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Kentucky Air Traffic Controller: Too Much Work, Too Little Sleep |
As we pointed out yesterday, the fact that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) violated its own policies when it assigned only one air traffic controller to the Lexington control tower is one of the causes behind the fatal Comair crash in Kentucky this past weekend.
Now we learn the air traffic controller had only nine hours between two work shifts—the minimum allowed by the FAA is eight—and had only two hours sleep before going back on duty, according to the Associated Press. In fact:
The controller, a 17-year veteran whose name has not been released publicly, worked from 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. He came back to work at 11:30 p.m. on the same day to begin an eight-hour overnight shift.
The sole controller on duty at the time of the crash handled all planes taxiing on the airfield, including giving clearance routings to planes requesting departure, and also was responsible for monitoring the radar scope for aircraft approaching the airport and planes that had already departed.
The commuter jet crashed Sunday morning, in the final hours of the controller’s shift, while trying to take off from Blue Grass Airport.
In 2002, the FAA employed 15,606 controllers, but now that number has shrunk to 14,305 while air traffic continues to grow. Read more about how the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) has long warned the FAA about staffing problems in the nation’s tower.
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