FAA, air traffic controllers union agree to fatigue recommendations

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) reached an agreement on how to respond to the spate of sleeping controllers that made headlines earlier this year, the organizations said Friday.

Under the agreement, controllers would be allowed to request leave if they feel they are not alert enough to guide airplanes. They would not be allowed to take naps on the job or on breaks, which some scientists suggested would vastly improve alertness in flight towers.

Each side said the agreement would reduce incidents like the the ones that resulted in multiple air traffic controllers being fired as a series of reports emerged involving them either sleeping or being inattentive and making errors on the job. In one case, a controller was discovered to be watching a movie when the audio of the film was distributed over radio airways to the pilot of a military plane.

“The American public must have confidence that our nation’s air traffic controllers are rested and ready to work,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said of the agreement in a written statement. “We have the safest air transportation system in the world but we needed to make changes and we are doing that.”

"We are pleased that the efforts of the joint NATCA-FAA fatigue workgroup that produced these science-based recommendations have resulted in an agreement and their implementation into the schedules and work environments of our nation's dedicated and highly professional air traffic controller workforce,” NATCA President Paul Rinaldi said, also in a written statement.

“We supported the FAA's action to enhance aviation safety by eliminating single staffing on the midnight shift and we fully support these recommendations that address fatigue," Rinaldi continued. "They are common sense solutions to a safety problem that NATCA and fatigue experts have consistently raised for many years."

The groups said they would continue to work to develop new work schedules for air traffic controllers. Currently, controllers have to be given at least 9 hours off between shifts.