A second air-traffic controller has been found sleeping on the job at night — this time intentionally. And the government said Wednesday he’s being fired for it. The Federal Aviation Administration said the unnamed controller slept for five hours intentionally during the midnight shift on Feb. 19 in Knoxville, Tenn.
It’s the second incident in as many months that an FAA controller fell asleep during a midnight shift. A supervisor working alone at Washington’s Reagan National Airport fell asleep for at least 24 minutes shortly after midnight on March 23. In the incident at McGhee Tyson Airport in Knoxville, a controller working in a radar room responsible for guiding planes in a roughly 50-mile radius around the airport was unresponsive for five hours, the FAA said.
Another controller working at the airport’s tower was able to monitor the seven aircraft that flew into the airspace during that time, the agency said in a statement. All of the aircraft landed safely. “The FAA will not tolerate this type of unprofessional and inappropriate behavior,” the statement said. The agency is conducting a nationwide review of staffing at air-traffic facilities during midnight shifts as a result of the recent incidents.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association union is representing the unnamed controller in disciplinary proceedings, spokesman Doug Church said. The FAA said it is “taking steps to fire” the controller, but has not done so yet.
Can we get these guys a stronger coffee FFS?
One word: Redbull.
If only the world’s other problems were as easy to solve as this one.
Or … perhaps the government should force them to take uppers in order to help them focus. This worked well in. THX 1138.
While I agree with any employee being fired for sleeping on the job, it isn’t that big a deal for the airplanes involved. Planes fly in and out of uncontrolled airports every day (and night).
If these guys have so few planes to work the FAA really should be looking at shutting down the tower during the overnight shifts.
Honest question: not an excuse, but if this an overworked, underpaid guy working the graveyard shift, someone may argue that the solution is to either pay them more (making it less likely they’re overworked from extra jobs, for example), or require to have more than one at the time…
If only we had some kind of institutions that would oversee this sort of thing, require some sort of regulations, negotiate minimum pay rates, maximum hours, etc… Oh, wait I forgot, government never works and unions are evil. Got it! Fire the guy, and this sort of thing will magically never happen again.
If only we hadn’t spent $1Tn on airport security we could afford some safety
#3 – the story slight confuses two incidents.
The Washington one was tower ATC controlling final approach into an airport. Yes planes fly into uncontrolled airports, but only under VFR when you can see that it’s clear.
Although the pilots can (and did) land jets perfectly safely on their own – what they didn’t know: was another jet crossing the runway as they came into land? Was there construction equipment on the runway?
This is a less serious case, the FAA has little ATC stations scattered all over the country ‘controlling’ the planes that fly over their bit of territory at 30,000 feet on pre-arranged courses. It’s as pointless as having ATC on boats stationed ever 100mi over the Atlantic.
It would be safer, cheaper and more efficient if this was centralized in a few large centers rather than 1000s of 1 man operations. But that would be communism.
He was Napping for Humanity
If he was alone, if must have been at a small airport, ie. one that is unmanned at times.
Don’t get your knickers in a twist.
Good Dog! he was on a break
#4 Arpie – ATC is not exactly a low wage job. Starting salary is $45K and tops out at $160+ ! They have excellent health care and retirement plans. And, IIRC they get paid extra for working odd shifts. I doubt a new guy would be on a solo overnight shift so he was probably earning well above the minimum. I followed the link and could find no explanation for his “intentional” sleeping on the job. Some people (you for instance) think unions are the saviors of poor put-up workers.
I suggest to you, if this well-paid guy, knowing that lives depended on his performance, took a look at the clock and thought, what the hell? I’ll just take a few hours’ nap, then he absolutely deserves to be fired. That is MY interpretation of the “intentional” statement. He weighed his desire for a nap against the possible loss of life and decided a well-paid nap was more important.
Apparently Helicopter Parents have given birth to a Helicopter Government mentality.
For that little traffic, is control really needed? The controller should be promoted for realizing that self-policing or doing the equivalent of flashing the traffic lights is a more effective means of control.
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There were seven airplanes “safely” guided through the airspace… wow… by reading that one gets the impression that successfully using a four-way stop intersection is a miracle!
Am I the only one to think that a computer system could do these guys’ job better, and without falling asleep? I mean we’ve got computer technology that can drive a car down a highway, at high speed. And play Jeopardy against human player, and do well. Now I know that somebody is going to scream “Hackers” or “Wargames” (movies) and claim that some could go wrong that only a human operator will catch. Well that really applies to anything. Including the computer aided air traffic control systems, that already exists. And if there aren’t enough old movies to scare ya. I’m sure Hollywood will cook up some new ones to fit the occasion.
Let’s face it, the only thing keeping computer technology from greatly supplementing, if not completely replacing a human’s job, are some professional unions that protects their jobs thru lobbying. So doctors’, lawyers’, pilots’ jobs, can’t be computerized. But practically everyone else CAN. If you fix HVAC systems, there’s an “expert system” that can replace the experienced technician with a high school kid and a laptop. But need some legal advice, and only a human lawyer is allowed. Who do you think keeps all those volumes of law books from being digitized? Law practice will be dragged kicking and screaming, into the 21th century.
And why can’t Congress be replaced with a computer? Probably because bribes and junkets from lobbyists, wouldn’t mean a thing to computer software. And making it weigh lobbyists’ concerns 1.000 times more important that the rest of the State’s voters. Would be awfully obvious to any auditors. They keep wanting to computerize the voting polls. And who knows if that software hasn’t been rigged. But apply a similar “expert system” to government. Holy sh*t, no way! That could put all the fat cat politicians out of work. So you know they’re never going to allow that.
Well I got a little off track here. But I do believe an “expert system” could currently supplement, if not replace most air traffic controller jobs. And make much safer decisions, and not fall asleep, or missing incursions. But airports would rather spend millions on the ticket reservation computers, than updating the ATC system.
ATC unions have complained that budget cuts have prevented proper staffing of towers.