The air traffic controller involved in the radio silence incident at Reagan National Airport fell asleep as planes approached the airport for landing, the National Transportation Safety Board says.
The controller, who had 20 years experience, 17 of those at Reagan, told officials he had fallen asleep for a period of time while on duty, according to an NTSB statement. The controller was working his fourth consecutive overnight shift (10p-6a.) The NTSB says it has opened an investigation.
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I work 6pm to 6 am every third week 5 days a week. Wish I could work 4 eight hour shifts.
3rd shift is a killer. The human body is not designed to be up at night no matter what your sleep schedule is. Study after study has proven that around 4am the average human is susceptible to micronaps no matter how tough they think they are. What's more important here is why there weren't two people working.
Hmmm... The article makes this sound like it wasn't his normal shift. If he's been doing this for 20 years, he's at least in his forties or fifties. It is not so easy to adjust to a sudden shift change once you have been doing another routine for 20 years. The guy should keep his job but his bosses should reconsider shuffling shifts around on the controllers.
It's ironic, the airport named after the president who broke the air traffic controllers union, is having problems like this. #karmawin
While it appears that the controller in this incident might have been at fault for falling alseep, we are forgetting one important fact here and that is that the pilots of these two aircraft should not have landed at a controlled airfield without an ATC clearance. They were actually in violation of the Federal Air Regulations (FAR's). Unless there was an emergency situation aboard these aircraft, they should have executed a missed approach and contacted Approach Control for further instructions.
Horse-hockey!
If you are really a former controller, do you remember anything at all about Lost Communications procedures??
Other articles are saying the first aircraft did go around, and after that the approach controller treated it as uncontrolled.
So, this guy gets fired because his boss forced him to work four straight graveyards? Bull--. These folks are routinely forced to work 18- to 24-hour shifts and then we expect everything to go peachy.
In over 30 years as an airline pilot I can't think of one time that landing in the middle of the night without a control on duty in any way jeopardized the safety of a flight on which I served as a crew member. This is NOT a big deal.
RWB – Hopefully you fly better than you read. You do not land at a CONTROLLED airfield without a clearance while the tower is open.
And formerATC, if the tower is unmanned, that makes it an uncontrolled field and the TRACON would ensure separation (one in/one out). I was a controller too. There was no danger here
Maybe the guy normally works days. 4 overnight shifts, sitting still with no human interaction would make anyone of you fall asleep.
I have worked overnights, but there was always physical labor to keep me awake.
FAA screwed up on this one, there should have been a second ATC in that tower. Until you live in this guys shoes don't judge him.
It might also help to know that planes land with no ATC all the time, this guy doesn't press some magical button to help the pilot land, he lets the pilot know if there are any other planes in approach or in his way. While his job is important, none of the passengers were in a life or death situation.
maybe no one 'did anything wrong'...maybe all necessary precautions were taken, but perhaps this was a 'once in a million' occurance associated with human error...it would be a kneejerk reaction either to fire the guy who fell asleep or to automatically create another ATC position without first conducting a full investigation
Okay, so he was working 10-6...for the 4th night...so what!!! He was supposed to be sleeping during the day, right? I work 5 days noon to 8p with 2 days off then 5 days 8p to 4a with 3 days off then it starts all over again and you don't see me or the people I work with falling asleep–and some of you wonder why there's going to be an investigation? Yeah, I feel bad he was being overworked, but there's really no excuse *shrug*
People just amaze me. They really do.
Nobody's lives were endangered. The planes were on radar with the approach controllers and the tower's only job is to clear them to land, not to "guide them" as some reports have suggested. Pilots land at uncontrolled airports all the time and it's no big deal. There are procedures for approaching the airport, entering the traffic pattern and announcing your position and intentions to other aircraft (there weren't any in this case) and then you just land the stupid plane.
Yeah the guy fell asleep and that was a dumbsh!t thing to do, but it's no different than any of us dozing off at our desk for 5 minutes, especially at a quiet airport in the middle of the night. If there are any real id1ots in the story, it's whoever decided one guy in the tower was sufficient. That one guy is going to have to take a leak, eat, whatever. There ought to be someone there to relieve him.
Wrong Matt...you falling asleep flipping burgers is not the same as falling asleep while directing air traffic. No pickles on my next one.
LOL
Yes, this air traffic controller fell asleep. Big mistake cause it could endanger lives. I say 50 50. Half this person's fault and the other half is the shift system's fault. If he knew he was that tired cause of the graveyard shift for 4 straight days...maybe this person should had called in saying that he's not fit to work today, but chose to work. On the other hand, i think the shift system is at fault too. ATC is a very stressful job cause everything needs to done perfectly or it could cause air collisions or other accidents. Maybe they should change the shift slightly. Maybe don't have a person working 4 straight nights in a row. Something like that. Have a system that the atc people are always well rested. And have 3 people working together...look out for each other. The aviation industry is tough. Lots of times the pilots are over worked....some aircraft maintenance mechanics work straight 7 nights of graveyard shifts. Human factors kick in...and mistakes will happen. I do hope this ATC guy doesn't get fired or anything...but yea i wouldn't doubt that this person would be suspended for a few days.
No, everything doesn't have to be done perfectly, the system is designed to be fault tolerant. There are about 8 layers of failures that all have to happen to cause an ATC related accident. Controller falling asleep is one failure, but same could have happened if his radios got jammed or failed, or he had a heart attack, or power failure and generators didn't kick in. In this case the pilots go to the previous controller and that controller can treat it as uncontrolled and handle clearances in and out to ensure separation. This situation wasn't dangerous, just embarassing.
I'm no math whiz, but I think if he worked 8 hours, that leaves 16 hours during which he could have slept for 6-8 hours. Responsibility fail. He wasn't asked to do anything superhuman.
The shifts usually rotate through the week, so sometimes you work 8, have 8 off, then work 8 again (overnight shift).
"Fourth consecutive overnight shift"? So I guess he doesn't know how to sleep during the day? He doesn't get a pass on this. There are doctors who work night shifts at hospitals...imagine if your granny needed help while her doctor slept...you'd sue the hospital for everything it's worth.
You are completely overreacting to this.
Matt, come work for me. If you fell asleep while I was paying you, you'd be out on your butt. No, I'm not overreacting. He was asleep while being paid...not part of his job description. Not to mention the pilots who were attempting to land. I don't know what ghetto you crawled out of, but most people actually stay awake at their jobs.