Well, that's comforting, at least

Timothy Williams has a disconcerting (if you ever fly, and Rico is about to) article in The New York Times:

The official in charge of air traffic controllers for the Federal Aviation Administration resigned after a series of episodes in which controllers across the country slept as airplanes landed.
Henry P. Krakowski, the chief operating officer of the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization, tendered his resignation one day after the agency changed its policy of having a single air traffic controller on duty overnight at each of 27 airports across the country. Each of those will now have at least two controllers at night.
In recent weeks, several controllers, including one at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, were found to have been asleep while on duty as pilots seeking to land tried to contact the control tower. The episodes have prompted angry responses from members of Congress and scathing criticism from the federal officials charged with overseeing air safety. The most recent case involving an apparently sleeping controller, which occurred early Wednesday in Reno, Nevada, led to Mr. Krakowski’s ouster.
J. Randolph Babbitt, the administrator of the FAA, said in a statement: “Over the last few weeks we have seen examples of unprofessional conduct on the part of a few individuals that have rightly caused the traveling public to question our ability to ensure their safety. This conduct must stop immediately.”
Mr. Krakowski, who had led the Air Traffic Organization since October 2007, used to be United Air Lines’ vice president of corporate safety, security, and quality assurance. He is a 737 captain and a certified aircraft mechanic and was once an aerobatic pilot.
Mr. Babbitt said he had appointed David Grizzle, the agency’s counsel, to head the Air Traffic Organization until a permanent replacement could be found. He also ordered a more thorough study of traffic control operations than the mere review of staffing and work schedules that the agency had previously announced. “We are conducting a top-to-bottom look at the way we operate our air traffic control system,” Mr. Babbitt said. “We are all responsible and accountable for safety, from senior FAA leadership to the controller in the tower. Employees at the FAA work diligently every day to run the safest air transportation system in the world. But I will continue to make whatever changes are necessary to ensure we concentrate on keeping the traveling public safe.”
Ray LaHood, the transportation secretary, has repeatedly expressed his frustration about the lapses. “I am totally outraged by these incidents,” Mr. LaHood said in a statement after the Reno episode. “This is absolutely unacceptable.”
Aviation officials have said they plan a comprehensive review of the training curriculum for controllers, many of whom are reaching retirement age and are being replaced by controllers with relatively limited experience. William R. Voss, president and chief executive of the Flight Safety Foundation, a nonprofit group based in Virginia, said the FAA had, so far, failed to address what should be its primary concern: sleep-deprived controllers. “It’s the underlying issue that has been there for thirty years,” said Mr. Voss, who has been a pilot and an air traffic controller. “You do have a serious problem if you have fatigued controllers. That’s the problem, not falling asleep.” Mr. Voss said one solution was to allow controllers to take naps in shifts while on duty to ensure they were rested enough to handle plane traffic.
At Reno-Tahoe International Airport recently, a controller failed to guide the pilot of a medical flight that had been carrying an ill patient. The controller, who did not respond to radio or telephone calls for about sixteen minutes, has been suspended as the FAA investigates. The flight landed safely with the aid of a controller working at a regional radar center in California, which is not usually responsible for helping land aircraft.
In all, at least five controllers have been suspended in the past few months for failing to respond to aircraft seeking to land. In most cases, if not all, the controller on duty in the tower had been sleeping at the time, the agency said.

Rico says okay, sleeping on the job is bad, no matter what, but what if the poor sumbitch working alone has to take a piss? Cheaping out (which is all this was) over public safety ain't a smart idea, especially when they're flying...