The FAA control tower at Reagan National Airport is seen in Arlington, Wednesday, March 23, 2011. Federal safety officials are investigating a report that two planes landed at the airport without control tower clearance because the air traffic controller was asleep. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen) 
By JOAN LOWYWASHINGTON -- A surge in errors by air traffic controllers appears to be at least partly a real increase and not just the result of better error reporting as Federal Aviation Administration officials claim, a government watchdog said Tuesday. Also, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt disclosed that the agency is investigating two additional cases of controllers falling asleep on the job, both in January at radar centers that handle high altitude air traffic.
One controller found sleeping at his work station in Los Angeles has been suspended pending the outcome disciplinary proceedings, the FAA said later in a statement. The other controller, in Fort Worth, Texas, was observed with his eyes closed while he was supposed to be working. He was reprimanded. In all, the FAA has disclosed seven instances of controllers sleeping on the job this year.
Transportation Department Inspector General Calvin Scovel said there has been a 39 percent increase in errors at air traffic control facilities that handle aircraft at high altitudes even though there's been no change in recent years in automated error counting equipment at those facilities."That would indicate an absolute increase," Scovel told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation aviation subcommittee.
Overall, errors in which planes come too close together in the air increased 53 percent from 2009 to 2010. It's the job of controllers to keep aircraft separated at safe distances.
The increase in errors, as well as a series of inIt would be "cold comfort" to the family of a victim of an air crash caused by a controller error that the controller wasn't allowed to sleep on the job, Scovel said.
Greg Belenky, a sleep expert at Washington State University, said all night shift workers suffer from fatigue no matter how employers try to manipulate shift schedules. The only solution that really works, he said, is allowing brief naps during night shifts.
The head of the air traffic controllers' union said a large increase in new controllers who need on-the-job training is partly responsible for the increase in errors. The FAA plans to hire 11,000 new controllers through 2019.
All those new controllers have to receive on-the-job training from current controllers, placing a serious strain on air traffic operations, Paul Rinaldi, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, testified.
Babbitt disagreed. About 25 percent of controllers are currently in training, a share that is down significantly compared with the last few years and is more in line with the norm, he said.
"We're very comfortable with that," he said.
In response to questioning by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., Rinaldi acknowledged that some air traffic controllers moonlight.
He said it was more common for less experienced controllers earning lower salaries to hold second and third jobs prior to 2009, when the union and the Obama administration reached a contract agreement that increased controller salaries.
"That's stunning to me," Rockefeller said. "That's like asking for trouble. How do you make the case that this doesn't cause sleeplessness and bad judgment?"
There is no prohibition on outside jobs in the union's contract with the FAA, Rinaldi said.
(Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) Get more U.S. & World News »air traffic controller, u.s. & world news
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