WASHINGTON — Federal aviation officials are investigating whether air-traffic controllers violated federal rules by rerouting four airliners to test the skills of a controller-trainee.
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement Tuesday that a preliminary inquiry indicates four flights were rerouted near Savannah, Ga., on Saturday. The government says the passengers were never in danger.
The aircraft were rerouted at the direction of a supervisor at the air-traffic-control center in Jacksonville, Fla., said controllers union official Dave Cook.
Cook said the planes were directed to an area where there were storms and that the pilots would have had to “zigzag” to avoid them. The supervisor also ordered a veteran controller to leave the four flights “stacked” at varying altitudes so the trainee could practice unstacking them.
“To do this with live traffic — airliners that are full of passengers — well, it’s reckless. It’s beyond reckless,” he said.
