The Federal Avi
ation Administration ……………..(change) air traffic control work schedules last Saturday, acknowledging it …………. (have) a widespread problem with fatigue after another controller ……………………. (fall asleep) on duty in Miami."We …………………….. ( take now) important steps that in the future …………………….(make) a real difference in fighting air traffic controller's fatigue. But we …………… (know) we ………….. (need) to do more. This ……….. (be) just the beginning," FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said in a statement.
Next Monday Babbitt and Paul Rinaldi, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, ………………….. (begin) visiting air traffic control facilities. Their first stop …………….. (be) Atlanta, home of the world's busiest airport.
The latest sleeping incident - the fifth to be disclosed by FAA since late March - …………………….. (take place) just before 5 a.m. Saturday morning at a busy regional radar facility in Miami. This airport ……………….. (handle) high altitude air traffic for much of Florida, portions of the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.
According to a preliminary review of air traffic tapes, the controller ………………… (miss not) any calls from aircraft and there ……………….. (be) no impact on flight operations, the FAA said. The controller, who that day ………………….. (work) an overnight shift, ………………………. (be suspended) almost immediately. The head of the FAA's air traffic operations …………………. (resign) on Monday.
Rinaldi …………….. (say) the Miami incident ……………….. (be) particularly disturbing because there ………… (be) ample staff on duty at the time.
Regional radar centers ……………. (be) usually large rooms, but each controller …………….. (have) a cubicle. Because of the layout, a controller can doze off without ………………. (be) noticed.
FAA rules ………………. (forbid) any sleeping on the job, even during breaks.. But present and former controllers …………… (tell) the Associated Press that unsanctioned napping at night …………… (be) an open secret within the agency.
At a radar facility, sometimes one controller …………………….. (sleep) while the other ……………. (handle) two radar positions. Then, they …………………… (swap).
Many supervisors look the other way because they …………………. (know) how tiring controllers' schedules …………………… (be), said retired controller Rick Perl of Oxnard, Calif.
Most tiring …………………….. (be) the midnight shift, which usually……………………… (begin) about 10 p.m. and …………….. (end) about 6 a.m. Staying awake during those hours …………… (disrupt) the body's natural sleep rhythms, sleep scientists say.
Last week the National Air Traffic Controllers Association ……………………….. (release) a new fatigue study, which ………………………. (find) that one of the most tiring sche
dules worked by controllers is a week of midnight shifts, followed by a week of early morning shifts and then a week of swing shifts that start in the afternoon and end up at night. The schedule …………………. (give not) controllers time to adjust to any one set of waking and sleeping hours.The study's chief recommendation is that controllers ……………… (get) sleeping breaks of as long as 2 1/2 hours during midnight shifts. Some other countries - including Germany and Japan - ………………………. (provide) sleeping rooms for controllers on break at night.
Babbitt said the FAA …………………………… (implement) further changes to controllers' schedules next week , but he ………….. (describe not) the changes.
Earlier this week, FAA ……………………….. (announce) it ………………. (end) its practice of single-staffing control towers at 26 airports and a radar facility where traffic ……………….. (be) light between midnight and 6 a.m.
(B) Could you please complete these questions, based on the information provided by the article? Then supply accurate answers
B.1 What will the Federal Aviation Administration ……………?
B.2 What did the Federal Aviation Administration ……………?
B.3 What must the Federal Aviation Administration ……………?
B.4 What is the Federal Aviation Administration ……………?
B.5 What does the Federal Aviation Administration ……………?
(C) And now, how about asking questions to get the following answers?
C.1 - No, it isn't the first incident this year
C.2 - In March
C.3 - At 5 AM
C.4 - At a busy radar facility in Miami
C.5 - High altitude air traffic
C.6 - No, the suspended controller didn't
C.7 - Yes, the suspended controller did
C.8 - No, controllers can't
C.9 - Because supervisors know how tiring controllers' schedules are
C.10 Sleeping rooms for controllers on break at night.
adapted from Newser
