Two more incidents of air traffic controllers asleep on the job

[n2doc]

FAA suspends Boeing Field controller, adds tower staff

The Federal Aviation Administration has suspended an air-traffic controller who fell asleep during his shift at Boeing Field, in Seattle, and added a second controller on the midnight shift at 27 towers that previously had just one controller during during that shift, the agency announced Wednesday.

The FAA said it decided to add a second controller at airports after a Wednesday-morning incident where a controller at Reno-Tahoe International Airport fell asleep and was out of communication for about 16 minutes. A medical flight trying to land with an ill patient during this time was in communication with the Northern California Terminal Radar Approach Control and landed safely, the FAA said. The agency has suspended the controller while it investigates the incident.

“Air traffic controllers are responsible for making sure aircraft safely reach their destinations,” FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said in a news release. “We absolutely cannot and will not tolerate sleeping on the job. This type of unprofessional behavior does not meet our high safety standards.”

The FAA already was reviewing policy in response to an incident last Month where two airplanes landed without clearance at Washington Reagan National Airport as the sole controller on duty slept.

more
http://blog.seattlepi.com/aerospace/2011/04/13/faa-suspends-boeing-field-controller-adds-27/

Maybe breaking their union and other cost cutting measures weren't such a good idea after all....

[n2doc]

1. kick n/t

[intheflow]

2. "Maybe breaking their union and other cost cutting measures weren't such a good idea after all...."

Please. They were just sucking corporate profits. A monkey could do their job.

/sarcasm