Page 230 - Controller News Today

The pilot, would you be worried? >> i wouldnt be worried. clearly procedurally something werent wong herong here. investigators will get to the bottom of that. but 90% of the airports in the country dont have control towers. many airports have part-time control towers. so what the pilot did at the instruction of the controller was treated at an airport where the tower had closed. the risk to the passengers here was very, very low. >> why do you say that? because we would assume that the control ...

Lahood released a statement saying, quote, today i directed the faa to place two air traffic controllers at ronald reagan washington national airports control tower on the midnight shift. it is not acceptable to have just one controller in the tower managing air traffic in this critical air space and i have also asked randy babbitt to study staffing levels at other airports around the country. >> what you expect from a small regional airport but not -- >> in another country. >> good point. new...

That airport sits within a baseball throw of the pentagon, of the white house, of the capitol building. this is not a very good situation. >> reporter: federal officials say theyre still not sure exactly what happened, whether the controller did, in fact, fall asleep or had a medical emergency or some other problem. they say this controller did have an unblemished record. but in the meantime, the transportation secretary, ray lahood, has ordered the faa to make certain that two controllers are o...

Acceptable to have just one controller in the tower managing air traffic in this critical air space. i have also asked faa administrator randy babbitt to look at staffing at other airports around the country. national transportation safety boa boards peter golds joins me now. the airport only a couple of miles from the white house. should we be concerned about national security when we see something like this? >> you need to be concerned about the basic competency of the management of that tower...

Source, the american airlines pilot made several attempt to contact the tower and got no response. another controller in the area tried to contact the tower as well using a dialup line and a shout line which allows the callers voice to be heard inside the tower. those planes landed without clearance from the reagan tower. a manager at potomac got the cryptic response that someone was there the whole time. speculation was it might have been someone falling asleep on the job.

Aware the tower is apparently not manned. weve made a few phone calls. nobodys answering. so two airplanes went in the past 10, 15 minutes. so you can expect to go in as an uncontrolled airport. >> is there a reason its not manned? >> well, im going to take a guess and say that the controller got locked out. ive heard of this happening before. >> thats the first time ive heard of it. >> fortunately, its not very often. it happened about a year ago. im not sure thats what happened now, but anyway...

The faa has in place. should this kind of event occur. and it clearly, the procedures broke down. not only in the tower where the controller for whatever reason, maybe it was a health problem but for whatever reason was not at his station for 20 or 25 minutes and then secondly, for the incoming planes, you know, they wanted to land, get their passengers to their, you know, the right location. but should they have been allowed to land there with no information about what was going on in the tower...

National airport sortly after midnight wednesday. the pilots were unable to reach anyone in the air traffic control tower. we learned hours ago the controller on duty at the time has been suspended. the controllers failure to respond caused one of the pilots to reach out to i an regional air traffic control facility. take a listen. american 1900, so youre aware the tower is apparently not manned. weve made a few phone calls. nobodys answering. so two airplanes went in the past 10-15 minutes. s...

Theres nobody in the tower. >> thats interesting. >> it is. >> both planes did end up landing without incident. transportation secretary ray lahood has ordered the faa to schedule two people on that overnightshift. he said "it is not acceptable to have just one controller in the tower managing air traffic in this critical air space. i have also asked faa administrator randy babbitt to study staffing levels at other airports around the country." safety board managing director peter goelz joins me...

It happened at reagan airport, right? >> unbelievably this was the second time it happened in two years. apparently it happened once before when a guy stepped out of the control tower, we believe -- they -- he forgot to bring his magnetic pass card with him, door was locked, he couldnt get in. they made mention of this on the air traffic recording. listen up. >> is there a reason its not manned? >> im going to take a guess and say that the controller got locked out. ive heard of this happening b...