Not So Lucky Guess

A funny thing happens when you pay attention. Occasionally, you “guess” right. (Scroll down two blog entries to read my guess or click here.)

”Harris FTI Deficiencies Continue to Risk Safety Around the Country”

“ At fault is the FAA’s failure to address serious deficiencies in Harris Corporation’s Federal Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI), which provides circuitry and communications for the FAA.”

My favorite part of the press release from PASS came later.

”The FAA has spent billions of dollars replacing what they deemed to be antiquated telecommunications systems; ironically, the antiquated systems operated much more successfully and safely than what Harris FTI is providing. “

This is such a “target-rich environment” I hardly know where to start. Seriously, you could spend all day just reading the links I found it ten minutes and you don’t have to take my word for it. Go to Google and type in “+FAA +FTI” (or just click on the link) and you can read all day.

"You're sitting on a program that if it doesn't explode is going to implode in a pretty major way," said one aviation expert with close knowledge of the project who is critical of the Harris contract. "This is to FAA what the Challenger was to NASA. We think there is going to be a significant outage."

But if you’ll type in “+FAA +FTI +Mica” you will see a link from a fellow that writes a blog that we all know and love -- The Main Bang.

Follow The Money, Part One

“Despite the known safety-related problems directly attributed to the FTI program, Congressman John Mica was adamant then that the program should continue.”

Congressman John Mica is the Representative of the Florida 7th Congressional District. He is the ranking Republican on the House Aviation Subcommittee, which means he was the Chairman until the Democrats became the majority party last election. NATCA and ex-Chairman Mica -- as they say -- have history.

Don Brown
September 27, 2007