FAA adds to night shift, hopes controllers stay awake

Last month, the only flight controller at Washington’s Reagan National Airport (DCA) fell asleep during the overnight shift and two commercial jets landed on their own. The FAA responded by suspending the sleepy controller and ordering two controllers on duty during the overnight shift at Reagan National. Now, after other controllers were found sleeping on duty, the FAA will put an extra one on the midnight shift at 27 control towers that currently have only have one on duty at that time.

“I am totally outraged by these incidents. This is absolutely unacceptable,” said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to the Associated Press. “The American public trusts us to run a safe system. Safety is our No. 1 priority, and I am committed to working 24/7 until these problems are corrected.”

It sounds like there might not be much sleep for those investigating these incidents any time soon either.

Monday, at Seattle’s Field-King County International (BFI) a controller fell asleep resulting in his suspension as well. That controller was already facing disciplinary action for sleeping on two separate occasions while on the early evening shift in January. Wednesday, at Reno-Tahoe International Airport (RNO), a medical flight landed on its own when they could not raise the airport’s tower for 16 minutes.

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

These incidents, perhaps the result ongoing concerns about those who control our skies, should really be no big surprise though.

Being an air traffic controller has long been a stressful, tiring job. There are three big challenges an air traffic controller faces every day says stuckmic.com. The complexity of traffic, working long shifts with no break, and dealing with air traffic during bad weather.

Falling asleep helps on the “long shifts without a break” problem but does not help the other two very much. Even awake, air traffic controllers have their share of problems

“In the 12 months ending on Sept. 30, 2010, there were 1,889 operation errors – which usually means aircraft coming too close together, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. That was up from 947 such errors the year before and 1,008 the year before that” reports ABCNews.

Let’s hope the FAA is addressing those other issues as well.

Rural flight funding could end under GOP reign: House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee criticizes subsidies

A proposal discussing rural flight funding will be introduced today by House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman John Mica. It could end the $200 million federal program that subsidizes rural air service by 2013, coverage in Bloomberg states.

The proposal, part of a $59.7 billion package, is part of a funding plan for the Federal Aviation Administration. Republican lawmakers such as Mica have criticized the government subsidies of rural air services like Essential Air Service, saying that the government “can no longer afford the program at a time of high deficits.”

The program was created by Congress in 1978 to combat small airlines losing flights as a result of degregulation. Congress’ 17 temporary extensions of the current law expire on March 31 and disputes in both the House adn Senate have prevented any long-term extension, over issues ranging from how many flights from the western U.S. should be allowed into Ronald Regan National Airport to individual taxes and subsidy funding for specific states and airlines.A $34.6 billion Senate version of the bill, which protects Essential Air Service, is pending on the floor of that body. The Senate bill is two-year legislation while the House version funds the FAA for four years.

[Flickr via keithreifsnyder]

Loaded gun makes it through airport security

Ben Stiller’s friend on “There’s Something About Mary” wouldn’t let Ben go out with a loaded gun, and perhaps that’s a lesson we should all take to heart. But should you accidentally take your loaded firearm through airport security, you might not get caught. The TSA seems to be great at detecting your shampoo or engagement ring, but agents failed to detect a gun this past Sunday.

According to CNN, Gregory Scott Hinkle went through airport security at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport with a loaded weapon. After he made it through the checkpoint, he remembered that he had the gun, and returned to security to disclose it.

Rather than commend Hinkle for being honest, airport security instead called the police, who charged Hinkle with the crime of “possessing or transporting a firearm into an air carrier terminal where prohibited,” a misdemeanor. Hinkle was released that day, but is scheduled to appear in court on April 2.

The TSA claims that this incident is “not a systemic problem in that our testing indicates TSOs [Transportation Security Officers] have a very high success rate at finding firearms.”


It seems there’s no shortage of people who hate the TSA. Here are some other reasons to be annoyed with the agency:

What to do?