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MIAMI (CBS4) ― A heartbeat away from catastrophe.

That's how the president of the nation's air traffic controllers describes our nation's skies these days.

The CBS4 I-Team has uncovered new evidence that your safety could be imperiled the next time you fly.

Back in February, investigative reporter Stephen Stock first exposed this problem of near collisions on South Florida runways.

Now, Stock has uncovered evidence of even more troubling close calls in the sky.

It was the kind of close call that prompts pilots and air traffic controllers to consider another line of work.

Describing the scene and others like it, air traffic controller Mitch Herrick said, "It scares the hell out of me."

Here's what happened. An Embraer 170 jet with as many as 72 people on board was descending through 8,000 feet, on approach to Miami International Airport. At 7,000 feet, an air traffic controller in Miami's TRACON facility noticed another plane, a Boeing B757 with more than 200 people on board taking off from MIA. The B757 was headed right for Embraer 170 jet.

According to narratives filed by the pilots in the situation and interviews with the air traffic controllers found in NASA's Aviation Reporting System, the two planes came so close, that on the radar in the control tower, the two dots became one.

Mitch Herrick said this is the kind of thing that happens often in Miami's control tower. "It's as bad as it's ever been in history I'm sure of that," Herrick said describing the number of close calls and the crowded skies in South Florida and at many other major airports around the country.

Herrick has been directing airplanes through South Florida skies for nearly 30 years. He says these increasing number of close calls are a result of poor planning by the FAA resulting in fewer trained, experienced air traffic controllers making life and death decisions.

He described what is happening as a result of what he describes as this poor planning combined with new work rules imposed by the FAA. "Young, inexperienced controllers will be staffing the towers in Miami, in Philadelphia, in Orlando and in Memphis," Herrick said.

Air Traffic controller James Mariniti agrees."If we don't have enough people to man the scopes and work in the control tower then the level of safety degrades," Mariniti said.

Mariniti is the president of the Miami Air Traffic Control union, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. He also works alongside Mitch Herrick here in Miami.

Mariniti says that where there used to be 87 certified air traffic controllers working here, there are now 60. By this summer, Mariniti says the cutbacks by the FAA means there will be only 55 certified air traffic controllers working at MIA.

"The major airports especially in the state of Florida, Miami, Tampa, Orlando, Daytona Beach are hemorrhaging controllers due to record retirements and new hires, students who have come in and because of a lack of incentive as far as pay and job opportunities are either resigning, they're failing training or they're actually looking for employment in other places," James Mariniti said.
 
New safety data obtained from NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) by the CBS4 I-Team shows how dangerous our skies are becoming.

This data comes from NASA's aviation reporting system (ASRS.) The ASRS is made up of more than 142-thousand records of safety concerns filed voluntarily and anonymously by pilots, air traffic controllers, ground crews and even flight attendants. The majority of the records reviewed by the I-Team were filed by pilots.

Pilots such as Brooke Hackbarth, who has logged 2000 hours in the air, the last two and a half years as a safety officer for Gulfstream Aviation. Hackbarth left the company earlier this year.

"Sometimes you'd see them sometimes you wouldn't," Brooke Hackbarth said.

Hackbarth says it was common for her cockpit safety warning system--or T-CAS to go off. T-CAS stands for Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System.

Hackbarth and other pilots who spoke with the CBS4 I-Team say it is now common for the T-CAS to alert often while flying over South Florida, constantly warning of other aircraft that has gotten too close.

And they say it has gotten worse in the last two to three years. They say that more close calls happen with regularity.

"It can get pretty hairy when it goes off and it's within a hundred feet above you or below and within a five mile radius," Brooke Hackbarth said.

Hackbarth also said that she's seen how the reduction in the number of air traffic controllers or as she calls the, ATC's, can increase the incidence of close calls.

"A lot of times the T-CAS is going off and the ATC will not. (The T-CAS will) either (go off) before they'll (the air traffic controllers) advise you of something or they'll (the ATC will) never have picked it up and advised you of something because they're simply too busy." Hackbarth said.

