Planes diverted into storm to test air traffic trainee

A BRITISH airliner was among four deliberately diverted into a potentially dangerous thunderstorm area to test the skills of a trainee US air traffic controller, it was claimed yesterday.

The Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 and three others were rerouted at the direction of a supervisor at a control centre in Jacksonville, Florida, the controllers’ union said.

Dave Cook of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said the diversion increased the risk to the passengers and crews.

“In my 20 years as an air traffic controller, we had never done anything like what they just did,” he said.

Cook said the four planes — a Delta Boeing 757, the Virgin jumbo and two Southwest Airlines Boeing 737s — were en route to Orlando International Airport in Florida last Saturday when they were diverted the orders of an air traffic control supervisor.

The planes were directed between 90km and 115km out of their way into an area of airspace known as the “Alma sector”, where there were storms, Cook said.

The pilots would have had to “zigzag” to avoid the storms, adding extra miles to their trip, he said.

The Federal Aviation Authority, which is investigating the incident, denied thunderstorms were in the area and said the flights were directed only 50km to 80km out of their way.

“There was no compromise of safety by the rerouting,” an FAA spokeswoman said.

She said the FAA will investigate whether experienced controllers “were directed to reroute planes to generate additional traffic for the trainee, who was undergoing a skills check”.

The FAA statement said it “has strict training guidelines which do not permit rerouting flights”.

The supervisor also ordered an experienced controller to leave the four flights “stacked” at varying altitudes above 30,000ft rather stringing them all out at 30,000ft, Cook said.

The supervisor also ordered a controller to tell one of the four pilots to report an incorrect altitude to see if the trainee would catch the mistake, Cook said.

“To do this with live traffic, airliners that are full of passengers, well, it’s reckless. It’s beyond reckless,” he said.

The FAA and the controllers union are at in dispute over staffing.

Spokeswomen for all three airlines said they were unaware of the incident.