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F-16s intercept a 75 year old pilot during Obama’s Chicago visit

The Associated Press has just reported that two F-16 fighter jets had intercepted an aircraft being flown by a 75 year old woman who had strayed into restricted airspace during President Barack Obama’s visit this week to Chicago for his 50th birthday. Specifically, Myrtle Rose was flying a Kitfox Model 2 a kit airplane that lacked a radio. Hence, air traffic controllers could not reach her and the F-16s were summoned to escort her to the nearest airport.

A North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) official commented about the incident that with such temporary flight restrictions:

“…there are no lines drawn in the air. It’s sometimes a little hard to tell where you’re at. Typically, it’s just a mistake."

No doubt she was fairly surprised herself to see F-16s pull up along side of her. Of course, that might give her a good reason to pay more closer attention to the news as well as to any NORAD issued warnings about air space restrictions!

What’s the similarity between ATC and pilots?

ANSWER: If a pilot screws up, the pilot dies. If ATC screws up…. the pilot still dies….

ATC to pilots: “Please only listen to women!”

Hat tip to Sylvia, the blogger behind the Fear of Landing blog, who recently mentioned a bizarre incident in Turkey where a man started to give random vectors to pilots flying into Istanbul. ATC (consisting of two female controllers) valiantly tried to sort out the mess by giving advice that any wife of a male pilot would love to hear: “Do not listen to any man!” and “Please only listen to women!”

fake atc by iststatus

Why do air traffic controllers fall asleep on the job?

We have recently written about the rash of sleeping air traffic controller incidents in the USA. Hence, its well worth mentioning that Langhorne Bond, an FAA administrator from 1977 to 1981, and Robert W. Poole Jr., a director of transportation policy at the Reason Foundation, have co-written an interesting opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal about why they believe air traffic controllers in the USA are falling asleep when they in fact have the last word on their work schedules.

The pair wrote that the most popular air traffic controller shift is called 2-2-1 where air traffic controllers work two swing shifts, then two day shifts and finally one midnight shift. The second day shifts will end at 2 pm while the subsequent midnight shift will begin later in the evening at 10 pm – a mere eight hours later. This type of schedule obviously disrupts circadian rhythms and creates fatigue for those on the midnight shift. Moreover, the authors noted that:

Within air traffic circles, this problem is so well-known that 2-2-1 has long been called "the rattler," since it can come back and bite the controller, degrading his performance. But controllers and their union have fought to keep 2-2-1 because it gives them a three-day weekend afterwards.

Nevertheless, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has called for abolishing 2-2-1 as far back as an April 2007 report while the inspector general for the Department of Transportation wants a 10-hour minimum between shifts plus 16 hours after any midnight shift.

The authors then pointed out that another major cause of fatigue on midnight shifts in the USA are the black backgrounds on controller display screens. This means that a dark room is needed for better visibility but this also induces drowsiness on late night shifts.

Hence, it is now common international practice outside of the USA to have light gray background screen displays since these types of screens can be used in high-light environments. However and in the USA, this trend has been all but ignored.

Moreover and over the past 15 years, nearly every developed country (except for the US) has separated air safety regulation from the provision of air traffic control services to be consistent with the policies set forth by the International Civil Aviation Organization. By doing this, there is an arm’s-length safety regulation of air traffic control itself.

Hence, the authors ended their piece by calling for this separation and by stating that the current controller-fatigue flap is a wake-up call to do so.

If God had intended man to fly, he would not have….

……. invented Spanish Air Traffic Control.

— Lister, in the BBC TV series, ‘Red Dwarf.’

More sleeping air traffic controller incidents

In the USA, the FAA has been in the news lately due to an air traffic controller who was sleeping on the job during a late night shift at the Reagan National Airport in Washington DC.

However, Terry Maxon has written a post for the Dallas Morning News’ Airline Biz Blog noting more recent sleeping air traffic controller incidents in Lubbock, Texas; Reno, Nevada; and Seattle, Washington:

In the Lubbock incident that occurred during a midnight shift, controllers failed to hand off control of a departing aircraft to another control tower and were suspended as they were suspected of falling asleep.
In the Reno incident, a controller fell asleep while a medical flight carrying an ill patient was trying to land. The controller was out of communication for 16 minutes and was suspended – pending an FAA investigation.
In the Seattle incident, a controller at the Boeing Field/King County International Airport allegedly fell asleep during his morning shift was suspended. However, he is also facing disciplinary action for falling asleep on two other occasions during an early evening shift.

Hence, the FAA has announced that it will add an additional controller on the midnight shift at 27 US control towers.

In addition and in a follow-up post, Terry provided the following table of airports in the USA where there is currently only one air traffic controller late at night:

(It was noted that Omaha will get an additional controller for both the tower and the Terminal Radar Approach Control facility).

Critics contend that adding more air traffic controllers because existing ones are not doing their job is a waste of taxpayer money as controllers easily earn more than US$100,000 a year. Others have noted that if you put a controller in a dark tower to handle a couple of aircraft a night and nothing else to do, you are asking for trouble – especially if you change a controller’s shift from day to night before their bodies are adjusted to the change.