Page 218 - Controller News Today

The faas general counsel will assume that role. babbitt goes on to say in his statement, "we are conducting a top-to-bottom review of the way we operate our air traffic control system. we are all responsible and accountable for safety from senior faa leadership to the controller in the tower. we will concentrate on keeping the traveling public safe." carol, it is not just the air traffic controllers that are paying a price for all of this. >> you got that right. thank you very much. >> reporter:...

Trillion over 10 years. there was some hope among republican leaders that the fact that they saw that that was the real big war and this is maybe a small battle, that that would stem some of the defections. but 59 republicans is pretty big. were going to see the final vote. it might go up or down after we see the final tally. thats more than weave seen before on one of the spending cut votes. >> so far its officially passed the u.s. house. just funding the government through september. dana bash...

Couldnt get through to the tower. listen. >> and they did, they landed safely. jean has been following the story. this happened yesterday, then the faa came out in the afternoon and made some changes. so tell us about it. >> reporter: yeah, first this happened early yesterday, the flight was coming in to reno from mammoth lakes, california. as you heard on the traffic control tape, it had a critically ill passenger on board. the pilot tried to reach the tower not once or twice but seven times. t...

Were two additional controller screwups in recent weeks. a controller in seattle fell asleep during his morning shift on april 11. he is currently suspended. two controllers in lubbock, texas, are on suspension for failing to hand off control of a departing aircraft on march 29 and also for being late taking control of an inbound aircraft. the faa looking into all of these incidents to determine what further steps might be needed. carol? >> youll keep following it. live from washington. turnin...

Incoming aircraft. whats unclear is whether this is started to happen all of a sudden or if these incidents were happening all along and we didnt happen to find out about it. were trying to get to the bottom of that. >> there are some airports where folks told us they dont have anybody in the control towers late at night. how important is it to have somebody directing traffic, if you will, from a tower? >> it depends how big the airport is, how busy it is, how complex the airspace is. there are ...

Jeanne meserve, we covered a story like this a couple of weeks ago. how is the faa thinking about how to resolve the problem? >> reporter: actualli, we ever covered three in -- actually, weve covered three in the recent weeks. there was in washington, d.c., national airport, one in knoxville, tennessee. now theres this one. as you mentioned, the faa had just announced a short time ago that a top official, the head of its air traffic organization, has resigned in the aftermath of this series of i...

Some defendants are even allowed home detention. faa manager, harvick krakowski quit his job due to outrage of sleeping air traffic controllers. he oversaw the air traffic controllers division. the resignation comes after a controller in reno, nevada fell asleep, didnt respond to a medical emergency plane. the pilot got a regional controller to help out. >> yes, were here. >> we werent able to get through to the tower. >> no. >> were going to call them on the phone line. >> all right. well cir...

Investigation and i have said that immediately, there will be two controllers in 27 control towers around the country that control planes between 12 midnight and the early morning hours. >> but republican congressman john micah was harshly critical, saying only in the federal government would you double up workers averaging $161,000 per year in salary and benefits that arent doing their job. carol? >> we are get nothing another political fight over it, but as an air traveler, someone who travels...

$412,000. thats a reversal from the trend we have seen in recent weeks. the number the highest since mid-february. we are live with more in a couple minutes. bill: new troubles in the skies. snooze you lose after another air traffic controller fell asleep on the job. the incident this year. it happened at reno-tahoe airport. a medical flight tried to contact the tower with no answer for 16 minutes. the pilot reached out to another controller in california in order to bring the plane in.

Are now again two controllers in the tower. >> right. but the problem was, you had two controllers up to a day before or two days before and you took the second one out or not you but they chose to. what was the reason of them having two there? >> you know, i cant really speak for the federal aviation administration. we know that they put into effect other procedures and their procedure was when they had a controller that left the tower, they would let our operations supervisor know theyve left ...