‘Descend Immediately,“
The unnecessary orders issued suddenly by the controllers include: “immediate right turn,” “immediate left turn,” and “descend immediately,” according to the newspaper. In addition to planes that aren’t really there, controllers reported seeing airplanes from nearby airports appear much closer to O’Hare than they actually were.
     Some blame dated equipment. The Federal Aviation Administration is looking into it, but they offer other possibilities. False radar images can appear when a crane or construction tower is put up, said FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro.
     “Over the past five weeks there have been 13 unsubstantiated reports, meaning we still need to look into them,” Molinaro said.
     The FAA normally would expect about eight or nine reports of ghost images during that time, he said.

Numbers Disputed
Mike Egan, vice president of the controllers union at Elgin, accused the FAA of downplaying a serious problem, calling their number “a bald-faced lie.”
     “Maybe 130, but not 13,” Egan told the newspaper. “We had a couple of them today, as a matter of fact. They know there’s a problem.”
     In one case, an airplane appeared on radar north of the airport at 4,000 feet. In fact, the plane was on final approach to Midway Airport, according to the newspaper.
     Authorities insist that passengers have not been at risk. They also say that no near collisions have occurred, according to the newspaper.
     The Elgin control center handles air traffic within a 40-mile radius of O’Hare. Last year, the facility directed 1.36 million operations. Controllers in Aurora and at O’Hare also direct planes in the Chicago area.

Concerns Over FAA Plan
The radar complaints come as controllers raise concerns about the FAA’s plans to speed air traffic at O’Hare using controversial spacing and landing procedures. Under the plans, the FAA could resume testing a procedure as early as next month that stacks arriving planes vertically around O’Hare’s airspace. The planes would have to be at least 1,000 feet apart. Arrivals now are usually single-file.
     Bunting said that while controllers support increasing the efficiency of flights in and out of O’Hare, the radar situation raises questions about the safety of the procedure.
     “We don’t feel it’s a viable time to conduct these tests when safety can be compromised because of it,” he said.
     Controllers also signed a letter to the FAA citing pilots’ concerns about another procedure at O’Hare that allows faster takeoffs and landings on intersecting runways.