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FAA to add more controllers after latest sleeping incident in Reno
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Reno-Tahoe International Airport chief Krys Bart talks to the media Wednesday about an air traffic controller at the airport sleeping while a medical aircraft with a patient was attempting to land. Tim Dunn/The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Updated: Apr. 14, 2011 | 6:37 a.m.
Federal transportation officials are moving to add air traffic controllers in Reno and at 26 other towers nationwide after an air ambulance carrying a critically ill patient was forced to land without guidance from a sleeping air traffic controller at Reno-Tahoe International Airport early Wednesday.
The FAA said the controller could not be reached for 16 minutes in the latest of an embarrassing string of air traffic control lapses.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said he is "totally outraged by these incidents. This is absolutely unacceptable.
"The American public trusts us to run a safe system," LaHood said. "Safety is our No. 1 priority, and I am committed to working 24/7 until these problems are corrected."
The additional controllers will staff overnight shifts where only one controller now works.
FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt echoed LaHood's remarks, saying he "will not tolerate sleeping on the job. This type of unprofessional behavior does not meet our high safety standards."
Reno-Tahoe International Airport chief Krys Bart said three people were on board the five-seat Piper Cheyenne air ambulance when it landed at about 2 a.m. Wednesday. The FAA said the pilot, reportedly en route from Mammoth Lakes, Calif., was assisted by a California-based regional air traffic controller.
The FAA said the Reno tower controller has been suspended pending the outcome of an investigation. Federal officials said the 29-year-old controller has been an FAA employee for 18 months.
Speaking on the Senate floor, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the pilot circled the airport several times.
"He tried to call the tower not once or twice, but seven times. The controller slept through every one of those calls," Reid said. "This shouldn't happen in Nevada. It shouldn't happen anywhere in the country. It shouldn't happen to any airplane. And it certainly shouldn't happen to an air ambulance."
But Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, questioned the move to add controllers at smaller airports.
"Only in the federal government would you double up on workers, averaging $161,000 per year in salary and benefits, that aren't doing their job," Mica said. "This increase in staffing, when there is little to no traffic, also misdirects our resources and focus away from congested air traffic control facilities." The incident comes on the heels of a March 23 lapse at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., where two jetliners landed without guidance after the sole air traffic controller fell asleep during an overnight shift. The two pilots managed to land safely after they contacted a regional radar facility and were told to treat Reagan National as an uncontrolled airport.
In the wake of the Reagan National incident the FAA ordered that the tower there always have at least two controllers on duty.
Similarly after the Reagan National incident, two controllers were temporarily assigned to the overnight shift at the Reno-Tahoe airport, which like other smaller airports often had just one controller on duty. After a few days, until new procedures were implemented, the FAA reverted to having one controller in the Reno-Tahoe tower during the overnight shift. But as a result of Wednesday morning's incident, staffing again was increased to two controllers on the overnight shift.
Reno-Tahoe International is the 60th busiest commercial airport in the nation, serving more than 4.43 million passengers per year on eight commercial airlines.
McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas is the eighth busiest airport in terms of passengers serving nearly 40 million last year, according to airport spokesman Chris Jones.
Since March 1, the FAA has had 47 controllers working at McCarran and 61 at the Las Vegas Terminal Radar Approach Control, or TRACON facility.
Las Vegas TRACON and McCarran's tower each have two controllers on duty during the overnight shift. Additionally, one supervisor is on duty for both facilities located in the same building, bringing the total to five people on duty.
Babbitt and Paul Rinaldi, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said his group will launch a nationwide "call to action" on air traffic control safety and professionalism.
The FAA is reviewing the nation's air traffic control system to resolve staffing and scheduling issues.
The review will include investigations of other lapses.
In February an air traffic controller was found sleeping on the job during the midnight shift at McGhee Tyson Airport in Knoxville, Tenn.
