Hi C Area -
The ERC (Events Review Committee) is here today and tomorrow, and is available for you to sit in on their process as they review ATSAP reports.
I highly encourage you to sit in with them for a bit and listen to what they do and how they work. This is your opportunity to see the first process the ATSAP information goes through.
If you do decide to go, you will be required to sign an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) as the information they will be discussing and reviewing is confidential in nature. Not an invitation to discuss what you saw or heard as soon as you return to the floor.
I sat in on a meeting with them and members of the E-board today. The major take aways for me are:
They receive upwards of 100-120 submissions per week
They work hard to reach out to the submitters with any questions or follow-ups, so please make sure your information is correct in ATSAP.
Be as factual as possible with (preferably) more than 1 example (with dates, times and callsigns if able) of the issue so they can take it to whomever needs it to start the investigative process.
It is not a resource for calling controllers out on personnel issues. We have other avenues for that. If you are in need of guidance or have questions about this, please let me know.
This program is a resource for you and the operation. Please utilize it constructively.
I brought up the fact that I’ve heard over and over from controllers that they never see any results from their ATSAP reports. Some of the replies I got:
The report wasn’t very detailed, or just mentioned something about “the frequencies/radar/etc suck”. Again - details they can work with, and examples to give them to research.
They tried reaching out to the submitter to ask follow up questions for clarification and never heard back. Verify your contact info is up to date in your ATSAP account.
They did say that a lot of the fliers and bulletins that are online or in facilities aren’t updated as often as they should be, so it sounds like they are at least aware of that.
I will try to be more transparent about ATSAP-initiated fixes in our area. If you file an ATSAP and you don’t feel like there was ever anything that came of it, please reach out and let me know and I will follow up. It may be something I’m working on in the background and we are waiting to hear back from the other party or something I didn’t even realize was an ATSAP issue.
For all you OJTIs - if you need to file an ATSAP report due to a training event or something during training you saw, please ask for the time to walk your trainee through setting up their ATSAP account and have them also fill out a report. It is a great opportunity for them to have some help for the first few times!
Thank you all for everything you do, and have a great rest of your week!
Crumbley
360-635-8244