FAA starts amnesty for controller errors

DALLAS, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. aviation regulators say they hope an amnesty program for air traffic controllers at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport will make operations safer.

The hope is that controllers will report errors and operational problems, allowing them to be resolved, if they do not face reprisals, The Dallas Morning News reported. The Air Traffic Safety Action Program got under way last Sunday.

The Inspector General for the Department of Transportation reported Friday that supervisors misclassified 62 incidents between 2005 and 2007. The Federal Aviation Administration said it has already put the recommendations in the report into practice.

But Anne Whiteman, an employee who went public about problems at Dallas/Fort Worth, suggested the situation is being whitewashed.

"It may sound corny, but it scares me to think our country is condoning this report," she said. "The FAA is saying these were minor errors and that they're in the past. If you read the actual report, they're not minor errors at all. I didn't put my career in jeopardy over minor errors -- they were the most serious errors."