Expert Opinion
AIN Blog: To Sleep or Not To Sleep, or Perchance To Score Some Political Points
Frederick Municipal Airport in Maryland is one of 149 contract towers earmarked for closure in the coming months.(Photo: Bill Carey)
Frederick Municipal Airport in Maryland is one of 149 contract towers earmarked for closure in the coming months.(Photo: Bill Carey)

Remember the spate of sleeping controllers and the angst it all caused at 800 Independence Avenue and 1200 New Jersey Avenue?

Then-FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt, a former airline pilot and a former head of the controllers union, said he was “personally outraged” that the lone controller on overnight duty at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) on March 23, 2011, inadvertently dozed off and left the tower silent as two commercial airliners were forced to land on their own.