By Rob Stapleton
Alaska Journal of Commerce

The Federal Aviation Administration's Capstone program office is slated to be moved out of Alaska by Jan. 15, and support of statewide of deployment of additional equipment is in question, according to an FAA memo obtained by the Journal.

Known as Capstone in Alaska and outside the state as Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B), the technology provides weather reports, terrain maps and live air traffic tracking right in the cockpit of equipped aircraft. The use of ADS-B in Alaska has reduced accidents 43 percent during the last three years in the Yukon-Kuskokwim River Delta, an area not served by conventional radar.

A Dec. 10 memo from Capstone program director Sue Gardner to another FAA official says the program is being dissolved and put into a national program that does not meet the demands of Alaskan aviation safety.

"The ADS-B office's (function) is separation of traffic and the enhancement of system capacity throughout the National Airspace System, not the prevention of accidents specifically related to the Alaskan environment," the memo said.

No one contacted at the FAA would comment for this story.

According to the memo, the national office only supports the addition of 14 ground-based transceivers - used to relay information to aircraft - when Gardner and industry council members contend that an additional 28 transceivers could save 272 Alaskan lives over a 20-year period.

A disagreement between the Capstone industry council - made up of the Alaska Air Carriers Association, Alaska Airmen's Association, the Alaskan Aviation Safety Foundation, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and others - over the deployment of Capstone ADS-B ground-based transceivers (GBTs) came to a head Dec. 13 when deputy administrator Howard Swancy forbid FAA Capstone program employees to attend the industry council's monthly meeting on Wednesday.

"The Alaska Air Carriers Association supports the deployment of 28 GBTs," said AACA president Wilfred "Boyuck" Ryan. "And that the FAA should maintain an Alaska Capstone office here in the state."

Aids familiar with the program in U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens office in Washington, D.C., were briefed by the FAA in Washington in late November. The aids said they understood that the Alaska Capstone program was being folded into the national ADS-B program, but were not aware that the program office in Alaska was being closed.

Currently the office has eight FAA employees and has contracts with nearly 40 vendors.

The FAA s decision has alienated and baffled members of the council.

"The question here is why is the FAA, who is tasked with safety, dismantling their best and most successful safety program," said Leonard Kirk, a council member for the Aviation and Technology Division at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Kirk was in charge of training pilots how to use the Capstone ADS-B equipment package on contract with the FAA.

Rob Stapleton can be reached at rob.stapleton@alaskajournal.com.