The Federal Aviation Administration official in charge of operating the air traffic control system has resigned amid revelations that several controllers have fallen asleep on the job this year, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said Thursday. FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said in a statement Thursday that Hank Krakowski, the head of the agency’s Air Traffic Organization, has submitted his resignation.
The resignation comes after the latest reported incident of an air traffic controller falling asleep on duty. According to the FAA, “a controller fell asleep while a medical flight carrying an ill patient was trying to land” Wednesday morning at Reno-Tahoe International Airport in Nevada.
It would be the sixth incident this year involving a sleeping controller that the FAA has disclosed. One occurred at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, another at McGhee Tyson Airport in Knoxville, Tennessee, and three incidents involving the same person occurred at Boeing Field/King County International Airport in Seattle.
The FAA said it also suspended two controllers in Lubbock, Texas, for an incident in the early hours of March 29 in which they failed to hand off control of a departing flight to the Fort Worth Air Traffic Control Center, and responded only after several attempts by the same center to hand them control of an arriving flight.
The FAA statement did not indicate whether the Lubbock controllers were thought to have been asleep.
(Source: CNN)
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It would appear that some YWN headline writers are also napping on the job. The headline says the chief of the whole FAA resigned, but the article says the official in charge of the air traffic control system within the FAA resigned. Those are, I infer from the article, two different positions filled by two different persons. So who, exactly, resigned? The article does not name the individual who resigned, just the position from which he/she resigned.
@nfgo3:
“Hank Krakowski, the head of the agency’s Air Traffic Organization…”
It’s in the article.
Having read other articles it’s apparent that this is simply a political move. They didn’t like the his management of ATO, it was too “independent,” so they used sleeping controllers as an excuse.
The FAA is decades behind in its modernization program. It has spent 100s of millions, if not billions, on failed attempts to update its data systems.
Shlomo…. I actually worked directly for Hank and watched him walk out the door that day.. and yes. it was a political move—–the captain is always reponsible for his crew– and this was the case.. he should never have had to be backed into a corner to either be fired or resign.. he was a great leader and a great friend to his peers.. it is seriously sad how our political system is run and how those that run it.. run it in a vicarious way..they can’t even come up with a decision to fund our country for god sake! but all of a sudden have a concern about planned parenthood and abortion…making it an excuse to hold up the decision…hence a close call furlough–give me a break!….. Hank wasn’t even given a chance to correct the issue within the given time and I know this for a fact.. but the issues were being investigated – per the investigative processes that have to be adhered to when an incident happens……however, removing him did not solve the issue.. but it made the workers more aware? not at all…..but in all actuality who is responsible? the person that is slipping on the job? or the chief that doesn’t even know and puts his faith in his managers that supervise these controllers thus the reason they are hired in the first place? so what do we do.. put another air traffic controller to assist the other that will sleep 4 hours and they switch and the other sleep for the other 4 hours? with Hank resigning was done too irratically without any thought just as the FAA does-they react without thought but a fix it later.. just as it is being done now….Hank resigning DOES NOT fix the issues of the people sleeping on the job but a political move to save face………. Mr. Lahood acted irratically and did not even try to fix the issue….. and wanted to appease our congressional figures to show something was being done.. shows that Mr. Lahood has no integrity and acted irrational… yes, the straw that broke the camel’s back was the medivac that was carrying the patient…so in order for Mr. Lahood to “save face”, he wasn’t about to lose his job over some controller not able to take their job seriously…..so who suffers? everyone….. just because these idiots decided to take a nap on the job…. what a disgrace!