Air Traffic Control Tower "Empty" at Reagan/National Airport in DC

I came across this article and there is either something going on behind the scenes or the FAA really doesnt keep up with their employees and the staffing. The "empty" tower was due to a controller supposedly not doing his job.....


Around midnight on Tuesday there was ONLY one controller that was running all the take offs and landings for Reagan/National and he supposedly fell asleep!!!!

Two commercial pilots had to pick a runway and land on their own because they got no response or signal from the tower.

Seems a bit fishy that theres only one controller operating that airport in the first place...but he just fell asleep?!?!


Feedback and comments are welcome.....


news.yahoo.com...

Rotating shift work is as about as evil as it gets in terms of the body clock, way of life and general well being. I have done it in various roles and it sucks big time. It is really hard when you first have to do and not use to it. My sleeping patterns are a mess these days. The night shift is easier to handle when doing it full time as the body does get use to it, but the constant swapping between nights and days should be outlawed. It may have also been pretty quite with nothing much to do except wait, making it even harder to stay awake.

ummmm
somebody should be getting a pink slip
in with their severance check me thinks.

reply to post by boondock-saint


But I can't help wondering who or what landed in that window of time that he was asleep. Remember, we plan our fall guys WAY before we need them.

Peace

somebody should prescribe this guy some adderall...that would surely keep him awake through his shift. and the time will go by faster too.

The conspiracy to this is did he really fall asleep or was he pretending to allow someone or something to land un-noticed? Because being in that profession and working those crazy hours you have to prepare yourself for that schedule so the guy knew what he was up against.

reply to post by MonkeyWrench30


One ATC working over night isn't unusual as the amount of aircraft landing and taking off during the early morning hours are very low. Thats why at regional airports the towers go unmanned around 12 hours out of the day. Most likely this guy got bored playing solataire and fell asleep.

Fortunatly this happened late at night and there really wasn't any danger. Pilots are trained and often land when towers are closed. All we have here is a foul without harm.

Originally posted by MonkeyWrench30
The conspiracy to this is did he really fall asleep or was he pretending to allow someone or something to land un-noticed? Because being in that profession and working those crazy hours you have to prepare yourself for that schedule so the guy knew what he was up against.

You ever get bored at work?

Now imagine being bored without anyone to talk to, nothing to do but to just sit there in the dark and try and stay awake.

This guy couldn't leave the tower and was probably fighting to stay awake and lost the battle. Happens to the best of us. Heres a test you can do to see how hard it acutually is.

Sit in a desk chair with a book.
Turn off all lights except a small low light, single bulb.
Do nothing except look out the window and read the book for 8-10 hours.
About 6 times during that period say flight (any number) cleared to land runway (any number).
Finally, stay awake.

After you have completed this expierament let us know how long it took you to fall asleep.

Now imagine doing this 40 plus hours a week for years at a time.

My understanding is that commercial aircraft only take off between the hours of 6:30 AM and 11:30 PM. Otherwise there are huge financial penalties. Likely for staffing reasons or noise abatement. Plus passengers don’t like disrupting their sleep patterns just for a flight.

If you scan airliners.net there is a posting from a tower operator. He mentions that there is almost no way you can sleep though the radio calls and phone calls from ATC. But you can lock yourself out if you have to make a bathroom run.