The following is a complete and faithfully rendered text, as approved by both the Louisiana House and Louisiana Senate, on Friday, June 18, 1999: (Taken from Fenelon A. Waters' homepage.)
HLS 99-3227
Regular Session, 1999
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 216
BY REPRESENTATIVE JOHN SMITH
CONGRESS: Memorializes congress to adequately fund and staff the DeRidder Automated Flight Service Station
A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
To memorialize the United States Congress to take such actions as are necessary to adequately fund and staff the DeRidder Automated Flight Service Station.
WHEREAS, the flight service stations are general aviation air traffic control facilities that are an integral part of the air traffic control system are staffed with highly skilled essential government employees; and
WHEREAS, flight service stations provide pilots with current and forecasted weather at origination, en route, and at destination, and also as necessary to suggest appropriate flight routes and levels and alternate routes and destinations, base upon consideration of weather, operating characteristics of the aircraft, navigation aids, and terrain; and
WHEREAS, flight service stations provide pilot briefings, enroute flight advisories, search and rescue services, assistance to lost and distressed aircraft, relay of air traffic control clearances, originate notices to airmen, monitor pilot reports, broadcast aviation weather information, receive and process flight plans, monitor navigational aids, take weather observations, issue airport advisories, and advise Customs and Immigration officials of flights crossing national borders; and
WHEREAS, flight service stations provide up-to-the-minute weather information in pilot briefings by integrating and interpreting weather information from multiple sources such as satellite imagery, upper air charts and pilot weather reports, to stay abreast of current weather trends; and
WHEREAS, flight service stations provide enroute flight advisories which are timely and pertinent weather information bulletins prepared by specially trained and highly skilled air traffic control specialists who interpret and adapt the latest weather information for the type, route, and altitude of a specific enroute flight; and
WHEREAS, flight service stations are valuable resources that monitor flight plans and provide lifesaving search and rescue services by initiating a chain of events using the combined efforts of several federal agencies to find aircraft that become overdue; and
WHEREAS, flight service stations control airspace by monitoring gliders and parachute jumps and provide emergency security control of air traffic when emergency conditions exist which threaten national security by identifying the position of all friendly air traffic and controlling the departure of air traffic operating in airspace critical to air defense operations; and
WHEREAS, flight service stations began as aviation support facilities known as airway radio stations that provided local weather observations and forecasts for military aircraft in World War I and later for air mail aircraft; and
WHEREAS, the Air Commerce Act brought airway radio stations under the control of the Department of Commerce, and later the Civil Aeronautics Act transferred aeronautical functions from the Department of Commerce to the newly created Civil Aeronautics Authority, which changed the name of the airway radio station to the airway communication station; and
WHEREAS, during World War II, airway communication stations provided air traffic control services to military aircraft, and the rapid growth of post wartime aviation led to the Federal Aviation Act which merged the Civil Aeronautics Authority with other agencies to create the Federal Aviation Agency; and
WHEREAS, initially airborne pilots could only get verbatim weather reports and forecasts, but in 1961 flight service station personnel were trained as pilot weather briefers and could summarize and interpret weather charts and reports to provide pilot weather briefings aimed at reducing weather-related aviation accidents; and
WHEREAS, after a series of fatal aviation accidents, the Federal Aviation Agency was renamed the Federal Aviation Administration and transferred to the Department of Transportation with a focus on upgrading radar and computer equipment to reduce weather-related aircraft accidents; and
WHEREAS, as a result of increasing traffic loads, the flight service automation system was conceived to upgrade and consolidate air navigation facilities to provide better and more efficient air traffic control service and
WHEREAS, in accordance with the flight service automation system, the four hundred flight service stations in the country have been consolidated into just over one hundred automated flight service stations; and
WHEREAS, it is the policy of the United States that the safe operation of the airport and airway system is the highest aviation priority; and
WHEREAS, it is the duty of the administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to implement this policy by maximizing the effectiveness of the air traffic control system and insuring that all air traffic control stations are adequately staffed and equipped; and
WHEREAS, to improve air traffic control services and increase air traffic safety, congress passed the Airport and Airway Improvement Act of 1982, the Aviation Safety and Capacity Expansion Act of 1990, and the Air Traffic Management System Performance Improvement Act of 1996; and
WHEREAS, flight service station personnel are under a duty to both pilots and their passengers to furnish accurate, complete, and current weather information and to suggest appropriate actions to avoid storms and dangerous areas; and
WHEREAS, flight service station personnel are responsible for the consequences of placing aircraft in a position of peril by negligently furnishing inaccurate weather information; and
WHEREAS, because the United Sates has assumed the duty to provide weather information to aircraft for the protection of air travelers can be held liable under the Federal Tort Claims Act for the negligence of flight service station personnel who provide inaccurate information to aircraft that rely on it to their detriment; and
WHEREAS, all of the flight service stations in Louisiana have been consolidated into the DeRidder Automated Flight Service Station, thus making it's personnel responsible for all of general aviation in the state; and
WHEREAS, adequate staffing of the DeRidder Automated Flight Service Station is critical to providing general aviation aircraft in Louisiana essential information for safe and secure air travel; and
WHEREAS, the DeRidder Automated Flight Service Station often services the entire state with only three or four air traffic control specialists to cover five operational positions; and
WHEREAS, due to the staffing situation, the supervisor of the DeRidder Automated Flight Service Station will often have to eliminate the recorded broadcast of general weather information used by pilot weather briefers; and
WHEREAS, additional experienced personnel have not been provided to alleviate the shortage, and the current staff will soon begin spending their time training the new employees that are being hired to replace those that are leaving; and
WHEREAS, when air traffic becomes too great for the staff, the operational procedure is to transfer calls to another automated flight service station, which results in degraded services to the pilots because the pilot weather briefers taking the transferred calls are not area rated for the state of Louisiana; and
WHEREAS, this degradation of air traffic control services could pose a serious safety risk to the flying public because it weakens a critical link that pilots need to assess weather conditions along their flight route; and
WHEREAS, considering that approximately half of all general aviation aircraft accidents are weather-related, and that Louisiana has the highest level of helicopter travel in the nation, general aviation air travel cannot afford to rely on degraded air traffic control services.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby memorialize the United States Congress to take such actions as are necessary to adequately fund and staff the DeRidder Automated Flight Service Station.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the presiding officers of the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States of America and to each member of the Louisiana congressional delegation.
(End of Legislative Document)
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