By WALLY PIKE

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has acknowledged that the remarkable air traffic control efforts in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks could not have taken place without the flight service station (FSS) controllers. Already critically short-staffed, the FSS employees absorbed a fourfold or greater increase in workload and were instrumental in accomplishing the mission during the trying days that followed.

The FAA air traffic controllers working in control towers and radar rooms swung into action to safely land thousands of aircraft nationwide in the space of a few hours, effectively deterring further attacks. That is not the whole story.

The other part of the story begins with the air traffic controllers who work in 61 automated flight service stations.

Fight service controllers were responsible for dissemination of the shutdown order to air traffic facilities, airports and pilots in flight within their individual areas of responsibility. They also issued notices to the aviation community regarding airport restrictions and outages of electronic aids to navigation as the shutdown progressed.

After the initial shock of the tragedy wore off, passengers and pilots from grounded aircraft began asking the inevitable question, �When and how are we going to get home?� Record numbers of pilots nationwide began dialing into the flight service stations they relied upon for weather and flight-planning information to find out what was happening.

Initially, information was scarce. Everyone was waiting for word from FAA headquarters in Washington, D.C., on when flights and air traffic services would resume. As data became available, the flight service controllers began to explain how the multiple, complex and sometimes convoluted restrictions would affect each pilot who called, depending on the classification of the aircraft in question. Through it all, flight service controllers pitched in to serve the flying public. Some from stations in Islip, N.Y., and Leesburg, Va. � facilities near the sites of the attacks � even came in on their days off to lend a hand during the crisis.

Incredibly, the reward for these employees was an FAA announcement on June 18 that it was conducting a study on the feasibility of privatizing FSS operations. The FAA has determined that 80 percent of the FSS duties are subject to further study for outsourcing. Among these duties are preflight pilot-briefing services, in-flight aircraft services and search-and-rescue services. The only duty determined inherently governmental is providing notices to pilots.

Fairness aside, the FAA actions are ill-considered and ill-advised for safety and security reasons. Do we really want the lowest bidder providing in-flight and preflight services to pilots? Coordinating search and rescue for lost and overdue pilots? Monitoring navigational aides? What about the liability for these services if a private contractor provides them? The FAA feasibility study shows potential homeland security issues in these and other areas � but nevertheless, the FAA decided to continue down the slippery slope of privatization.

The FAA has advised the National Association of Air Traffic Specialists that this decision was made by the agency and not because of pressure from the Office of Management and Budget. The last estimate is that this outsourcing study � being done under OMB Circular A-76 � could last two to three years and cost the FAA $9 million or more. This is, at best, an extremely shortsighted use of scarce resources.

It is hard to believe that FSS is the ultimate target of this privatization effort. If the FAA is successful with FSS privatization, then that provides the blueprint for contracting out all the rest of air traffic control. It is no secret that FSS is the sacrificial lamb when the agency has bigger plans because, by comparison with the larger FAA unions, we have less clout and influence.

Appeals to the FAA have fallen on deaf ears. Naturally we have talked with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle and we have been assured there will be no privatization of air traffic control. The A-76 process, however, continues unabated.

Some functions should be inherently governmental. We feel that all of air traffic control meets that definition. Our hope is to convince new FAA Administrator Marion Blakey of this and to stop the folly of her predecessor.

Wally Pike is president of the National Association of Air Traffic Specialists, based in Wheaton, Md. The association is the exclusive representative for the air traffic controllers in the flight service station option of the Federal Aviation Administration.