There’s nothing a huge bureaucracy dislikes more than being embarrassed in front of the public, yet this past week the FAA had to stand ready to take a few knocks after a couple of air traffic controllers in the Boise control tower appear to have been asleep when aircraft called.
A story from the Sacramento Bee said Boise police officers were sent to the tower on December 9 to investigate why the two controllers on duty didn’t answer radio calls from a pair of medical transport helicopters at about 2:30 a.m.
The police were called in after airport operations officials were unable to raise anyone in the tower by telephone. Officers on the scene did try a number of tactics to grab the controller’s attention like shining a spotlight in the tower cab’s windows and even using their siren and air horn, none of which had any effect.
It was only when a man who told police he was a controller on duty opened the tower door that police learned more. The officer reported that the tower controller who allowed them access seemed rather “slow and confused as to what was going on,” and the other controller admitted he’d fallen asleep.
The situation was actually not considered dangerous to the arriving pilots, from an air traffic perspective at least. They simply operated as if the field were non-towered, which it sort of was.
The FAA is said to be investigating.
