Daily Commentary – Friday, March 30, 2012 – Jet Blue Pilot Goes Bizerk and is Restrained by Passengers

• Makes you wonder what kind of psychological testing pilots go through

Daily Commentary – Friday, March 30, 2012 Download

Air Traffic Controller Error Causes Plane Carrying First Lady Michelle Obama to Abort Landing

How many incidents of air traffic controllers errors, sleeping and watching movies are going to have to occur before the FAA really does something about safety of the friendly skies?

Another day and another air traffic controller incident. This time the incident included the plane carrying First Lady Michelle Obama that had to abort its landing at Andrews Air Force Base due to a controller mistake. Although the FAA said that the first lady was never in danger; however, they classified the incident as an “A,” the most serious type. The air traffic controller allowed the Boeing 737 carrying Michelle Obama and Jill Biden to follow a  C-17 military transport too closely. The landing was aborted and the 737 carrying was instructed to circle Andrews.

A White House plane carrying Michelle Obama came dangerously close to a 200-ton military cargo jet and had to abort its landing at Andrews Air Force Base on Monday as the result of an air traffic controller’s mistake, according to federal officials familiar with the incident.

Ultimately, controllers at Andrews feared that the cargo jet was not moving quickly enough to clear the runway in time for the White House plane to land, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak for their agencies.

How many screw ups by air traffic controllers are going to occur before some one is going to seriously get hurt. It would appear that the FAA has systemic issues that have been ignored for quite some time.

UPDATE I: Safety Officials Say Michelle Obama’s Plane Flew Less Than 3 Miles to Military Jet.

The close call on Monday night left 2.94 miles of distance between the Obama plane and the 200-ton C-17 jet as they both approached landing at Andrews Air Force base just outside of Washington. Air traffic controllers at Andrews directed Obama’s plane to abort a landing, the board said in a statement Friday.

Air Traffic Controller Falls Asleep in Miami, FAA to Change Work Schedules

Didn’t Obama’s Transportation Secretary say that they “would not sleep” until this problem was solved? I am guess ing that Ray Lahood has had some zzz’s since Wenesday.

Another day, or should we say night, and another air traffic controller falls asleep … Why am I getting the feeling that the band Queen needs to do a remake of their 1980′s song and change it to “Another One Falls Asleep”.

Steve sits warily at his seat,
With his head slumped way down low
Ain’t no sound but the sound of his feet,
Radar dispalys ready to go
Are you ready, Are you ready for this
Are you hanging on the edge of your seat
Out of the tower the snoring rip
To the sound of the beat
 
Another one falls asleep
Another one falls asleep
And another one naps, and another one naps
Another one falls asleep
Hey, I’m gonna fall asleep on the job too
Another one falls alseep.

Yet another air traffic controller has fallen asleep, this time it’s Moonlight over Miami. The Federal Aviation Administration has stated that it has happened again,  an air traffic controller at a radar facility in Miami that handles high altitude air traffic fell asleep while on duty early Saturday morning. Add this one to the one earlier this week in Reno, NV and the numerous others reported before that.

It appears that finally the FAA will make changes in the scheduling of the controllers. FAA chief Randy Babbitt stated that changes will be made to work schedule for controllers that have been identified as most likely to cause fatigue. It’s about time. We had reported earlier this week that just adding air traffic controllers to an overnight shift was not the answer. It would not solve the root cause problem and just be yet another wasteful and ineffective solution by the government.

The FAA says 12 other controllers and two managers were working at the time.

The sleeping controller has been suspended.

FAA chief Randy Babbitt says changes will be made to work schedule that have been identified as most likely to cause fatigue within 72 hours.