Stay awake, dammit!

Elizabeth Harris has an article in The New York Times about fixing the air traffic controller problem:

The Federal Aviation Administration said that it would change scheduling practices for air traffic controllers in an effort to combat excessive fatigue. The decision was announced after a controller was discovered napping while on duty— at least the sixth controller to be caught doing so in recent months. “We are taking important steps today that will make a real difference in fighting air traffic controller fatigue,” the FAA administrator, J. Randolph Babbitt, said in a statement. “But we know we will need to do more. This is just the beginning.” The details of those changes were not announced, but Mr. Babbitt’s statement said that they would eliminate practices “most likely to result in air traffic controller fatigue.” The new rules would be effective in the next three days, he said.
Just a few hours earlier, on the Friday-to-Saturday overnight shift, an air traffic controller fell asleep at the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center, the FAA said. The controller, whose name was not released, was reported to a manager by another controller, and the center did not miss any calls. The controller has been suspended.
Mr. Babbitt and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood were briefed on the incident early Saturday. “There is no excuse for air traffic controllers to be sleeping on the job,” Mr. LaHood said. “We will do everything we can to put an end to this.”
These changes were only the latest in a series of shake-ups at the aviation administration.
The FAA recently announced the end of single-person staffing on the midnight shift at 27 control towers around the country. That move came on the heels of more bad news: a lone air traffic controller at Reno-Tahoe International Airport in Nevada had dozed off on the job, and was out of communication for about sixteen minutes while a medical flight was trying to land. Another control facility helped the plane, which was carrying an ill passenger, land safely. The controller has been suspended.
Henry P. Krakowski, the chief operating officer of the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization, resigned under pressure.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the union that represents 15,000 controllers, praised the FAA’s latest moves. “Natca stands in full support of the FAA’s immediate steps both today and last week to address the recent incidents,” the association’s president, Paul Rinaldi, said in a statement. “NATCA and the FAA. are in agreement that fatigue and scheduling must be addressed.”
Current scheduling practices allow some controllers to work a full week and still have nearly three full days off by piling up shifts at different times of day, with shorter rest periods in between.