Asleep at the Switch . . . or in the Control Tower

I was aboard a ship in the Caribbean Sea when I first heard of the air traffic controller who fell asleep while working the midshift (controller term for midnight shift) in the Control Tower serving Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.  I turned on the television and was greeted with Brian Kilmeade of Fox & Friends telling his audience that somebody should be losing their job.  We all know who Mr. Kilmeade meant when he made that ignorant statement, so I’ll just say this:

Perhaps, Mr. Kilmeade, Fox News Channel should instead consider sacking those who make a career out of calling for the proverbial heads of others.  Sorry, but this isn’t the first time I’ve heard such outrageous calls from this particular individual (or others from this particular network for that matter), and it’s growing increasingly tiresome.  Ignorance is not a virtue, and spreading ignorance through populist grandstanding on a so-called “news network” is inexcusable.

Now, what follows are the facts that have subsequently come out about this incident and other facts of which you are probably unaware.  Please read it all before you decide who should be fired from government service, and for what reasons.

The “controller” who fell asleep was not a controller; he was in fact a supervisor and, as such, a member of FAA management.  The two aircraft that landed during the time this supervisor was checking the backs of his eyelids for holes were never in any danger.  Aircraft land and depart from uncontrolled airports all the time, every day and every night, in every state in the union, during good weather and bad.  These two airliners, an American Airlines Boeing 737 and a United Airlines Airbus 320, landed fifteen minutes apart, were under the positive control of Potomac TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach Control) the entire time they were approaching Washington National, and were never in conflict with each other or even in close proximity.  If either crew thought there was anything the least bit dangerous about the operation, they would have requested to divert into nearby Dulles or Baltimore.

It’s very easy to call for somebody else’s head, but before you do consider a few things.  My weekly work schedule when I was a controller ran from Sunday night through Thursday morning.  The shift start times changed every day.  Worse, they rotated from late to progressively earlier, just the opposite of what sleep experts say you should do if you’re concerned with fighting fatigue.  Let’s take a look at my typical weekly schedule:

Sunday: Arrive 2:30 P.M., Depart 10:30 P.M
Monday (15 hours from end of previous shift): Arrive 1:30 P.M., Depart 9:30 P.M.
Tuesday (9 hours from end of previous shift): Arrive 6:30 A.M., Depart 2:30 P.M.
Wednesday (15 hours, 15 minutes from end of previous shift): Arrive 5:45 A.M., Depart 1:45 P.M.
Wednesday again, same day (8 hours, 15 minutes from end of previous shift): Arrive 10:00 P.M.
Thursday: Depart 6:00 A.M.

Okay, now, let’s be honest. How many of you think you could follow this schedule and even come close to being rested, alert, responsible for thousands of lives, and capable of separating hundreds of aircraft each and every shift, day in and day out, week after week, month after month, year after year, and that’s before we factor in all those shifts where you’re held over for up to two hours of overtime and, on top of that, find yourself routinely working on one of your days off because of short staffing?  Did you factor in your commute time?  Time to eat?  Maybe do a little exercise?  Take a shower?  Relax before trying to force yourself to sleep in total contradiction to your body clock?  Do you think you can even force yourself to sleep when your body thinks it should be awake?

But wait.  It gets worse.  A lot worse. When FAA Administrator Marion Blakey decided she was going to show controllers who was boss, her management team ordered all “distractions” removed from control facilities.  At first glance that sounds like a pretty darned good idea.  It isn’t.  Distractions are what keep you awake and semi-alert in the face of fatigue and insufficient rest.  No music.  No television.  No laptop to cruise the ‘net.  No books or magazines to read.  Nothing.  Just sit in a chair, sleep deprived and exhausted, with nothing to occupy your mind, and two hours to go before your first scheduled contact with an airliner coming in from the West Coast.  Do you honestly believe you could do that without nodding off for even a minute?  Do you really think Brian Kilmeade could do it?  Over a thirty-year career?  Just as it is nearly impossible to order yourself to sleep on command, it is also nearly impossible under these conditions to order yourself to stay awake.

If you were actually trying to put safety-critical professionals in their absolute worst mental and physical state, you simply could not devise a more effective schedule or set of work rules to achieve that end.  Sleep experts know that.  NTSB know that.  NASA know that.

The NTSB have been all over the Agency about both pilot and controller fatigue for decades, yet nothing ever gets done no matter how many people die as a direct result.  The primary reason for this goes back once again to Marion Blakey and her decision to force a draconian set of work rules and a five-year pay freeze onto a workforce with an ever-increasing number of retirement eligible personnel.  By 2008 this country was living (and dying) with the consequences—the number of fully qualified controllers working this vital service had dropped to levels not seen since 1992.  Bottom line:  There aren’t enough fully qualified controllers around the nation to pull the agency out of the very staffing hole they themselves dug.  Thus, to this day and for at least the next decade to come, Marion Blakey’s reign will continue to endanger lives, property, and national security well after her departure from the FAA over three years ago.  And controllers working ten-hour days, six days a week because of mandatory overtime will continue trying to do their job with minds numbed by sleep deprivation and mental and physical exhaustion.  Indeed they are not even allowed by the Agency a ten-minute nap during their breaks in direct contradiction of recommendations from NASA and others.

All this is not to say that the supervisor who fell asleep should get off without consequence. According to my information he was not working a rotating shift that week.  On that now infamous night, he was working his fourth straight midshift.  Thus he was not subject to the quick turn-around that would most readily explain nodding off while on duty.  So, yes, most likely some form of punishment is justified.  But if Brian Kilmeade wants somebody’s head, he should go looking considerably higher up the FAA food chain and to the previous administrator who brought about these dangerous conditions.  Meanwhile, Mr. Kilmeade should be grateful that he works for a network known for playing fast and loose with facts in favor of populism; his head is safe.