Air Traffic Controller Found Passed Out In His Chair (With His Shirt Off...) In The Tower

An air traffic controller is facing criminal charges after he was allegedly found to be intoxicated and half naked on the job.
50 year-old Philip Maschek was found unconscious after a pilot who wanted to take off didn’t get a response from the tower at Springdale Municipal Airport in north-west Arkansas.

Mr Maschek was then arrested for public intoxication after police were alerted that the pilot had failed to get a response from the air traffic control tower, according to a police report.

He was in charge of air traffic for about two hours before he was discovered.

Police said Mr Maschek failed field sobriety tests and was slurring his speech and swaying on his feet.

He wasn’t immediately handcuffed as police feared he was too intoxicated to climb down a steep ladder, the police report stated.

Wyman Morgan, an administrative and financial services director for the City of Springdale, said such a mistake ‘would not be tolerated’.

He told the newspaper: ‘The tower operator has control and responsibility of the safety of the planes landing and taking off at the airport.
'It's a very safety-oriented position.’