic control - had failed to meet every target for the opening of the Swanwick centre. It still could not give a firm date for its opening. The committee raised concerns the same supplier - Lockheed - was responsible for the new systems at the proposed pounds 200m control centre at Prestwick in Scotland.

The report said the Prestwick contract should not be signed until the Swanwick systems were seen to be working properly.

Joe Magee, the national officer for the IPMS union - which represents air traffic controllers in NATS, welcomed the report. "We are concerned however about the delay to the Scottish centre - which would mean increasing pressure on controllers."