A controller at Seattle's Boeing Field-King County International Airport fell asleep during the April 11 morning shift. The controller was monitoring local traffic while two others were working aircraft that were arriving and departing. The controller already was facing disciplinary action for twice falling asleep during an early evening shift on Jan. 6.
Two other controllers were suspended for a March 29 incident at Preston Smith International Airport in Lubbock, Texas. During that midnight shift, they failed to hand off control of an aircraft departing the Fort Worth Air Route Center and could not be reached by other controllers.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee have announced investigations of the air traffic control lapses.
Earlier Wednesday, Reid said the Reno lapse shows the need for additional funding.
"My office has contacted the Federal Aviation Administration to make it clear that this situation is completely unacceptable and to request that there be a minimum of two air traffic control personnel in the tower at all times,'' the Senate majority leader said. "This is yet another reason we must reauthorize the Aviation Jobs Bill to make important safety enhancements and oppose the House version of the legislation that slashes resources FAA needs to keep passengers safe."
Members of the House transportation committee said they planned to hold a private meeting with FAA leaders Thursday to discuss controller errors and incidents of sleeping on the job.
The federal air traffic control work force is undergoing massive turnover that will take several years to complete. It is the legacy of labor strife in 1981, when the controllers went on strike and President Ronald Reagan fired them all.
The thousands of people brought in to replace those strikers are now reaching retirement age. Controllers are required to retire at 56, although they may retire earlier if they have 25 years of service. The FAA began replacing those in the retirement bubble in 2005, and two years ago the agency set a goal of hiring 17,000 controllers by 2017.
Sen. John Rockefeller, D-W.Va., who chairs the Senate transportation committee, said he contacted Babbitt about the Reno lapse on Wednesday.
"I just got off the phone with the FAA and told the administrator that I am sick of this," Rockefeller said. "We can't have an aviation system where some of the people responsible for safety are literally asleep at the switch. This has to stop."
Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault, The Associated Press and The Washington Post contributed to this report.
The Federal Aviation Administration has announced plans to increase Air Traffic Control staffing at these airports where solo controllers now work during some hours:
Akron-Canton, OH (CAK)
Allegheny, PA (AGC)
Andrews Air Force Base, MD (ADW)
Burbank, CA (BUR)
Duluth, MN (DLH)
DuPage, IL (DPA)
Fargo, ND (FAR)
Fort Lauderdale, FL (FLL)
Fort Lauderdale Executive, FL (FXE)
Fort Worth Meacham, TX (FTW)
Grant County, WA (MWH)
Kansas City Downtown, MO (MKC)
Manchester, NH (MHT)
Omaha, NE (OMA)
Ontario, CA (ONT)
Reagan National, VA (DCA)
Reno (RNO)
Richmond, VA (RIC)
Sacramento, CA (SMF)
San Diego, CA (SAN)
San Juan, PR (SJU)
Terre Haute, IN (HUF)
Teterboro, NJ (TEB)
Tucson, AZ (TUS)
Willow Run, MI (YIP)
Windsor Locks, CT (BDL)
Youngstown, OH (YNG)
SOURCE: Federal Aviation Administration
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The reason the controllers are falling asleep are:
1) crazy schedules that guarantee sleep deprived controllers
2) no work to do
We don't need to double staff at towers that don't have enough to do to keep controllers from dozing off as it is. More towers need to be shut down at night.
This may be shocking to many, but pilots mostly do not rely on tower controllers to give them directions on how to land. If you are approaching a non towered airport, or a towered airport after hours, when an area controller directs you to change to the local frequency you are then talking to other pilots in the area which, at 2AM, is going to be nobody.
Controllers falling asleep isn't a safety issue, it's an overstaffing issue. That Piper Cheyenne could have landed safely 15 minutes earlier if the tower had officially closed. No problem.
IIRC Henderson Airport's tower closes at 8PM. The automated information tells pilots the tower is closed, Las Vegas Approach knows the tower is closed. Everyone changes over to the appropriate communication protocols, no problem.
