David Goldstein Reports

LOS ANGELES (CBS) ― With the holiday travel season coming up -- how safe will it be to fly out of southern California's airports? We've learned three local airports are in the nation's top 10 list for close calls on the runways. CBS 2 investigative reporter David Goldstein has the story.

These orders from an air traffic controller at LAX averted a close call on the runway.

"SkyWest 5432, start a climb and go around."

This was the admonition from a controller at John Wayne Airport on July 14th.

"American 1950, I actually told you to hold short runway one-niner left and you crossed runway one-niner left."

He let a pilot know he made a mistake – that could have been costly.

"OK, sir, that's my bad, I actually thought I heard cross 19 and that's what I read back."

"American 1950, roger, go listen to the tapes."

We listened to the tapes and heard from controllers about close calls on the runways that could directly affect your safety.

"If you do roll the dice enough times sooner or later it will come up snake eyes. They do not have to miss. They can hit."

According to the General Accounting Office, three of the five southern California airports are rolling the dice at an alarming rate. Over the past seven years, through August, LAX ranks second in the nation in runway incursions – another name for close calls – with 64.

John Wayne sixth with 49

Long Beach ninth with 41.

And LAX is No. 1 in serious incursions with 10.

Take this incident at LAX on June 8th. We obtained the audiotapes from the FAA.

"SkyWest 5432, change to runway 24 left. Clear to land."

A SkyWest flight from Bakersfield is cleared to land on runway 24 left.

"Southwest 2357. L.A. tower, taxi up to the hold bars."

A Southwest flight waiting to take off is told to hold short of the runway. But it doesn't. The SkyWest pilot sees him at the last minute.

"Tower, SkyWest 5432. Looks like Southwest has taken 24 left."

"SkyWest 5432, start a climb and go around."

"Southwest 2357, my last instructions were to hold short runway 24 left."

"Sorry, about that."

In both cases the controllers caught the apparent errors by the pilots. But they say because of severe shortages in the ranks of controllers, they are overworked and overwhelmed.

Most of the controllers were hired after the 1981 PATCO strike when the entire workforce was replaced. Now many are retiring at the same time. That's led to shortages and inexperienced controllers taking their place.

At Long Beach Airport, only 67% of the controllers are fully certified. That means 33% are new hires – still learning the ropes – and sources say it's led to many errors.

At LAX only 78% are fully certified.

John Wayne, 88%.

"They didn't hire anybody. They waited until we were driving off the cliff before they started bringing people in."

FAA officials say they were planning for the retirements and are hiring as fast as they can. They maintain the airports in southern California are safe – and say close calls on runways this year are actually down.

At LAX – a new taxiway has been constructed. There have only been 9 close calls compared to 21 last year.

"Do we need to add more controllers? Absolutely – something we're actively involved in doing right now."

"But in terms of big picture – the bottom line is whether the system is operating safely and the answer is yes."

The FAA also claims most close calls are pilot error – especially at Long Beach where the runways are difficult to navigate because they crisscross each other. They say they're taking steps to avoid problems – but controllers say time is running short.

"The safety margins are just being etched down bit by bit and we need to pull those back up before something happens."

Next year the FAA will install runway status lights at LAX. They're just like stop lights on the road – but in this case hooked up to ground radar. The signals will automatically direct pilots – and hopefully cut down even more on close calls.

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