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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...Not sure why everyone's saying to cut the guy some slack. Medical residents work 30-36 hour shifts, allowed 6 – 8 hrs of off time, then we have to come back for another 30-36 hour shift. If we fall asleep, we're at fault. This guy apparently had the safety of hundreds of ppl in his hands...
You medical personnel may not fall asleep on the job...but due to lack of rest...it sure has made some in that profession do the unthinkable...like AMPUTATING THE WRONG LEG!
I have been on overnight shifts for four years. The change was effortless. I blame the human. It is called going to bdd whan you get home.....duh!!!
it's different when you're not always on the night shift dummy. try being on night shift and then the next day going to 10am to 6pm. that's the type of bs atc's have to put up with. why do you think they went on strike 30 years ago when reagan fired 12,000 of them?
Federal Law requires 2 controllers at a time, not one. This is another classic example of MGT passing the buck to the employee. If an accident occurred, I smell a lawsuit against MGT.
Whatever his reason for him falling asleep, I assure you that thanks to NATCA (atc union) he won't even get a slap on the wrist! NATCA is notorious for never taking responsability for anything and is one of the worst organizations ever created. They are one of the constant bottlenecks within our air traffic organization both on the ground and in the air. They should privatize the entire ATC network, and push the whole lot (NATCA) on the street. The union members are NEVER held accountable for their actions!
Nice uninformed comment, Jeff. From my experience most of those who have an axe to grind with NATCA are FAA managers. Anyway, it sounds like the person involved wasn't an air traffic controller represented by NATCA. He was an FAA SUPERVISOR. We'll see if an FAA MANAGER is held accountable for his actions.
Wow, you must be a stupervisor. Your facts are so twisted that you sound even more retarded. First, here's a fact, the "controller" who fell asleep was a SUPERVISOR not a front line controller. Supervisors are management folk and not protected by NATCA. Therefor genius NATCA has absolutely no part in this. Maybe it should be the management folk that are that are pushed out to the street. But I'm sure that since you've just found out it was a manager and not a controller who fell asleep, you'll change your position. Go sit in your hole.
Jeff I have never seen a supe held accountable for even the most egregious actions. Including driving a young woman to suicide and impregnating trainees underneath them. Yet seen controllers fired for not checking the right box on a routine form for information the FAA already had. It was a supe on duty and nothing will happen to him. Why do you hate NATCA so much? We actually do the work and got you an undeserved raise during reclass.
I guess Dou@che bag is not allowed here.
Bottom line, 2 planes landed safely with a sleeping ATC, with results like that it would seem rather than adding one we should have none!
Best comment!
Hey AK there are more mistakes made in a hospital by doctors and nurses than in the air or tower. the difference is noone makes a stink out of it. maybe working those hours might have something to do with that. maybe you should consider sneeking in a nap whilst working. might save a life.
Wishful thinking...naps were always a fantasy never a reality
People actually DO make a stink out of it when a resident falls asleep on the job, is tired, and makes a mistake. It's called a lawsuit. That's why our medical malpractice is through the roof. I'd love to sneak in a nap if I could, but we can't. When you have 30 patients during a shift, it's a bit difficult to nap with your pager going off every 5 minutes.
At hundreds of pharmacies across America there is often only one pharmacist on duty during the overnight shift and they are sometimes the only one there. They almost always do 12 hr shifts with seven on and seven off. Think about that and hospital error rates are higher than those in the airline industry.
I have always felt the hours a resident has to work are crazy and non-productive. It does not make you a better Doctor in the long run, and opens up opportunity for an inexperienced, yet promising young Doctor to ruin his life or some ones. This hazing practice needs to be done away with.
These young, well, younger than me. That generation can't stay awake without a game controller in hand. I worked in Traffic control, I mean real vehicle traffic, you know, hand programming signal controllers in the middle of the night for 15 years with just 2 people to cover 24 counties. Believe me that's a lot of vehicles in 24 hours. That being said, do you get tired, you bet. So what's the answer? Stay the F___ awake. You knew this from the get go. If you care enough about paying your bills and the welfare of your family YOU do your job period. Grow some nads and man up already. If you have a problem staying up during certain hours find another job.
Is he black, white or hispanic? If he is white he will definitely be fired. Just saying....
if he was black it was because of slavery.. he fell asleep..
Isn'nt there a limit on how many graveyard-shift these people are allowed to work?
No limit on any shifts. I was on call 7 days a week for 15 years. After that I said there is a better way. I completed my degree and now have a Engineering Firm.
John, The limit is 6 in a row. The problem is switching from a 7:00am-3:pm to a 10:00pm-6:00am to a 3:00pm-11:00pm shift. The body does not adjust well. Especially after 27 years. If a controller could work straight mids his sleep pattern could adjust, but his skills would deteriorate. Like a supervisor who doesn't actually work traffic, but just assigns breaks to real controllers. Those NATCA guys.
CNN whose side are you on? fourth consecutive night shift? Does this dumb airport has its controllers rotating shifts? It takes the body some time to adjust from dayshift to nightshift. They need to investigate their scheduling and manner of rotations. Further they should limit shifts to 4 hours during the night.
I wonder what military schedules are like.
Military schedules vary at each base. Where I work, we have a week of day shifts, followed by a week of afternoon shifts, switched between two crews. There are a handful that work a float shift, which has them working part of the day with each crew.