U.S. aviation regulators are reviewing procedures and equipment to prevent a repeat of an incident in which planes landed while a controller slept.
Pilots will be reminded they can divert elsewhere when they get no response at an airport, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Controllers at radar facilities will contact 30 towers staffed with a single worker after midnight to ensure they are prepared to handle a flight, the agency said.
“I am determined to make sure we do not repeat Wednesday’s unacceptable event,” FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said in a statement today.
AMR Corp. (AMR)’s American Airlines and United Continental Holdings Inc. (UAL)’s United Airlines planes carrying a combined 154 passengers landed without tower assistance after midnight on March 23 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport after failing to make contact with a controller, who later told investigators he had fallen asleep.
(Source: Bloomberg)
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2 Responses
Why not TWO on duty? Cheaper then handling an accident, has
vshalom.
1) One incident does not make a systemic problem that requires retooling the system
2) Is two controllers the answer? If there is such low volume that one controller can easily handle it, then the second one is an expensive redundancy.
3) Shift work has documented risks. Less than adding workers, the key may be in changing the working conditions and scheduling to avoid over-tired workers.