LaHood “had no idea” air traffic controllers were tired

[Omaha Steve]

http://peoplesworld.org/lahood-had-no-idea-air-traffic-controllers-were-tired/

by: John Case
April 19 2011

Under questioning by CNN reporter Candy Crowley today, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood claimed he "had no idea" air traffic controllers were tired or under stress when, in recent weeks, several controllers - including one at Reagan National Airport - were found to have been asleep while on duty, as pilots seeking to land tried to contact the control tower.

But this problem did not start yesterday. It started 30 years ago when President Ronald Reagan fired the air traffic controllers who had held a sick out protesting the very conditions that led to this debacle. And it has been ongoing, only coming to public light in when, with FAA permission, the airport named after the jerk who started it all reduced its staff to a single controller.

Duh - an approaching plane found no one in the tower answering!

According to the New York Times, William R. Voss, president and chief executive of the Flight Safety Foundation, a nonprofit group based in Virginia, said the Federal Aviation Agency had so far failed to address what should be its primary concern: sleep-deprived controllers.

FULL story at link.

[villager]

1. Emblematic of the degree to which this administration is "in touch" with working folk

n/t

[WhiteTara]

6. it's also what you get when you "cross the aisle"

for help. LaHood is a republican. I doubt he even changed parties when he began working for a democratic president.

[villager]

7. No. The Republicans haven't need to change. The Democrats are doing the changing for them.

n/t

[madrchsod]

2. private industry would never let this happen...

i doubt ray knew that this was happening.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Wonder if LaHood flies public airways?

( and I cannot help being creeped out by his name)

[Meeker Morgan]

4. Isn't this what the PATCO strike was about? n/t

[SheilaT]

5. I worked at National Airport from

1969 to 1979 as a ticket agent. During that time it was scary how rapidly the Air Traffic Controllers aged. They got old, almost overnight. They worked long shifts, lots of overtime, and were probably short staffed much of the time. The Patco strike was about working conditions, and I will never forgive Lane Kirkland, then head of the AFL-CIO in letting Reagan get away with firing the air traffic controllers.

In addition, people who don't do shift work have no idea how difficult it can be, especially if the shift rotation isn't one that fits natural rhythms. A nine hour turnaround isn't bad if it's an overnight turnaround -- getting off at 9pm and needing to be back at 6am, for instance, but if it's getting off at 9am and needing to be back at 6p, or off at noon and back at 9pm for the overnight, well that's not one that is at all condusive to getting adequate rest.

[crickets]

8. Gee thanks, Ronnie. K&R