US orders new procedures for controllers

US orders new procedures for controllers

JOAN LOWY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration gave air traffic controllers new procedures as officials try to contain the fallout from an incident earlier this week in which two airliners landed at Reagan National Airport without assistance because the lone controller on duty was asleep.

Regional radar facilities are now required to alert controllers working alone at night in an airport tower that a plane is approaching, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said in a statement Friday. The radar controllers are "to confirm that there is a controller prepared to handle the incoming flight," he said.

Regional controllers have also been reminded that if no controller can be raised at an airport tower, proper procedures require they offer pilots the option of diverting to another airport, Babbitt said.

Controllers at a regional FAA radar facility in Warrenton, Virginia, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) from Reagan, did not offer that option to the pilots who were to unable reach the airport's tower between 12:04 and 12:28 a.m. on Wednesday.

Repeated phone calls from the regional facility to the tower also went unanswered.

The planes — an American Airlines flight from Dallas and a United Airlines flight from Chicago with a combined 165 people on board — landed safely.

Pilots can always decide on their own authority to divert to another airport, said Rory Kay, a former Air Line Pilots Association safety chairman and an international airline captain.

The controller on duty in the tower — a veteran air traffic supervisor — acknowledged to investigators who interviewed him Thursday that he had dozed off, the National Transportation Safety Board said. The controller, who has not been identified, was working his fourth 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift in a row, according the board, which is investigating the episode.

The incident has renewed concern about the potential safety consequences of controllers suffering from fatigue, a longstanding concern of the board.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration gave air traffic controllers new procedures as officials try to contain the fallout from an incident earlier this week in which two airliners landed at Reagan National Airport without assistance because the lone controller on duty was asleep.

Regional radar facilities are now required to alert controllers working alone at night in an airport tower that a plane is approaching, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said in a statement Friday. The radar controllers are "to confirm that there is a controller prepared to handle the incoming flight," he said.

Regional controllers have also been reminded that if no controller can be raised at an airport tower, proper procedures require they offer pilots the option of diverting to another airport, Babbitt said.

Controllers at a regional FAA radar facility in Warrenton, Virginia, about 40 miles from Reagan, did not offer that option to the pilots who were to unable reach the airport's tower between 12:04 and 12:28 a.m. on Wednesday.

Repeated phone calls from the regional facility to the tower also went unanswered.

The planes — an American Airlines flight from Dallas and a United Airlines flight from Chicago with a combined 165 people on board — landed safely.

Pilots can always decide on their own authority to divert to another airport, said Rory Kay, a former Air Line Pilots Association safety chairman and an international airline captain.

The controller on duty in the tower — a veteran air traffic supervisor — acknowledged to investigators who interviewed him Thursday that he had dozed off, the National Transportation Safety Board said. The controller, who has not been identified, was working his fourth 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift in a row, according the board, which is investigating the episode.

The incident has renewed concern about the potential safety consequences of controllers suffering from fatigue, a longstanding concern of the board.