WASHINGTON — An air traffic controller who fell asleep during a midnight shift and forced two planes to land without assistance from Reagan National Airport’s control tower earlier this week was suspended on Thursday.
The National Transportation Safety Board said the controller, who had
20 years of experience, was working his fourth consecutive overnight shift, lasting from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
“As a former airline pilot, I am personally outraged that this controller did not meet his responsibility to help land these two airplanes,” said Federal Aviation Administrator Randy Babbitt. “Fortunately, at no point was either plane out of radar contact and our backup system kicked in to ensure the safe landing of both airplanes.”
Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood ordered Wednesday that Reagan National Airport have two air traffic controllers in the tower during the midnight shift.
Babbitt said the FAA is investigating the incident and will look into staffing issues and whether proper procedure was followed.
Two planes, one flown by American Airlines and the other by United Airlines, approached the airport one after another early Wednesday morning when they were unable to contact the control tower, which had made its last transmission at 11:55 p.m. EDT Tuesday, according to the NTSB.
The American Airlines pilot reported the incident to a regional air traffic control center in Virginia and circled the airport. The controller told the pilot that the tower was apparently empty and advised him to treat it like an uncontrolled airport. The plane was then able to land safely.
The United Airlines flight approached about 10 minutes later and also landed safely but without contact with the Reagan National control tower.
A recording shows the controller warning the pilot of a third plane that the tower is unmanned.
“Called a couple of times on the landline and tried to call on the commercial line and no answer,” the controller said. “You can expect to go into an uncontrolled airport.”
Apparently responding to a question of why the tower was vacant, the controller replied: “I’m going to take a guess and say that the controller got locked out. I’ve heard of this happening before … I’m not sure that’s what happened now, but anyways, there’s nobody in the tower.”
The controller eventually told the pilot that the tower was “back in business” and the plane was able to land safely.
In an incident last year at Reagan National, an air traffic controller got locked out of the tower and couldn’t get back in since he was the only employee on a midnight shift.
Aviation safety expert Captain Tom Kreamer said midnight flights received by only one air traffic controller are common, especially at city airports like Reagan National where nighttime traffic is low due to noise restrictions and security concerns. But he said two controllers should be required at all times.
“We’ve known this was going to happen, it’s happened in the past,” Kreamer said. “One person is not enough, and I think you can see that now.”
Retired American Airlines pilot and aviation expert Mark Weiss said pilots train for these types of situations and some airports are always unmanned, but not large metropolitan airports such as Reagan National. At airports such as John F. Kennedy International Airport or Miami International Airport, Weiss said, there are more controllers at night because there is much higher traffic volume.
Weiss said the pilots in this case did everything right and the backup plan worked, but landing at an uncontrolled airport can still be dangerous.
“The worst-case scenario is you’re being hung out to dry,” Weiss said. “You land and you hit something — you hit another airplane, you hit a vehicle, you hit debris on the runway.
“You don’t know who’s on the ground.”
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