I came across this article from Foxnews.com reporting that a whistleblower who works at the Westchester Country Airport (New York City Metro Area) has come forward with revelations that involve controllers napping in the tower, using their cell phones and other violations based on FAA policies for Air Traffic Controllers.
The FAA has extremely rigid rules and regulations as to what is acceptable Controller behavior in an Airport Tower and this black eye is not going to do any favors for the Airport or the FAA. The airport in it’s defense has suggested that it has special FAA approval due to a broken elevator that allows Controllers to take breaks in the tower. This comment made me chuckle a bit. I wonder if the stairs are broken as well. The whistleblower indicated that these behaviors have been in place for years. I’ll let the FoxNews piece tell the rest of the story.
Unfortunately I don’t think we’ve heard the end of this one.
@Mike – Maybe have cameras installed in the tower? Similar to the way banks have cameras at each teller window?
Unfortunately this has been a long ongoing issue in many control towers for a long time. Something needs to be done.