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New facility to make The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks added a new dimension to local air traffic control: security.
isle skies safer
The $56 million site uses new
technology for air traffic controlBy Lisa Asato
lasato@starbulletin.com"Before, our job was based on a safe, coordinated, expeditious flow of traffic," said Robert Rabideau, air traffic manager at the Federal Aviation Administration's new control center at Hickam Air Force Base. "Now we describe our function in the air traffic control profession as being safe, secure, efficient and orderly. We've tied ourselves ... with the air defense folks, and we share a dual mission of security with them. Normally, it's our folks at the radar scopes that will see something that's unusual and make the necessary alerts."
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Rabideau said the $56 million Honolulu Control Facility will help do that by using new technology and by consolidating for the first time short-, middle-, and long-range air traffic control systems.The federally funded facility, on the outskirts of Honolulu Airport, will be dedicated today with Hawaii's congressional delegation expected to attend. The 70,000-square-foot facility will also house management, facilities maintenance and tech support.
Since the mid-1980s the site was home only to a traffic control tower and Terminal Radar Approach Control. The tower handles the immediate area outside the airport, and Radar Approach controls the area within 30 to 40 miles of a major metropolitan area. The Honolulu Center Radar Approach Control, relocated there from Diamond Head Crater, adds long-range control stretching to about 250 miles out.
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Richard Poalillo, manager of the Honolulu Operational Support Facility, which maintains software for the radar display systems and flight data processing systems, said examples of the facility's technological advances are touch-screen systems that let controllers punch in a frequency to talk to pilots and colored display screens that help "maximize the use of airspace."The Hickam site also houses the dimly lit Dynamic Simulation lab where air traffic controllers undergo additional training using computerized scenarios. In the future the lab will have direct links to live radar images, allowing it to be used as a backup for the Terminal Radar Approach Control.
Rabideau said air traffic here has decreased over the last two decades and has dropped in the months following Sept. 11. The site handles about 800 to 1,000 arrivals and departures a day, down from 1,300 before the attacks, he said.
Robert Long, a deputy director of airway facilities based in Washington, D.C., praised the consolidation, saying it will lead to better services that will help support Hawaii's tourism-based economy.