Aviation boss quits as sleeping air traffic controllers row rages
Sunday, 19 Apr, 2011
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The head of the US Federal Aviation Authority has quit amid outrage over air traffic controllers falling asleep on the job.
A rash of incidents this year, revealing how exhausted controllers are dropping off in American control towers around the country, have outraged the flying public in the States, ensuring Hank Krakowski had to go.
Krakowski’s resignation comes as the FAA is investigating five incidents in the past few weeks where things have gone strangely silent as planes come in to land.
Last week it was announced that extra air traffic controllers would be added to midnight shifts at 27 control towers across the US which only have one person usually working the night shift.
Even President Obama has stepped into the drama, telling ABC news: "The fact is, when you’re responsible for the lives and safety of people up in the air, you better do your job."
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood also told ABC News that a full review was now underway.
On February 19, a controller in Knoxville, Tennessee, is reported to have made a bed on the floor of the control tower and dozed off.
Four weeks later a controller who had been on duty for four nights in a row drifted off to sleep at his desk, meaning two planes had to land unaided.
Days after that, two more controllers on night shift were out of contact at Preston Smith airport in Lubbock, Texas, while on April 13 a controller at Renoe Tahoe airport in Nevada failed to respond to requests for help in landing from a plane carrying a critically ill passenger.
by Dinah Hatch
Dinah
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