An air traffic controller at McGhee Tyson Airport in Knoxville, TN was found sleeping while on duty February 19 according to the FAA.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration says it’s preparing to fire the air traffic controller who decided it was okay to take a nap during the midnight shift in the McGhee Tyson radar room.
The FAA said the airport’s control tower handled seven aircraft over five hours because the radar controller was unresponsive. All the aircraft landed safely.
In March, a supervisor at the Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. was suspended after falling asleep while two airliners landed without assistance.
Suspended? Falling asleep while two airliners land without assistance must not be egregious enough to warrant termination.
Putting up with the airlines and TSA is bad enough. Now we have to worry about the air traffic controllers falling asleep on the job.
Not exactly the friendly skies.
