FAA head defends safety of US air travel after close calls
The head of the Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday he has taken steps to avoid a repeat of the technology failure last month that briefly halted all flights nationwide from taking off.
Acting FAA administrator Billy Nolen said he has formed a team to review efforts to keep air travel safe, and FAA has made technical changes to avoid another breakdown in a federal system that provides safety alerts to pilots.
The comments came as lawmakers on the Senate Commerce Committee quizzed Nolen about FAA’s slow pace of modernizing the alert system and about recent close calls involving planes at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, in Austin, Texas, and off the coast of Hawaii.