5:32 pm ET May 31, 2011   FAA Chief Faces Heat For Controller
Lapses      • Thanks to the new "non-punitive" reporting system
touted so highly by Captain Babbitt this controller was able to
go report the incident...even though the pilots of the US Air
flight were also reporting it as a near miss so this isn't one
of those "previously unknown events" that Captain Babbitt says
is causing the error numbers to spike. Now that the incident has
been reported by the controller he is totally immune from any
type of disciplinary or other adverse actions including
performance based actions to help him improve unless a board
approves those actions. But guess what...the Union that
represents this controller has a seat on that board and the
approval from the board MUST be unanimous....so good luck
getting the Union to approve actions against its own dues paying
member. Thank you Captain Babbitt for your help, maybe if you
were in the left seat of this particular US Air flight that
barely missed the same plane TWICE, you'd