FAA chief resigns

Staff/wire report

WASHINGTON

The official who oversees the nation’s air-traffic system resigned Thursday, and the Federal Aviation Administration began a “top-to-bottom” review of the entire system after disclosures of four instances of air-traffic controllers sleeping on the job.

FAA chief Randy Babbitt said in a statement that Hank Krakowski, the head of the agency’s Air Traffic Organization, had submitted his resignation.

Babbitt moved on Wednesday to add a second overnight air-traffic controller at more than two dozen airports around the country, including at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in Vienna.

An FAA spokesman said Thursday the new initiative begun hours after a medical flight was unable to raise a lone controller working at 2 a.m. at Reno-Tahoe International Airport.

The organization said it rescheduled workers to add an additional controller at night rather than hire an additional person.

The FAA, not individual airports, is responsible for personnel decisions regarding air-traffic controllers.

The FAA said the Reno controller, who was out of communication for 16 minutes, was sleeping. The plane landed safely with assistance from controllers at a regional radar facility in Northern California.

The FAA also added a controller at Akron-Canton airport.