Three days ago Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) chief J. Randolph “Randy” Babbitt was arrested under suspicion of driving while intoxicated (DWI) and on Tuesday Babbitt revealed his resignation.

In a written statement Babbitt revealed:

“Today I submitted my resignation to Secretary Ray LaHood and it has been accepted.” Babbitt went on to add, “Serving as FAA Administrator has been an absolute honor and the highlight of my professional career.   But I am unwilling to let anything cast a shadow on the outstanding work done . . . by my colleagues.”

In a separate email to FAA employees Babbitt wrote:

“It truly has been the highlight of my professional career.”

Learning about Babbitt’s arrested  Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said of the incident:

“What I told Randy is that I was very disappointed with the way that I learned about this.”

With the agency facing funding uncertainties and tasked with building a $40 billion GPS-based system expected to revolutionize air travel Babbitt’s departure less than half way through his five-year term couldn’t come at a worse time for the agency.

LaHood said after Babbitt’s resignation:

“As FAA Administrator, Randy Babbitt has been a dedicated public servant and outstanding leader,” and ”On behalf of the American people, I thank him for his service and his leadership.”

While Babbitt was said to be cooperative during his arrest, the agencies focus on safe travel overshadowed his quick apology and willingness to take full credit for his mistake.

Do you think it was the right decision for Randy Babbitt to leave his post at the FAA?

FAA Chief Resigns After DWI Arrest is a post from: The Inquisitr

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) chief Jerome Randolph “Randy” Babbitt, 65, has taken a leave of absence after being pulled over and charged with a DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) arrest on Saturday night in Fairfox City.

According to the arresting officer Babbitt was spotted driving down the wrong side of Old Lee Highway and was pulled over. Babbitt was stopped over at 10:30pm on the 3900 block of the highway, approximately nine miles from his Reston home.

In a release sent from the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the White House they claim to have only learned of Babbitt’s arrest on Monday morning and are currently discussing whether he should be allowed to keep his job.

Reston was alone in his vehicle and police say he was cooperative during the arrest and released several hours later on his own recognizance.

Filling in for the administrator will be Michael Huerta. In their statement DOT says they learned of the arrest and one hour later made their decision to assign Huerta to the agencies top post.

Babbitt will appear in court on Feb. 2 according to Fairfax City police spokesman Sgt. Joe Johnson.

Blood and sobriety test results for DWI arrests are not released by Fairfox Police  however the states legal limit is a .08 blood alcohol concentration.

Given his position which focuses on safe travel and responsibility do you believe Jerome Babbitt should be permanently relieved of his duties or provided with a non-paid suspension as a first-time offender warning.

FAA Chief Jerome Randolph Takes Administrative Leave After DWI Arrest is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a branch of the U.S. Department of Transportation is celebrating their 75th anniversary today for their air traffic control division.

The organization originally started with just 15 workers in three control centers way back in 1936, however the agency has since added thousands of workers and works with agencies around the world to help improve air traffic safety.  The organization is considered a worldwide leader when it comes to speeding up flights, creating better fuel efficiency and improving overall flight safety.

According to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood:

“The United States has the safest air transportation system in the world. But as the last 75 years show, we will never stop working to make our system even safer.”

The federal program began on July 6, 1936 when the Bureau of Air Commerce took over airway traffic control in Newark, N.J., Chicago and Cleveland. During that time the only commercial plane air traffic controllers had to worry about was the Douglas DC-3 which flew coast-to-coast in approximately 17 hours while carrying just 21 passengers.

According to AMTOnline:

Since then, the air traffic system has expanded from three control centers to include 131 federal stand-alone airport traffic control towers, 132 towers for terminal area approach control, 29 stand-alone terminal radar approach controls and 21 en route traffic control centers. The number of controllers has grown from 15 to more than 15,000, a workforce that handles an average of 50,000 flights each day. The DC-3 has given way to jet aircraft that can carry hundreds of passengers and fly from New York to Los Angeles in about five hours.

While we may gripe about current air travel practices, it would likely be a much slower and less safe environment if the FAA didn’t help standardize the way thousands of planes take off, land and even fly our friendly skies in today’s congested skies.

Happy 75th Birthday FAA.

FAA Celebrates 75th Anniversary, Has Grown Massively Since 1936 is a post from: The Inquisitr

A glitch in a flight-plan program used by pilots at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is impacting flights across the US this morning.

As of 8am EST, AirTran Airways spokesman Christopher White indicated that 22 flights had been canceled across the nation and “dozens” more have been delayed due to the problem, a glitch that forces pilots to manually enter flight plans. White told CNN that the delays are unlikely to clear up without impacting flights throughout the day:

White said the problem will have “a pretty major impact on operations” and the cancellations will have a ripple effect.

“We will be a mess all day,” he said.

The problem, which had no effect flight safety, began after 5am and lasted until about 9:40 am EST. Although delays are centered in Atlanta, the “ripple effect” of delayed flights means prospective travelers should check ahead before heading to the airport to ensure arrivals/departures have not been affected.

FAA computer glitch in Atlanta causes nationwide delays is a post from: The Inquisitr

In the United States on any given day there are approximately 87,000 flights criss-crossing the country and the world. Generally the feeling is that for the most part flying is fairly safe but if the information out of this year’s Defcon hacker conference is true we might want to think twice about that assumption.

While Righter Kunkel was careful not to give the specifics he did show how easy it is to affect air traffic control, jam radar, or even stop planes from taking off. It takes a little bit of prep work in order to pull anything like this off but once you have gotten yourself a fake id, a doctor’s aviation certificate, and a student pilot card you can log into the FAA’s pilot registration site.

This is where the fun starts because at this point you can submit your flight plans which then will have the system treat you as a trusted user. Now this is the theory part but if you were to submit an extremely large number of flight plans you could overwhelm the system.

…. essentially a denial of service attack. That could bog down the whole system. Kunkel said the FAA itself has said that some of its networks are improperly linked. He found that one system uses Telnet. Kunkel said he wouldn’t talk about the significance of that fact, but the implication was it could be used to launch a cyber attack.

The FAA found in its own report, issued in May, that there were 763 vulnerabilities in 70 web applications that are used internally at the FAA. It’s a damning report, Kunkel said, but the FAA says it is working on fixing some problems, including some fixes that will go into place by February, 2010.

Source: VentureBeat :: Defcon air traffic control hacker: Excuse me while I change your aircraft’s flight plan

Not exactly re-assuring is it.

You might want to think twice about flying is a post from: The Inquisitr

FAA Bird Strike Database

The FAA bird strike database contains data on bird-plane collisions from the past 19 years. The US Airways Hudson River incident in January, in which bird strikes took out the plane’s engines and led to a water landing, led advocates to pressure the FAA to make the information public.

The bird strike database contains more than 89,000 instances since 1990. According to its data, 30 accidents have caused substantial damage to planes at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport since the year 2000.

Access the FAA bird strike database here.

FAA Bird Strike Database Made Public is a post from: The Inquisitr