ORLANDO, Fla. — The commercial plane crash involving a military helicopter in Washington, D.C. in January put a spotlight on commercial air travel safety across the country.

Central Florida leaders are renewing their calls for facility upgrades at Orlando International Airport, measures they say are needed to ensure passenger safety.

Most Central Floridians recognize the very visible air traffic control tower at MCO. But it’s a more subtle building in between terminals A and B where air traffic control specialists keep a close eye on every plane coming and going, even those traveling to other area airports.

It’s called the TRACON building, and those who keep a close eye on aviation safety say the facility is long overdue for a major upgrade.

Doug Lowe is the Region Two Vice President for the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, a union that represents workers who maintain safety equipment and support air traffic controllers at airports in much of the country, including at MCO. 

“As soon as you take off from the airport environment, the air traffic control is actually transitioning the pilots to talk to a facility like this, a terminal radar approach control,” said Lowe.

Lowe says the building, which was built in 1983, was not designed to keep up with all the planes flying through MCO and other regional airports, as well as tracking space launch activity that has ballooned in recent years. He says air traffic controllers still do what they have to in order to maintain a high level of safety, but the old facility and equipment forces them to enact more delays in order to do so.

“We’re now in the top seven, so there’s no space in this building to expand,” said Lowe. “So what happens is the air traffic controllers, how it affects them, they have to space aircraft out and create delays, hold airplanes at the locations that they’re coming from.”

Rep. Darren Soto says he’s been calling for a replacement of the facility for several years. 

“The technology is antiquated. It looks like Atari technology from when I was a kid. The building and the computers were built in the 1980s,” said Soto.

Soto says the initial plans for an upgrade are approved, and the design phase is underway. But the federal government hasn’t approved the $60 million needed to make it happen. The upgrade would also add more air traffic controllers.

“We’re a growing airport, so making sure we have the technological upgrades to handle greater capacity at one of the busiest airports in the country, making sure to have more air traffic controllers is critical long-term for the safety of the traveling public so we’re going to continue to work on this until we can bring this project home,” said Soto.

Lowe says until the project is approved, millions of dollars will have to be spent just to deal with fixes to a building that has plumbing and other issues. He says flight delays will increase, and at some point, passenger safety comes into question.

“Thirty (more) years operating out of this facility is not safe,” said Lowe. “We’ve got to get to a point where people understand we have to invest in this TRACON so Central Florida can maintain the level of safety that the flying public deserves.”

The FAA says a design firm is working on a siting analysis, or location, for a new facility. The agency says a firm will present its findings to the FAA later this year.