FAA: Air traffic controllers still not following the rules on sleeping
June 20, 2012, 02:55 pm
According to Federal Aviation Administration documents, nearly there have been nearly 4,000 violations of newer regulations intending to prevent air traffic controllers from falling asleep on duty.
In response to an air traffic controller falling asleep at Reagan National Airport last year, the FAA began a widespread investigation of airports and found that it was a much deeper problem, prompting it to put out regulations on the workers. Two pilots had to land jetliners late at night on their own because the controller supervisor, who was the only person present in the tower, fell asleep. Such incidents should spur those flying the planes to consider pilot life insurance.
Before the most recent report by the FAA, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood put an end to solo overnight shifts. Nearly a year ago, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association and the FAA announced an agreement to require air traffic controllers to tell their supervisor if they were too fatigued to work. They were also allowed to ask for time off if they were tired, given breaks that would let them rest and told they could even read on the job.
“A vast majority of employees are meeting the requirement for nine consecutive hours of rest between shifts,” said David Grizzle, FAA chief operating officer. “There are 12,000 shifts per month across the country, and in some cases, employees were [arriving] a few minutes early.”
There was much speculation last year about why so many air traffic controllers were falling asleep on the job. The Wall Street Journal reported that fatigue on midnight shifts could be due to the dark rooms necessary for the black backgrounds on controller display screens. Other countries have lighted backgrounds on their screens, allowing for high-lit environments, but this technology has been ignored here.
The FAA fired and suspended many of the air traffic controllers guilty of falling asleep on the job. Other incidents include a Knoxville, Tennessee, air controller who was working an overnight shift and made a bed for himself and slept for five hours during his shift while seven planes landed, and another at a Nevada airport who slept as a medical flight looked to land with a sick patient.
A more recent FAA memo showed repeated violations against LaHood’s rule, showing that more than half of air traffic controllers were reported violating this rule at least once. The FAA updated its timekeeping software to prevent any controllers from clocking in without nine hours of rest after their prior shift.
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