The Federal Aviation Administration is immediately adding a second controller at night at 26 airports and a radar facility after finding two more cases of controllers sleeping on duty.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s announcement Wednesday came hours after a medical flight carrying at least three people landed at Reno-Tahoe International Airport in Nevada without assistance because the pilot was unable to raise a controller in the airport tower. FAA said in a statement that the controller, who has been suspended, had fallen asleep. The incident occurred at 2 a.m. PDT, when the controller was alone on duty.
Another controller, at Boeing Field-King County International in Seattle, has also been suspended for falling asleep during his morning shift on Monday, FAA said. That controller was already facing disciplinary action for falling asleep on two separate occasions during an early evening shift in January, the agency said.
Two controllers at the airport in Lubbock, Texas, have been suspended for an incident in the early morning hours of March 29, the agency said. In that instance, a controller in Fort Worth had to try repeatedly to raise the Lubbock controllers in order to hand off control of an inbound aircraft. The controllers also failed to hand off a plane departing Lubbock to the Fort Worth radar center, FAA said.
