DOT Announces New Air Traffic Controller Policy
HOLMES: Eighteen minutes after the hour now. Asleep on the job. Have you been there before? You certainly don't want to be sleeping on the job if you're an air traffic controller. That's what reportedly happened early Wednesday morning when two pilots were unable to get a response from the tower at Washington's Reagan National Airport forcing both flights to land without clearance, had to wing it on their own, if you will. The Federal Transportation officials say controller was a 20-year veteran who had working his fourth consecutive overnight shift. One of the pilots was able to contact a radar-controlled center some 40 miles away.</s>TRACON TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: American 1900, so you're aware the tower is apparently not manned. We've made a few phone calls. Nobody's answering. So two airplanes went in the past 10-15 minutes, so you can expect to go in as an uncontrolled airport.</s>PILOT: Is there a reason it's not manned?</s>TRACON CONTROLLER: Well, I'm going to take a guess and say that the controller got locked out. I've heard of this happening before.</s>PILOT: That's the first time I've heard of it.</s>TRACON CONTROLLER: Fortunately, it's not very often. It happened about a year ago. I'm not sure that's what happened now, but, anyway, there's nobody in the tower.</s>PILOT: That's interesting.</s>TRACON CONTROLLER: It is.</s>HOLMES: That air traffic controller there we're speaking of, well, you see him here. He has been suspended indefinitely, didn't want to make any comment when news cameras caught up with him. Meanwhile, the Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood issued a statement and it says quote, it is not acceptable to have just one controller in the tower managing air traffic in this critical air space. He has now ordered the FAA to schedule two controllers on the overnight shift. Joining us now, from Charleston, South Carolina is a woman who's well known for advocacy for tougher aviation standards, Mary Schiavo. She's also a former inspector for the U.S. Department of Transportation. We appreciate you hopping on the line with us this morning. Is there ever a case where it's OK, whether it's critical air space where it was in D.C. or not to just have one controller in the tower?</s>MARY SCHIAVO, FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (via telephone): Well, unfortunately that is the system throughout many if not most of the passenger use air traffic control towers throughout the country. We have 468 of them. Reagan National has very strategic importance, both for national security as well as our nation's capital, that is the way we do it. But to answer the question in the U.S., no, it's not acceptable for Washington, DC because the controller has other duties. The controller does have national security duties to keep a lookout as well as just make sure the plane knows where they are in the lineup to land.</s>HOLMES: You said it is what we do, if not what we should do. So why do we do it?</s>SCHIAVO: Money. The bottom line is, it comes down to money. We have about 13,000 air traffic controllers and the FAA saves money by on these graveyard shifts just having one controller on duty. And apparently, as here, there always has to be a supervisor but the FAA just makes the controller the supervisor. Therefore, you don't have a second set of eyes. We do have air traffic controller shortages coming up. Everybody remembers when the air traffic controllers got fired by Reagan for striking. Al those 12,000 air traffic controllers are now just about ready for retirement.</s>HOLMES: Is this going to be enough to change the process now and to get the money that's necessary? Everything costs money, but we have this well-publicized incident here. Will this be enough and give us enough of a will to get the money to make sure there's not just one controller in a tower?</s>SCHIAVO: No. I can tell you what probably will happen, is they will look at the staffing at the major airports, what they call the major international airports. Reagan is not one but obviously it's right next to our nation's capital. What will probably happen is for the key strategic airports and Reagan National, it's not a category X, like the big ones are, they probably will not have just one person staffing that tower. What they will say is that for most of the rest of the airports, one person will remain because they usually only have, three or four, five flights in the midnight to 3:00 to 4:00 a.m. hour. So we will get the staffing at the major airports. The rest, probably not.</s>HOLMES: Do you buy - I mean he was asleep. We heard them say that, yes, he had worked these consecutive overnight shifts. I can tell you a lot of people in my business didn't have a lot of sympathy. That's just the shift you oftentimes work unfortunately. We don't know his particular situation. Do we have these controllers falling asleep left and right and do you think the work load is an issue?</s>SCHIAVO: Work load is not an issue but we do have controllers falling asleep for a couple reasons. One a lot of times, they either bid for or they get stuck on the midnight shift but also they have to come to work prepared to do the job. When I was inspector general, we had many cases where we investigated, some of them even left the tower and took a nap in their car. That's even worse than this. Sadly, what usually happens is they do not get fired. They usually get disciplined and the FAA tries to rehabilitate them because they say they invested a lot in training the controller and by the way, there's a shortage. So the fellow probably will get disciplined and retrained, probably not fired. But it happens, I'd say, not every week, but probably every month and certainly every year, because I investigated a number of them.</s>HOLMES: Do you think he should be fired?</s>SCHIAVO: I do, because, you know, it's a situation where if it happened somewhere else and wasn't caught, he probably wouldn't have been fired. But it sets an example and the FAA has to turn this around. Everybody remembers the air traffic controller at Teterboro when the Hudson River mid-air happened about a year and a half ago. He was talking to a friend about a dead cat and then two planes collided and everyone died and they haven't fired those persons either, I don't believe.</s>HOLMES: Mary Schiavo, we appreciate you, as always, appreciate you hopping on the line this morning but some scary stuff to hear the reality of what happens sometimes in those towers. Thank you so much. You enjoy the rest of your Saturday.</s>SCHIAVO: Thank you.</s>HOLMES: If Congress does not get it together on the budget when they convene next week, we could be looking at a possible government shutdown. Does that sound familiar? Is it any different this time around, though, or will we just see another continuing resolution? We'll give you the latest there. Plus, entering a world in 3-D with no glasses. Come on now.