[ml/nj]

I don't know about Westchester Tower, or really how things are these days, but I was a guest at the "New York Center" many years ago (before Reagan fired my IFR instructor). And based upon that experience, a sleeping controller would be no big deal. At the NYARTCC, 75% of the people I saw in the building weren't even working. (They were playing bridge, watching TV, etc., and this was at the supposed busiest time of the day.) Of the ones who were working only about one in four were actually directing air traffic. The rest were gofers.

ML/NJ

[KeyLargo]

The Air Traffic Controllers Union is recommending to Obama's FAA that signs need to be posted in all ATC facilities warning that all electronic devices be turned off such as video phones as a safety measure.

There. Fixed.

Therefore any whistle-blowers with ideas of daring to film air traffic controllers viewing porn, sleeping, or watching movies while on duty will be banned from doing so.

[OldPossum]

Re your post #6, I guess it’s where you go...and when. Some years ago (and it was a lot, so maybe my observations are way out of date), I was shown the air controllers at work at a location just outside Washington, DC. The controllers there were working air corridors for a good portion of the east coast.

What I saw were a lot of people sitting at their screens highly concentrating on what they were doing. No slackers in sight.

Another thing I noticed: practically everyone was smoking cigarettes. I think that was to reduce the tension, because
these men (and a few women) literally had the lives of thousands of air passengers in their hands.

Maybe times have changed. I’m just telling about what I saw.