Page 219 - Controller News Today

Describes as defensive missions. these are missions that actually take out air defense installations on the ground here in libya. now, the difference between that and offensive missions is that offensive missions are taking out gadhafis forces directly. it does seem, however, to be a bit of splitting hairs. >> thanks, stephanie gosk in libya. thanks. another story that has to have some people scared this morning. the faa has seen enough after a rash of incidents involving sleeping air traffic ...

He stepped down this morning after meeting with the faas chief, randy babbitt. babbitt issued this statement saying, we are all responsible and accountable for safety, from senior faa leadership to the controller in the tower. the resignation comes amid growing controversy over napping air traffic controllers. the latest occurred wednesday at reno/tahoe airport when a medical jet attempting to land with a sick patient. it is the sixth reported incident this year of a sleeping traffic controller....

Right now, as i understand it from officials, their schedules are not consistent across the workweek, and that can add additional wear and tear to people. and then theres in question of how many people you need in the tower to keep them awake. in one of these incidents in knoxville, i believe it was, there were two sections of the tower, one was a regional controller, one was local, the regional controller realized something was wrong, went down repeatedly to try and wake up the local guy. just ...

Short sighted. >> on the flipside, it was only after the reagan national incident where, after that, the faa or the airline industry decided hey, you know what? lets put two controllers in the tower, so they can keep each other awake. should that have happened sooner? >> this is an issue that i think the controllers union has been pushing for, for a while, saying that we need two controllers in there, but i think if you talk to the average american, saying you know what, if you cant do your job,...

Critical mishaps. thats how we start a brand-new hour of america live, im martha maccallum in for megyn. a medical flight forced to land without any help from the tower because the only controller who was on-duty was sleeping on the job, and yes this is not a repeat story, this is actually the second time that that has happened this week. >> i guarantee the flying public we will not sleep until we can guarantee that there is good safety in the control towers when these planes are coming in and o...

Faa in terms of paying for some of the upgrades to the safety upgrades to the air traffic control system, havent they? >> no, heres the problem. the airline has been burned before with faa upgrades that havent worked and the current one, its going to take a lot of money and not be an improvement. the faa cant tell us how much its going to reduce delays. so the reality is the airline industry tolerates this system. they dont want to spend money they dont have to spend but the reality is weve had ...

>> good morning. >> all right. so we have this incident. what complicates it is theres a very ill passenger on that plane. the plane needed to get on the ground. what is your response to what happened? >> well, you know, the pilot, again, had a very ill passenger on board and after circling and trying to communicate with the tower, you know, with clear weather and the pilot looked at the configuration of the airport and felt it was safe to land so he did indeed instead of taking the sick patient...

Controller that was at reagan national airport nodding off around midnight, forcing two jet liners, they were saying there does than seem to be ph anyone in the tower. they had to land on their own with no help from the tower. four days before that another controller was out cold -- during about five hours at the airport in lexington, kentucky. reports say he made a little bed for himself, laid down and took a little nap because he wasnt expecting anybody, i guess. well see what happens with tha...

To do. ray lahood sa hoohood said its unacceptable and announced changes. >> its ridiculous. its outrageous it the behavior we will not stand for at the department of transportation. the controller has been suspended. were conducting an investigation. and i have said that immediately there will be two controllers in 27 control towers around the country that control planes between 12:00 midnight and the early morning hours. >> thats a solution right now. so many cases of air traffic controllers f...

Other and in nevada, they did it and they stopped the day before and the guy falls asleep. >> yeah. they did it for three or four days, the f.a.a. instituted that plan. now, apparently, im kind of confused. is the f.a.a. going back to reinstating? i believe it is in 27 of these airports, there will now be two people there to keep each other awake. >> this really is criminal and so what do you think about this casy kasem countdown of sleeping affairs? we have an e-mail from denise from virginia w...