Air Traffic Out-of-Control? FAA Uncovers Another Sleeping Worker
- Posted on April 7, 2011 at 8:26am by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration has uncovered a second incident of an air traffic controller sleeping on the job, but in this case the napping was deliberate.
“(I am) disappointed to say we did find another incident … just one,” FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt told a hearing of the House Appropriations Committee’s transportation subcommittee.
“We are in the process of disciplinary hearings that will terminate this employee … This was a willful violation,” Babbitt said.
The controller went to sleep for five hours on Feb. 19 during the midnight shift at McGhee Tyson Airport in Knoxville, Tenn., FAA said in a statement released after the hearing.
The airport is considered an “up-down facility,” meaning it has a control tower on top and a radar room on the floor below, each staffed with one controller during the midnight shift. The controller in the top of the tower helps aircraft land and take off based, in part, on what he sees happening on the ground at the airport.
The controller in the bottom room uses radar to handle aircraft as they approach to land, not only at the Knoxville airport but at several other small airports and a hospital helipad within about a 30-mile radius. That controller also handles takeoffs after an aircraft leaves the vicinity of the airport.
While the controller who was supposed to be handling the regional approaches was sleeping, the other controller working in the tower landed seven planes at Knoxville and worked the radar position at the same time, FAA said. That required him to switch back and forth between monitoring radar and visual observation.
The agency has long had a safety policy that controllers are only supposed to work one job at a time.
Rep. Tom Latham, R-Iowa, chairman of the transportation subcommittee, called the incident “outrageous.”
“Certainly someone who purposely sleeps through his duties should be gone,” Latham said. “It‘s unfortunate someone would put people’s lives in jeopardy to catch up on a few hours sleep.”
Last month, an air traffic supervisor acknowledged to safety investigators that he dozed off while two airliners carrying a total of 165 people landed at Washington’s Reagan National airport. The supervisor was the lone controller working the midnight shift in the airport’s tower. The radar facility that handles approaches to Reagan National is about 40 miles away in Warrenton, Va.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating that incident, as well as a third incident – also last month – in which an air traffic supervisor at a regional radar facility in central Florida caused two planes to fly too close together. The supervisor, working as a controller, asked the pilots of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 en route to Jacksonville to fly close enough to a small plane that had been out of radio contact for over an hour to look into the cockpit.
The pilots complied, violating FAA regulations on the minimum safe distance that’s supposed to be kept between planes.
Both supervisors have been suspended while the FAA also looks into those incidents.
The Reagan National and Knoxville incidents have raised questions about whether it is safe to schedule a lone controller at night at an air traffic facility even if traffic is expected to be light.
“We continue to be concerned with the issue of safe staffing on the midnight shifts and are working collaboratively with the FAA to determine appropriate staffing levels at all facilities nationwide on all shifts,” Doug Church, a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said Wednesday. He declined to comment on the Knoxville incident.
NTSB has also urged FAA not to schedule supervisors to work as controllers if they are also supposed to be supervising the air traffic facility at the same time.
Babbitt told lawmakers that the agency has been reevaluating staffing at night in some of its facilities around the country and will likely make changes.
A second controller has already been added to the midnight shift at Reagan National.
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USMC3BNMCO
Posted on April 8, 2011 at 1:53am“That required him to switch back and forth between monitoring radar and visual observation.” Oh my GOD! That controller must have been busier than a one-armed wallpaper hanger with those seven airplanes spread out over an 8-hour shift. Hell, there are uncontrolled airports that have more traffic than that in one hour. This is ridiculous; a few years ago everyone was scared to death of hitting a bird in flight, now they’re on the prowl for sleeping controllers.
Report Post »BOMUSTGO
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 8:42pmI wonder if the controlers name was “Homer?”
Report Post »408 CheyTac
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 6:35pmAircraft “self-disassembling” in flight
outsourced mtnc to a turd-world country, done by people who don’t speak english
Pilots underpaid, not resting, and partying between take-offs.
You get to get our junk-groped to be allowed to partake in the enjoyment… then..
Now we get out-of-control-controllers.
Man, I am so glade I have no plans to enjoy the fruits of that system.
Might be easier and safer to start gluing chicken feathers to your arms
Report Post »delhoghe
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 2:13pmKALISH…..I understand what you’re saying. My experience has been that companies who employ union workers also have incompetent managers. Lazy workers, union or otherwise, are the result of poor management. If a company employs a poor negotiator to deal with the union then the union will gain an unfair advantage. When that happens it leads to worker complacency. Hard working union members hate slacking as much as everybody else does.
Report Post »delhoghe
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 12:09pmHow do you witless children know those controllers are UNION members ? Reagan broke P.A,T.C.O in 1981 and replaced them with scabs who were trained by military air traffic controllers. Even if they are union members that has nothing to do with compromising safety. There are plenty of imbacils who don’t have a union card.
