In the wake of an overworked supervisor falling asleep earlier this week at Washington National Airport, the air traffic controllers union released a list of seven airports where there is only one controller on night shift.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association urged Friday that staffing be doubled at other airports that have one person in the tower during overnight shifts. The union said those include San Diego; Sacramento; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Tucson; Orlando; Reno, Nev.; and Burlington, Vt.
“We believe one-person mid[night] shifts, and one-person shifts anytime, are unsafe,” said Doug Church, a union spokesman. “We must have two. Some large airports currently have more than that. . . . [Chicago’s] O’Hare has three on its mid shift, plus a supervisor makes four total personnel.”
Well, that list was far shorter than expected, given that the motivation behind putting only one person on night shift was to control costs. Still, six of the airports on that list would be on anyone's list of major hubs--and that's six too many.
Per WaPo's report, the other two major airports in the Baltimore-DC area have two controllers on night shift, as do all three major airports in the New York area.