Pilots say NAV Canada protocols not always followed, would like more robust staffing
Global News
Following the deadly crash, pilots have told Global News that the protocols, including those at Vancouver International Airport (YVR), are not always followed in practice.
The crash at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, in which two Air Canada pilots died, has brought up questions of safety protocols and workloads for air traffic controllers.
NAV Canada, which operates the country’s civil air navigation system, has processes in place to mitigate risk.
On Wednesday, the organization said it is short an estimated 200 air traffic controllers and is working on building its capacity.
Following the deadly crash, pilots have told Global News that the protocols, including those at Vancouver International Airport (YVR), are not always followed in practice.
“It’s certainly the case that positions are occasionally combined in air traffic controller towers,” Capt. Tim Perry, president of the Airline Pilots Association (ALPA), said.
“And that’s the experience of any pilot who has flown into YVR and in fact, many other airports across the country. But I also want to emphasize that that’s not necessarily an unsafe practice. There are protocols and procedures for combining positions within an air traffic control tower. However, we … are in favour in general of robust staffing and we have raised it as an issue.”
Officially, the duties of aircraft arrivals, departures and ground movements are split between people in the YVR tower. However, combining positions does happen.
Perry said that it is pilots’ experience in Canada that combining positions and air traffic control towers does occur in Canada and it happens more than they would like to see.
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