Air traffic controller admits to sleeping on job

WASHINGTON - Federal safety officials said Thursday the lone air traffic controller on duty at Reagan National Airport who could not be roused to guide two airliners to landings admits he was sleeping.

The National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement that it has opened a formal investigation into this week's incident in which two planes landed at Reagan without controller assistance.

The NTSB said the controller, a supervisor with more than 20 years' experience, had worked four consecutive night shifts. The investigation will examine possible fatigue and scheduling problems.

Authorities have suspended the control tower supervisor, who wasn't named, pending an investigation, the nation's top aviation official said Thursday.

"As a former airline pilot, I am personally outraged that this controller did not meet his responsibility to help land these two airplanes," Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Randy Babbitt said.

"I am determined to get to the bottom of this situation for the safety of the traveling public," Babbitt said.

On Wednesday, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood LaHood directed FAA to launch a nationwide study of airport tower staffing. He also directed that at least two controllers be on duty at night at Reagan, which is located just across the Potomac River from Washington in Northern Virginia.

"It is not acceptable to have just one controller in the tower managing air traffic in this critical air space," LaHood said.

The head of the union that represents air traffic controllers praised LaHood's actions, saying changes in staffing are needed.

"One-person shifts are unsafe. Period," Paul Rinaldi, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said in a statement Thursday. He said the union has long been concerned about single controller shifts, citing a 2006 air crash in Lexington, Ky., in which a Comair regional airliner attempted a takeoff at night from the wrong runway. A single air traffic controller was on duty in the airport tower at the time.

"The administration inherited an unsafe policy of staffing to budget instead of putting safety first," Rinaldi said. "We fully support the administration's aggressive actions to change this policy."

In this week's incident, the pilots of the two planes -- 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 -- were unable to raise a controller at Reagan as they approached the airport.

They were, however, in contact with controllers at a regional FAA facility about 40 miles away in Warrenton, Va. Those controllers tried repeatedly to contact the tower by phone, but their calls went unanswered, said National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson.

The board is also reviewing the incident in order to decide whether to open a full-fledged investigation, he said.

Veteran aviation expert Mark Weiss tells CBS News that commercial aircraft being forced to land at an "uncontrolled airport" -- one at which no air traffic control is available -- is extremely rare.

"It's so unusual," said Weiss. "In the 20 years plus that I flew for the airline I did, it's never happened."

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.

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.

There was probably little safety risk in Washington 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.

Goglia said shifts must be scheduled to ensure controllers can get enough rest.

"It's worse when nothing is going on," he said. "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."

[LemmingsAll]

Is a 500lb robin fat? You got to be kidding? NATCA would like to convince you that they are a union. However, like a lot of 'company unions' are a front and exist only because they are allowed to exist. In this case by the US government. No union can call itself a union if it cannot withold its labor-strike. They collect dues and badger trainees and non-members into joining their ranks or lose their job. Rather than strike they have covert 'job actions' such as 'sleep ins', sick outs, slow downs, etc. Trust me, the sudden epidemic of sleeping on the job is another job action by overpaid, overnursed, and underworked Federal employees. Since they can no longer be above board by threatening job actions/strikes about working conditions, etc., they have gone underground with job actions such as this. Don't be fooled by the sudden epidemic of controllers sleeping on the job. This has been going on for decades. Management openly condones it until something happens. Why is it suddenly an issue? Fire them all and hire some new ones.

[Layres63]

If it is too expensive to have two "6 figure income" people in the tower during very slow night shifts maybe they should have just another regular untrained person to just be there to help keep the person awake!

[mari1963]

Oh please! This story is just dumb! These experienced pilots couldn't land their planes by themselves? I guess we proved they can and there was no harm done. And as for the employee, he worked way too many night shifts in a row. HIRE SOME MORE HELP! Duh! No employee should be subjected to those working conditions. Enough already!

[winmaniff]

I am an airline pilot and to hear this controller complain about working 4 night shifts is dispicable. Pilots are working late night shifts to early morning shifts and are normally scheduled this way, because the FAA allows airlines to do this,with absolutely no regard for fatigue. We may start a trip at 5am on the first day and then 2,3 or 4days latter be landing after midnight. So for this controller to complan about doing 4 night shifts is a joke. Pilots, wish we would only be scheduled morning or only night shifts. The FAA was told by NASA and the NTSB, that the current schedules are inducing fatigue and the current regulations need to be changed, this was told to them over 20 years ago. Now,after people perished in Buffalo,NY. there's a push to change these regulations. So, the FAA will be changing those current regulations so pilots can fly even more hours in a day than they use too. What? You say! Yup, you heard me correctly, the FAA will be increasing the amoount of flying time in a day allowed. And if your wondering why there was only one controller in the tower, it's because one went home, on the clock, because it's a slow time. But what happens when he or she has to leave due to physiological needs? These guys have been doing this since i began flying 35 years ago. This happened and they got caught, but you (the public) don't know the whole story.

[linfinster]

I have no problem with the one "6 figure" staffing after midnight so long as they invest in a new system of check and balances. Perhaps timed responses, movement sensors or even an implanted taser might motivate the guy to get the rest he needs to do his job!! 6 figures ... that's disgusting!

[linfinster]

I have no problem with the one "6 figure" staffing after midnight so long as they invest in a new system of check and balances. Perhaps timed responses, movement sensors or even an implanted taser might motivate the guy to get the rest he needs to do his job!! 6 figures ... that's disgusting!

[texbelle123]

Ronald Reagan started it when he cut back the number of air controllers we had. We've had misses and near misses since. We've known something like this - or worse - was going to happen and we've known for 30 year.
What the heck is the NTSB going to investigate? The fact that we have too few controllers, that we work them too many hours, that the amount of air traffic has increased and yet we haven't increased the number of air traffic controllers?
Yeah, good luck with that one. It'll be a finger pointing toward the very people who are paying the price for a former politician's budget cutting tactics... the very same tactics being used (again) by the same Republican party that percipitated the need for them to begin with.

[uersyr]

And no way someone at the airport couldn't be called and have that person run up to the tower and bang on the door? Where's airport management here?

[patocc123]

If you are using this story to attack republicans or democrats you might as well hang a sign around your neck that says "Lemming". But hey you probably already know that and do not care as long as you can continue your masters propaganda to do only one thing. Thats to make the other political party look worse than yours.

[123xmarksthespot]

You have to admit there is some irony at this happening at Reagan airport.