Increase in NYC air traffic control errors

NEW YORK, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- Fourteen times this year, airplanes over New York City flew too close to each other because of mistakes by air traffic controllers, officials said.

There have been more than 200 mistakes, or operational errors, so far this year at the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control -- compared to 24 for all of 2004, said Thomas Zaccheo, vice president of the controllers association's eastern region.

The air traffic facility oversees the low-altitude air traffic at Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark International Airports, as well as the Westchester and Islip airports, reported the New York Daily News Sunday.

Union leaders with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association say the errors are due to the low staffing levels of 205 controllers -- short of the FAA-authorized capacity of 270.

Federal Aviation Administration officials told the News staffing levels were adequate and the error level increase was a result of better oversight and detection of mistakes.