Update: FAA Suspends Sleeping Air Traffic Controller in DC

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation's top aviation official says he's suspended a control tower supervisor while investigating why no controller was available to aid two planes that landed at Washington's Reagan airport earlier this week.

Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Randy Babbitt said Thursday in a statement that the controller has been suspended from his operational duties. He said he was "personally outraged" that the supervisor - the lone controller on duty in the airport tower at the time - failed to meet his duties.

An aviation official who spoke on condition of anonymity because an investigation is underway said the supervisor fell asleep.

Federal authorities are reviewing the staffing of air traffic control towers nationwide after two passenger jets were unable to reach a controller at Washington's Reagan National Airport to guide their late-night landings.

An aviation official said that an air traffic supervisor - the lone controller on duty around midnight on Tuesday when the incident occurred - had fallen asleep. The official spoke on grounds of anonymity because an investigation is ensuing.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood LaHood directed the Federal Aviation Administration to launch a nationwide inquiry into airport tower staffing.

Peter Knudson, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, said Wednesday that the pilots of the two planes were in contact with controllers at a regional FAA facility about 40 miles away in Warrenton, Va. They landed safely.

He said that after pilots were unable to raise the airport tower at Reagan by radio, they asked controllers in Warrenton to call the tower. Repeated calls from the regional facility to the tower went unanswered, Knudson added.

In response to the incident, LaHood told the FAA to put two air traffic controllers on the midnight shift at Reagan.

"It is not acceptable to have just one controller in the tower managing air traffic in this critical air space," LaHood said. Reagan National is located in Northern Virginia just across the Potomac River from Washington.

For many years, air traffic at Reagan was severely restricted between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. to limit noise in surrounding communities, noted Bill Voss, president of the Flight Safety Foundation, an industry-funded group that promotes aviation safety. Today there is more air traffic at night because jets are quieter, but there are still so few landings after midnight that it may be reasonable to have only one controller on duty, he said.

"It's not outrageous for the agency to avoid putting a second six-figure employee into a tower where they may only work a dozen airplanes in a shift," said Voss, a former air traffic controller.

NTSB is gathering information on the occurrence to decide whether to open a formal investigation, Knudson said.

Regional air traffic facilities handle aircraft within roughly a 50 mile radius of an airport, but landings, takeoffs and planes within about three miles of an airport are handled by controllers in the airport tower.

The planes involved were American Airlines flight 1012, a Boeing 737 with 91 passengers and 6 crew members on board, and United Airlines flight 628T, an Airbus A320 with 63 passengers and five crew members.

"The NTSB is conducting an investigation and we are doing our own review," United spokesman Charles Hobart said in an email.

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said the agency "is looking into staffing issues and whether existing procedures were followed appropriately." The agency didn't identify the air traffic supervisor involved or say whether he had been placed on leave.

There was probably little safety risk since the pilots would have used a radio frequency for the airport tower to advise nearby aircraft of their intention to land and to make sure that no other planes also intended to land at that time, aviation safety experts said. At that time of night, air traffic would have been light, they said.

Also, controllers at the regional facility, using radar, would have been able to advise the pilots of other nearby planes, experts said.

The primary risk would have been if there was equipment on the runway when the planes landed, they said.

But the incident raises serious questions about controller fatigue, a longstanding safety concern, said John Goglia, a former NTSB board member.

"You have to watch your schedules to make sure (controllers) have adequate rest," Goglia said. "It's worse when nothing is going on. When it's busy, you have to stay engaged. When it's quiet, all they have to be is a little bit tired and they'll fall asleep."