Report Post »delhoghe
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 12:22pmImbeciles as well.
Report Post »Kalish
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 1:07pmNational Air Traffic Controllers Association NATCA is union, and he is part of it, yes there are imbeciles that are not union, but they can be fired, it is very hard to get a union worker fired, I worked around union worker day in day out for 11 years, and I can say that 90% of them had a crappy attitude and most of them were getting well paid. This was the metal industry, and the one or two places that were not union, were that places that were the most grateful to have a job, and the most willing to help unload your truck etc ….
Report Post »millefiore
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 8:42pmPlenty of imbeciles who have a union card as well.
Report Post »bigfatslob
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 11:39amThe answer is simple, for air traffic controllers, postal workers, and ALL federal employees….STOP AFFIRMATIVE ACTION. Ony hire the BEST QUALIFIED, stop using federal jobs as a welfare check outlet.
Report Post »drattastic
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 11:18amHis previous job was a union job and all they did was sleep ,he didn’t know any better.
Report Post »DREDGE
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 11:10amA good case for robotics!!!!!
Report Post »An AmericanMom
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 10:24amFIRE HIM on the spot!
Report Post »Tusker
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 9:49amYet another reason why I don’t fly!
Report Post »poppop13
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 9:40amThis won’t fly! They can’t fire him unless he has been written up 3 times, and letters are in his file. I used to be a aflcio member until the union wouldn’t recognize my greivance when another employee put a knife to my throat. They deemed it as horse play. This was in union contract. I expect this person to get his job back.
Report Post »8jrts
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 11:27amPop
Report Post »Now I realize why the unions don’t understand why the rest of us working people think they are thugs! It’s just “horse play” to them to threaten others.
If I fell asleep on the job just once, I’d be fired on the spot….not slapped on the wrist, given vacation and back to work in a few days with a new back up person to cover for me next time I needed a nap. GEE…..anyone wonder why unions are breaking the taxpayer’s backs???
dantom
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 9:24amPut 2 on the job that needs only 1 then they can take turns sleeping typical government thinking.
Report Post »TexasStu
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 8:58amWork ethics…no ethics in general have gone from this world. I have fired people for coming to work and falling asleep and would do it again. But not the unions they just get reprimanded, paid and a short vacation to “think” about the consequences. Does anybody wonder why this world is falling apart?
Report Post »mrsmileyface
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 8:43amWell I guess its contagious. A President asleep at the job. So the FAA feels whats good for the President is good for us.
Report Post »spreadcommonsensenot pc
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 8:38amUnion members HARD at work———
Report Post »OneRepublic4us
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 10:17amIf this isn’t an argument against unions, I don’t know what is!
Report Post »One question though….. all this outrage against sleeping air traffic controllers but NO outrage about the 111th congress sleeping on the job and NOT passing a budget!
aLinedog
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 11:38amAmen, OneRepub. Amen.
Report Post »-line
heavyduty
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 8:38amThe pilots should put the guy snoring on the radio if he doesn’t answer when a plane needs to take off or land. I bet that you make you feel safe. But really that’s why they need to get rid of UNIONS. Because anyone else would have been fired on the spot if he wasn’t UNION.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 8:31amTo use a very old TV quote, paraphrased…
“FAA where are you?”
Report Post »starman70
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 8:30amGosh, it must be boring just watching planes landing and taking off all night.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 8:46amI know a great way to keep these guys awake at night. Have someone come by their sleeping place and say they work for the IRS as an auditor and they have a few questions about their taxes.
Report Post »Leadthemtothelight
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 9:18amI worked night shift for a year and never was able to get used to it. You feel like a zombie every day. I however never slept on the job. Red Bull was not around then, I did drink a considerable amount of Jolt.
Report Post »LOL …I guess I am getting old. Air traffic controllers apparently need to have better staffing. What happens if they have to use the bathroom? What if there were a medical emergency? Why are there only 2 people on staff? The United States government loves redundancy so why not in this job, where it is apparently needed? Oh wait….I am being logical again…my bad.
Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 9:48amGood one SNOW. They do have that energy stuff you drink, now. I have never tried it, but people that have says it works.
Report Post »jackrorabbit
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 10:04amPerhaps we need to have cots in the towers. Much like the beds in semis, but you would have to have an extra person in there for the nappers.
Report Post »booger71
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 11:49amMany of these guys who staff these smaller airports during the midnight shift come to work with the intention of sleeping because some of them have businesses on the side or take care of little ones during the day. This is not unusual for state or federal workers who work these shifts to expect to get a few hours of sleep every night on the taxpayers dime.
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