News: FAA ATC chief resigns over sleeping controllers
 

Temporary management
 

I just read that the acting head of ATC will be the FAA's Chief Counsel (gasp!) Anyone who has read some of the official interpertations of regulations coming out of that office knows there is a significant lack of understanding about aviation operations. (Think about the infamous "known icing" interpertation letter that completely ignored the work "known"). I have not read one interpertation that didn't somehow scream "I don't know anything about aviation but I have I law degree so I must be an expert".

We could be out of the frying pan and into the fire!:eek:

Sleeping controllers are not acceptible under any circumstances and the agency head should take the responsibility.'

This was a short-sighted cost savings decision that proved to be wrong and dangerous.

We need to reform the bad decisions and move forward.

Atleast he had the decency to resign. This is a forgotten art to most of the UK's politicians.

It is good to see accountabilty being properly applied as clearly there are systemic issues within FAA. :D

I do worry that they continue to have a blame culture and willnow simply rest on their laurels having let some heads roll. :yuk:

I have seen such an attitude at many US organisations I've audited in the past.:ugh:

It is about time they broke ATC services away from the regulator like the CAA / NATS slpit in the UK years ago,:)

It starts at the top
 

The guy that resigned had a boss that is supposed to provide oversight. So he should go too.

Is It Me :rolleyes:
In the UK it is Illegal to employ a person alone in this situation:hmm:
Ok he was sleeping but what about falling down stairs or having a heart attack !
Incidentally have worked night shifts show me someone who has NOT slept on night shift:O
It just seems beyond comprehension that these controllers are alone !

yes. it would appear that the regulator is, ahem!, asleep at the wheel.



And that is the nub of the issue with many factors in the regulatory bodies. We have drifted away from those that started out at the grass roots and worked their up through the system gaining experience at all levels of the system into those with Law degrees, Accounting degrees, Management degrees becoming career civil servants. they have no conceptual understanding of what the department they officiate within actually does, or those that they regulate actually function, so inherently we end up with policy drives that are detrimental to the situation they regulate and policy is then driven by kneee jerk policy to the uncovered failures.

great innit !

<<Sleeping controllers are not acceptible under any circumstances >>

Nonsense statement. Night after night there are controllers sleeping in ATC units all over the world.

GottheTshirt

Quite agree, it is unacceptable to have one controller night shifts. The solution is simple, make those airports uncontrolled at night--done. And that is the answer when airports have small overnight traffic counts. We thus return to KDCA a couple of weeks ago.

GF

I guarantee that will be the FAA answer to the budget vs controllers argument. Money is not infinite

Speaking of incompetents getting themselves into top jobs....



Source: CAA Website.

She actually boasted that she knows nothing about aviation; pretty obvious, isn't it, looking at her CV. But she "knows people", doesn't she, who can fix up a succession of sinecures for her.

Known in the UK as QUANGO QUEENS, these people move blithely from disaster to disaster with ever-increasing salaries, pointing out that they cannot be held responsible when things inevitably go wrong, since they know nothing about the organisations of which they are "The Chair".

Snoozing ATC Staff - A Solution
 

Two Controllers on the night shift? It seems like there is a better way . . .

Why not install equipment in the tower cab (to be active on the night shift) that would sound a loud klaxon if the controller fails to key his mike within thirty seconds of receiving a call?

Any other suggestions?

Close the tower for eight hours if there are only six movements in that time.

first off, the real answer is to do away with the scheduling ''double up'' which leads to the snoozing.

second, the joke answer is:

tell ATC that if a pilot doesn't get an answer, and lands, the pilot gets the ATC controller's pay for a week. if the plane has a copilot, he gets it too. soon the controllers will be wideawake.

SSR

I like your thinking and an added benefit night flying would go more senior giving the low seniority guys s break.

GF

finfly1:

What type of movements? :D

Errmmmm

How about a CTAF?

if there is not enough work to keep them awake then why are they needed?

"Lear25 on 10mile final runway 12 Backwater Airstrip, any traffic advise"

" (Silence) "

"Lear 25 landing runway 12 taking taxiway A to the apron"

End of transmission.

Hey seven, I like your way of thinking. And it could work the other way round too. Controller calls airplane and there's no answer and has to turn another airplane out of the way, controller gets the pilot's salaries. ;)

It used to be in the Maritime world that on the MF and HF calling and distress frequencies you could press a button on the transmitter that would, prior to making a distress call, activate an alarm in ships wireless cabins and also on the bridge so that if the radio operator was off shift he could be woken up to deal with the distress call. I'm sure it could easily be implemented for ATC purposes, sort of reverse selcall.

Seeing as how this is headed to Jet Blast.

Require the controller to actually do something in the quiet periods like program way points into a computer until he actually gets it right and have these same points then called into an indian call center and double checked for accuracy.