The Federal Aviation Administration announced on Thursday that it has suspended the air-traffic controller who failed to respond to radio communications from two commercial jets on final approach to Washington’s Reagan National Airport early on Wednesday morning.
FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said in a statement that he is “personally outraged as a former airline pilot” that the controller didn’t contact the airplanes.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident.
While all air-traffic controllers are charged with coordinating an airport's the incoming, outgoing, and ground traffic, those at Washington airport have the added responsibility of monitoring the prohibited airspace surrounding the White House and ensuring that the dozens of helicopters that routinely transit the region navigate safely. Pilots and controllers who work at Reagan National undergo extensive additional training and background checks because the airport is so close to the seat of power.
There has been speculation -- but no confirmation -- that the controller, whom the government would not identify, had fallen asleep. Some have been known to fall asleep on the job, particularly in the dimly lit confines of a radar room on the midnight shift. On Wednesday morning, efforts to reach the controller on duty using a "shout line," which permits air-traffic controllers at different facilities to communicate with each other during an emergency, were not successful.
Both planes landed safely, although one executed a "go-around procedure," flying around the airport because the pilots weren’t sure what was happening below.
An audio recording of the incident released on the website liveATC.net evinces the temporary confusion as an American Airlines pilot learns about the unmonitored tower frequency from the approach controller.
But their training paid off: Pilots of the American Airlines plane and of a United jet that landed shortly after it announced their position and airspeed as they approached Runway 1, as is standard procedure when landing at an unmanned airport.
Visibility was good and the pilots were operating under visual flight rules, meaning that they could use visual cues to land and not rely on automated systems operated by the tower.
The union that represents air-traffic controllers has long complained about understaffing on the midnight shift, when only one controller is on duty. After the incident, Secretary of Transportation Ray Lahood on Wednesday ordered that at least two trained controllers be on duty at Reagan National at all times. That night the airport became unusually busy at a late hour because of weather-related flight delays.
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