The US Federal Aviation Administration has said it will be making changes to the schedules of air traffic controllers following a number of incidents involving staff falling asleep on the job. Most recently, a controller has been suspended after he apparently took a nap when he was supposed to be monitoring high altitude traffic at a regional facility in Miami.

There have been several incidents in which aircraft have managed to land safely in the US without the guidance of an air traffic controller, a situation which the FAA said it intended to remedy. The situation led to the resignation of Hank Krakowski, head of the air traffic control agency, last week.

Ray LaHood, US Secretary of Transportation, said controllers were expected to report for work after having had an adequate amount of rest. He added that they were personally responsible for the safe operation of control towers and that sleeping while at work would not be tolerated.

Randy Babbitt, FAA Administrator, said a number of changes would be made to the working conditions of air traffic controllers to combat the issue of fatigue. Workers will now have the minimum time between shifts increased from eight to nine hours and the practice of swapping shifts is to be banned. Schedules will also be adjusted to make sure that managers are on duty during the busiest periods.

Mr Babbitt also confirmed that additional controllers would be on duty at 27 control towers during the midnight shift. Currently there is only the requirement for one controller to be on duty at this time.