Air traffic controller slept on job in Reno

Krys T. Bart, President/CEO for the Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority, talks to the media Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at the airport about reports that the only air traffic controller at the airport fell asleep about 2 a.m. Wednesday morning while a medical aircraft was attempting to land. / Tim Dunn,AP Photo/The Gazette-Journal

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A medical flight with at least three people aboard was forced to land overnight without help from air traffic control after the lone controller on duty didn't respond to repeated contacts from the plane and airport staff, the chief executive of a Nevada airport said Wednesday.

The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that the controller was out of communication for approximately 16 minutes, and has been suspended while the FAA investigates.

It was at least the fourth incident this year at one of the nation's airports where an air traffic controller was found to have slept on the job at night, with the others occurring in Washington, D.C., Seattle, and Knoxville, Tenn..

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement he was "totally outraged" at the spate of sleeping-on-the-job incidents.

"This is absolutely unacceptable," LaHood said. "The American public trusts us to run a safe system."

The incidents have all occurred at airports where only one air traffic controller was on duty late at night. As a result, the FAA announced that it will "immediately...place an additional air traffic controller on the midnight shift at 27 control towers around the country that are currently staffed with only one controller during that time."

Reno-Tahoe International Airport chief Krys Bart told The Associated Press no one was hurt in the Reno incident about 2 a.m.

Bart said she was told one air traffic controller was on duty in the tower at the time.

In a highly publicized incident in late March, an air traffic controller at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., admitted falling asleep on the job.

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A follow-up investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration uncovered a second incident of an air traffic controller sleeping on the job in February during the midnight shift at McGhee Tyson Airport in Knoxville, Tenn.

The National Transportation Safety Board has opened its own investigation into the various incidents, and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has added yet another investigation.

The Piper Cheyenne plane involved in the Nevada incident is a twin engine turboprop with seating for five.

Airport staff heard the pilot trying to contact the tower and then tried to contact the tower themselves, Bart said.

"The pilot evaluated the airfield. The weather was clear. The aircraft did land without incident," she said.

It was not immediately clear where the flight was coming from.

Bart said the airport, which serves the Reno, Carson City and Lake Tahoe areas, opened a new air traffic control tower in October 2010.

She said the airport has three runways, including two with modern instrument landing and lighting systems.

The incidents come nearly five years after a fatal crash in Kentucky in which a controller was working alone. Investigators said the controller in Kentucky was most likely suffering from fatigue, although they placed responsibility for the crash that took 49 lives on the pilots.

On Monday, the world's largest commercial jet airliner clipped a much smaller commuter plane on a dark, wet tarmac at New York City's Kennedy Airport, spinning it like a toy as hundreds of passengers sat in both planes. No one was injured.

The two jets -- an Airbus A380 operated by Air France and a Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet -- were towed away after the collision around 8 p.m. Monday and will be inspected to determine the extent of their damage, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said.

[werntrouble]

We who are pilots all know that a tower doesn't need to be manned in order to land and takeoff. However, we know at what hours control towers are manned or unmanned based on information provided in our airport information guides. So, for me, the real issue here is that an FAA flight controller went to sleep and, subsequently, was incapable of controlling any actions at that airport. He/she could have done this at any time during the night and even in between giving flight or taxi instructions. THIS IS A VERY SERIOUS MATTER and MUST BE TREATED AS SUCH. I strongly agree with the decision by the FAA to immediately staff the nations busiest airports with two controllers during the "graveyard" shift. All other airports should revert to uncontrolled status during those same hours, i.e., no controller is on duty, therefore pilots follow well-known procedures for takeoff, landing and taxi operations at an uncontrolled airport. I further recommend that airport managers implement procedures to evaluate the fitness for duty of flight controllers -- are they working multiple jobs, any medical history of narcolepsy, any evidence of fatique, etc.?

[thanksgreed]

It's so sad that workers are being stomped into the ground and blamed for problems caused by the exploitation of those REALLY at fault for the new and sanctioned slavery.

[VA_Jill]

Basically you have to have two controllers on at all times. Of course the FAA doesn't want to pay them. However, when you are messing with people's lives and safety, you can't leave it to one person...not in the middle of the night, not any time.

[catmomtx]

FAA, hmmm.... are those government jobs? I think some people here think there are to many government employees. And lord knows they think government employees are already paid way too much. Messing with people's lives and safety? What, Republicans don't think that matters considering all the programs they insisted on being cut in the 11 budget and what Paul Ryan, the Republican budget Czar wants. I mean I'm just sayin.......

[erasmus111]

This is what happens when people are over worked. Too many hours, not enough people to do the job.

[erasmus111]

And the same thing is happening with the pilots. They go into these "micro" sleeps.

[erasmus111]

No. That isn't the only reason it happens. I have read numerous articles on this subject. Small piddle ass airports aren't the only ones where people are sleeping on the job. They don't have enough people for the job, so individuals are doing longer hours. Not enough breaks in between.

[th9876]

You can thank Ronnie Reagan for starting this disaster.

[bradkt1]

Just stop it! STOP IT! STOP IT WITH THE PRO-UNION B.S.! Virtually all of the controllers that Reagan fired would be retired by now. The entire ATC system and the philosophy of air traffic control has changed over the last three decades and many of the controllers who the FAA rehired couldn't cut it in the new ATC environment. Finally, the FAA should have been able to replace the controllers that were fired 28 years ago.

I am no fan of Ronald Reagan and never voted for him, but you simply cannot blame him for the utter stupidity of FAA management in assigning one controller to a graveyard shift at a tower 28 years or so later.

Bottom line: the controller who fell asleep is solely to blame for his own actions and FAA management is solely to blame for its own stupidity in understaffing the graveyard shifts at towers.

[justsane-2009]

i like to think that union negotiators would never have approved having a) one controller on duty at a time; or b) having controllers work the sorts of erratic shifts that lead to the irregular sleep schedules that seem to have played a role in each of these problems. personally, i have no problem blaming st. ronnie.

[jscott418-21618367473133020464]

Just another government agency that fails at protecting consumers. The transportation secretary should be ashamed to admit it's a surprise.