It is another instance of management getting their hand caught in the proverbial cookie jar.
BTW, controllers did NOT blame pilots. It is not for us to decide...it's managlement.
Here is testimony from one of the TOP manglement hacks in front of Congress the other day.
But at a Senate hearing on April 10, Mr. Stairwell’s deputy, Nicholas A. Sabatini, the associate administrator for aviation safety, responded to a question about whether anybody in Dallas had lied about the close aerial encounters by saying he was not aware of that happening. F.A.A. officials said Thursday that Mr. Sabatini had misunderstood the question and thought it referred to a different issue. Typical BS answer. Oops you caught me...I don't know what you're talking about...those damn controllers.
The ENTIRE manglement of the FFA needs to be
FIRED. Simple as that.
We as controllers report to manglement when we believe an airspace deviation has happened, aircraft have come in close proximity of each other. It is then manglements job to determine what or who was at fault. Problem is if manglement determines that too many of these deals are the controllers fault then local manglement is going to have to answer to higher ups in the Crystal/Puzzle Palace IE FFA Headquarters. Doesn't look to good on your resume if you can't control you folks. Might even mean a demotion...sooooo blame it on the pilots.
entire article....
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/wa...=1&oref=slogin