More controllers does not make for more safety when they don't have enough to do in the first place.
Joe Biden fell asleep on the job. Number 2 Federal Employee.
These Controllers are are just following the example of our leaders.
How about firing them ?
I think Rep John Mica R (FLA) needs to do his homework and check the government salary charts. No way a 29 year old air traffic controller is making $161,000 a year even if you include benefits. For one, I'm sick of all the mis-information put out there by our elected representatives. It's bad enough that the news media doesn't check their facts, but I expect more from our elected officials who are supposed to be representing us. It is inflammatory remarks such as these that create anger in the American public and they are totally false, false, false! Why don't we figure Mr. Mica's salary and benefits and ask him why he hasn't been doing his job of providing a budget for, let me see, over six months. Could it be possible that maybe Mr. Mica was asleep at his watch!!! I say the entire Congress has been asleep for a long time!
Come on people... Many times a person falling asleep is beyond his ability to control. It is a physical need not open to choice and certainly not always a sign of laziness. If a person becomes fatiqued, not only does his reaction time and reasoning become impaired, his ability to function falls rather quickly. You cannot expect a lone controller to stay alert unless the person has had plenty of good quality rest before he starts his shift and has adapted to his assigned working hours sufficiently. The solution...Require additional controllers to be on duty at night so that if one becomes unexpectedly fatiqued, he can be replaced for a time until he can return alert and rested. Sometimes all it takes is 30 minutes of relaxation or sleep. This is the way we have done it in airliner cockpits for decades on long-haul flights. There's no problem as long as crew members work together. Placing a lone controller in a tower at nighttime is lunacy anyway! As a retired airline captain, I prefer three pilots be aboard on long-hauls so that one pilot can properly rest in a berth while the other two fly. No problem!
Krakowski goes under the bus. ATO now under the supervision of WHO???? David Grizzle? It is time that accidents and fatalities should be at least as important. The GA accident rate will result in 600 fatal injuries this year, just like last year. I don't think that is less important yet Randy hasn't said much about that. Pilots fly airplanes, controllers don't. They help keep aviation safe but the ultimate responsibility rests with the pilot. Even if he is given direction by FAA he still has the authority to deviate if he feels that his or his passengers safety is in jeopardy. Randy isn't saying much about the horrendous weekend that just took place and some folks died in the aftermath. A controller sleeping isn't a good thing but smoking holes in the ground would appear to me to be far more urgent an issue. Mahybe Randy should submit his resignation to Ray LaHood. Just a thought. We did find a sacrificial lamb. Bye Bye Hank. Watch closely now, we may see Mr. Krakowski employed by a company with ties to someone in the FAA administration. Lots of questions but not a lot of answers.
Adding additional staff will be expensive and unnecessary. Now 2 people will be able to sleep. I've worked graveyard for years. The most effective way to ensure someone stays awake in a sensitive work environment, is to require security check calls to be made at frequent intervals. If a check call is missed, the person reported to can call them back. If no one responds, a physical welfare check can be conducted. This works fine in Jails and prisons.
I tell you sarge I don't know how all those guys got their throats cut. I was on guard duty but I was sleeping so don't blame me.
I found a guard sleeping once. I took his rifle a few hundred yards away and tossed it into the back of a passing truck. I still feel good about that.
Ronald Reagan would have handled it differently.
Sounds a little late for that, how do I get a job at a ATC? I need several hours of paid sleep!
I've managed 24x7 operations for decades - anyone who can routinely work the graveyard shift is abnormal. Our bodies just aren't designed for it.
Pilots routinely land in airports late at night when the tower is closed. The absence of a controller is NOT a big risk factor at midnight.
While I am not a fan of government employees, I don't think it is fair to get hysterical over these guys nodding off, given the working conditions. The answer isn't to double up on staffing, but to install a positive control alarm that requires the operator to affirm his status every 15 minutes - and start dialing supervisor / airport police / fire phone numbers when there is no response.