Air Traffic Controller at D.C. Airport Fell Asleep

By U.S. News Staff

March 24, 2011 RSS Feed Print

An air traffic controller at Washington D.C.'s Reagan National Airport reportedly fell asleep on the job Wednesday night, leaving two jet pilots in the dark as they were trying to land their aircrafts. One pilot was able to communicate with a regional controller and pulled the jet from 400 feet to 1,000 feet, circling the airport before landing safely a few minutes past midnight. Around that time, another aircraft from Chicago was coming into range.

While the airport usually has two traffic controllers working during the day, only one controller works the overnight shift. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood ordered the Federal Aviation Administration to add a second controller to midnight traffic at Reagan. "It is not acceptable to have just one controller in the tower managing air traffic in this critical air space," he said.  The incident at Reagan garnered national attention because it is located just a few miles from the Pentagon, the White House, and the U.S. Capitol.


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www.kittycatchats.com

NOW, here are my thoughts, have the FAA provide naps and snack time, if it is good enough for Kindergarten children then the why not for Air Traffic Controllers? Throw in a little mat and blanket due to union regulations, and problem fixed!

http://www.kittycatchats.com/search/label/My%20Mewings

mr KC of KY 8:31PM April 16, 2011

First I want to say that as a former controller, there is no excuse for falling asleep on the job. Now that I've stated that, has no one ever made a mistake on THEIR job? I understand the safety issues involved here, but to say this controller should be fired is not addressing the issues at stake here. Controller fatigue has been an issue for YEARS, but is still not being addressed. Antiquated equipment plus an antiquated system are not being addressed. These are problems that need to be addressed today, not after something happens.

I must also express my outrage at passengers who are bad-mouthing controllers when they don't have the foggiest idea as to how difficult this job is. If you know the difficulties, then you can bad-mouth this profession. A profession where EVERYDAY thousands of flights land without any incident because of dedicated controllers who make this system work. Is there EVER any reporting on this? Of course not! Because NOTHING bad happened! Only the bad gets reported! I understand that is how the media works, but that doesn't mean that it is right nor fair.

I personally hope they give this controller another chance. To work for 20 years without any incident is a testament to how this controller approached the job. And to how well the job was done. To have this incident be the end of an otherwise good career is a mistake, in my opinion.

plumfun of CA 6:08PM March 26, 2011

an airport already named for a perfectly good ex-president, this wouldn't have happened, because PATCO (remember them?) had work rules that insured their was sufficient staff in the tower to handle emergencies. But then some cowboy named Reagan (a former union president) decided it would be a good idea to "break the union." Ironic, don't you think?

Rick of VA 6:10PM March 25, 2011

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