Air traffic controllers forced to work through carbon monoxide poisoning

[atommom]

Next time you fly, this should make you feel a bit easier: FAA controlers were getting carbon monoxide poisoning in the control room around Newark and once they started getting ill, the management, would not 1) let the workers leave the room, 2) let the workers call 911, 3) let the fire department in. Afterwards some employees when to the hospital where carbon monoxide poisoning was confirmed. Employees had trouble thinking, were sleepy, and naseaous throughout their shift. Oh, and the FAA doesn't deny any of this, it's all in log. Ridiculous? It couldn't get more so. Sen. Schumer says it best, "the procedures that your managers followed…are unacceptable and defy comprehension". This is from a letter Chuck Schumer wrote to the director of the FAA complaining about the CO leak and the facility management. Word is that management wouldn't let anyone leave because there were no back-up controlers due to FAA budget cuts. Smart.

Feel like writing your own letter? Send it to your congressional rep and the FAA administrator. Here's the address:
Marion Blakey
Administrator
Federal Aviation Administration
800 Independence Ave SW
Washington DC 20591

http://angrytoxicologist.com/?p=47

[crikkett]

1. 1000s of people in the sky were kept alive by these poor controllers

I'm very sorry but there weren't backups, there wasn't emergency equipment. This was literally a life and death situation. The problem was cuts to the FAA.

I wonder where the carbon monoxide came from and how they stopped the leak.

[atommom]

2. Very true, and I'm sure the bosses felt they had no choice.

But keeping them in there when they had CO poisoning was very dangerous for everyone concerned.

[hobbit709]

3. If it happened during cold weather

It was probably the heating unit.