According to the NASA ASRS data, from January 2006 until February 2008, there have been 76 reports of "events" close calls involving commerical aircraft.

Included among those reports: 2 airborne critical events where planes got too close, 6 more close calls classified as less severe AND 2 N-MACS...NEAR MID-AIR COLLISIONS ...including the one between that 757 and Embraer jet.

The second N-MAC happened as a commercial MD-88 passenger jet with 170 people on board...was leaving Palm Beach Airspace and entering into ZMA or high altitude controlled by Miami...when the cockpit's automatic warning system went off--signaling another plane headed on a collision course with it...pilots barely avoided a collision by 300 feet...The report showed an air traffic controller issued the wrong orders to both planes.

Both of those near mid-air collisions happened last summer and have never been reported in public before now.

The FAA says this data does not mean the skies are less safe.

"In terms of actual rates, we're fairly normal from year to year to year but of course traffic is increasing," Hank Krakowski said.

Krakowski is a representative for the Air Traffic Organization for the FAA. Krakowski cautions that the NASA ASRS data has its limitations.

"As traffic increases, if you hold the rate, you actually are putting more flights at risk of events," Krakowski said. "So, it's important to keep head pressure on safety at all times and do everything you can to reduce risks." Krakowski says the FAA is doing just that, keeping the pressure on safety in the system at all times.

In fact several FAA representatives who spoke to CBS4 I-Team recently point out that the NASA data is quote "soft" because it is anonymous.

"Quite frankly, one of the concerns that they have had with the NASA data is we are aware that there is some repetition of reporting. So a captain and a co-pilot on the same flight might put in two reports and it would look like two different reports. So some of the data there is a bit concerning," Krakowshi said.

But critics of the FAA strongly disagree. They say this data shows that the government agency is ignoring the reality of a more dangerous environment in our skies.

"It's an absolute travesty the way the FAA works," air traffic controller James Mariniti said.

CBS4 I-Team reporter Stephen Stock asked Herrick about the FAA's claims. "What does this tell (these number of close calls) tell you about passenger safety?"

"At the end of the day no controller wants a catastrophe happen...and all of us believe that it's coming," Air Traffic Controller Mitch Herrick replied.

The nation's air traffic controllers have been in a fight with the FAA for nearly two years over a new contract. The air traffic controllers say their warnings aren't because of disagreements over money but because they fear for public safety.

"All we are concerned about as air traffic controllers is the safety of the flying public," Mariniti said. "It has nothing to do with the bottom line. It has never had anything to do about money."

"The FAA cannot acknowledge the fact that they made a mistake," Mariniti said of the FAA's planning for the massive retirement of controllers happening right now. "They (the FAA) imposed their new work rules and that's (these increasing close calls) what's happened."

"The traveling public should be very concerned," Marinti said.

The FAA says these close calls are NOT a sign that our skies are less safe.

In fact, the FAA correctly points out that there has NOT been a major accident in the United States involving a commercial aircraft in more than two years. Those close to the situation worry that it will take just that, a major accident, before the federal government takes action.

It appears money and cutbacks could be at the heart of this problem. For example, in order to save money, the FAA now wants to combine Miami and Palm Beach's long range air traffic facilities. They are called TRACONs (Terminal Radar Approach Control).

Critics of the FAA say any combination of the two facilities will further crowd South Florida's skies and mean fewer air traffic controllers working in the towers to keep the planes apart. Congressman Alcee Hastings is leading the fight to stop the FAA from combining the two facilities called TRACONs (Terminal Radar Approach Control).

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

I-Team Extras: The Unsafe Skies Over South Florida

• NASA Mid-Air Near Collision Reports
• Dangerous Airport Close Calls Rise
• New Airport Near Miss Reported After CBS4 Report
• Passenger Experiences Airplane Close Call At FTL
• Airplane Close Calls Become A Growing Crisis