WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s top aviation official on Thursday said he had suspended a control tower supervisor while investigating why no controller was available to aid two planes landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport early Wednesday morning.
Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Randy Babbitt said in a statement that the controller had been suspended from his operational duties. Mr. Babbitt said he was “personally outraged” that the supervisor — the lone controller on duty in the airport tower at the time — failed to meet his duties.
An aviation official who spoke on grounds of anonymity because an investigation is ensuing said the supervisor had fallen asleep.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has directed the Federal Aviation Administration to launch a nationwide inquiry into airport tower staffing issues.
Peter Knudson, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, said Wednesday that the pilots of the two planes were in contact with controllers at a regional FAA facility about 40 miles away in Warrenton, Va.
He said that after pilots were unable to raise the airport tower at National by radio, they asked controllers in Warrenton to call the tower. Repeated calls from the regional facility to the tower went unanswered, Mr. Knudson added.
In response to the incident, Mr. LaHood told the FAA to put two air traffic controllers on the midnight shift at Reagan National.
“It is not acceptable to have just one controller in the tower managing air traffic in this critical air space,” Mr. LaHood said. Reagan National is located in Arlington, Va., just across the Potomac River from Washington.
NTSB is gathering information on the occurrence to decide whether to open a formal investigation, Mr. Knudson said.
Regional air traffic facilities handle aircraft within roughly a 50 mile radius of an airport, but landings, takeoffs and planes within about three miles of an airport are handled by controllers in the airport tower.
The planes involved were American Airlines Flight 1012, a Boeing 737 with 91 passengers and 6 crew members on board, and United Airlines Flight 628T, an Airbus A320 with 63 passengers and five crew members.
“The NTSB is conducting an investigation, and we are doing our own review,” United spokesman Charles Hobart said in an email.
FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said the agency “is looking into staffing issues and whether existing procedures were followed appropriately.” The agency didn’t identify the air traffic supervisor involved or say whether he had been placed on leave.
There was probably little safety risk since the pilots would have used a radio frequency for the airport tower to advise nearby aircraft of their intention to land and to make sure that no other planes also intended to land at that time, aviation safety experts said. At that time of night, air traffic would have been light, they said.
Also, controllers at the regional facility, using radar, would have been able to advise the pilots of other nearby planes, experts said.
The primary risk would have been if there was equipment on the runway when the planes landed, they said.
But the incident raises serious questions about controller fatigue, a longstanding safety concern, said John Goglia, a former NTSB board member.
“You have to watch your schedules to make sure (controllers) have adequate rest,” Mr. Goglia said. “It’s worse when nothing is going on. When it’s busy, you have to stay engaged. When it’s quiet, all they have to be is a little bit tired and they’ll fall asleep.”
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