DENVER — U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper told Denver7 Investigates on Wednesday that people should feel safe when flying, but he is still eager to get to the bottom of why as many as 20 pilots bound for Denver International Airport were unable to communicate with air traffic controllers in Longmont for a period of time last week.
"The bottom line is we have to fix this because if we don't do something now, then it will become unsafe," Hickenlooper said during a Zoom interview with Denver7 Chief Investigator Tony Kovaleski.
He added that it's also alarming that the Federal Aviation Administration has not provided answers to questions regarding what caused the outages and how long communications were down.
Hickenlooper said he also asked questions of the agency, but is still awaiting a response.
"I find that very concerning that it wasn't publicly stated. We tried to call them in the last few days and have gotten no response," he said. "And traditionally, when a United States senator reaches out to a federal agency and asks for information and updates, they get a response, usually within a few hours. ... A federal government agency should respond when there's a screw up. They've got to respond. They've got to answer the questions and it's got to be prompt and transparent."
Last Wednesday, Denver7 Investigates was the first to report that between 15 and 20 pilots were unable to speak with air traffic control operators for possibly up to six minutes on May 12 due to multiple outages at the Denver Air Route Traffic Control Center in Longmont, according to multiple sources.
You can watch our breaking news story on this major development in the video below.
The center, in part, ensures that planes have adequate spacing up in the sky as they approach their final destination. All 15 to 20 planes were bound for the Denver International Airport. The Longmont air traffic control center is one of 22 such centers across the country and covers parts of Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.
Multiple sources had told Denver7 Investigates about the outage, with one saying that four of the frequencies from the two main towers in Longmont were already out of service. Air traffic controllers were communicating with pilots on a backup fifth frequency, which then went out.
Denver7 Investigates
Up to 20 pilots near Denver airport lose contact with air traffic control Monday
One controller was then able to contact one pilot on a guard line — often used when a pilot is in distress — who was then able to contact other pilots to tell them to move to that frequency.
The day after Denver7 Investigates’ report, the FAA acknowledged the outages and FAA Deputy Chief Operating Officer Frank McIntosh was asked about the report in Washington D.C. during a hearing for the House Committee on Transportation.
Denver7 Investigates
After Denver7 report, FAA admits outage impacted pilots flying into DIA Monday
McIntosh said the backup line was down for approximately two minutes and that controllers regained contact using emergency procedures.
The FAA also sent a statement to Denver7 Investigates last week that read: “Part of the Denver Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) experienced a loss of communications for approximately 90 seconds around 1:50 p.m. local time on Monday, May 12, when both transmitters that cover a segment of airspace went down. Controllers used another frequency to relay instructions to pilots. Aircraft remained safely separated and there were no impacts to operations. The FAA is investigating.”
The FAA has not responded to any of Denver7 Investigates’ follow-up questions for the past six days.
Hickenlooper’s comments to Denver7 Investigates come on the same day that multiple airline CEOs wrote a letter asking Congress to fix the air traffic control system, saying it needs “serious upgrades.”
You can read the letter in full here or below.
CEOs from United, Delta, American, Alaska Air, JetBlue and Southwest airlines, along with UPS, Federal Express and Atlas Air as well as the industry group Airlines for America signed the letter and noted that a shortage of air traffic controllers is impacting safety and that current FAA technology is “wildly out of date."
Hickenlooper said he spoke to one of those CEOs and heard the same information that is included in the letter.
“He persuaded me that we are safe — that's not an issue,” Hickenlooper said. "But he also persuaded me that we've got to invest significantly immediately."
