Air Traffic Control

Most days, about two dozen student pilots circle over downtown Riverside, taking cues on takeoffs, landings and the position of other planes from the air traffic controllers at the city airport. "They're an extra set of eyes on the runway," flight instructor Jose Gonzalez said. "When you're new, that's pretty important. " But the guiding voices from the airport tower could go silent within weeks. The Federal Aviation Administration is expected to decide Friday whether to shut down as many as 238 air traffic control towers across the country, including 23 in California, as part of a plan to trim $600 million under the federal government's forced spending cuts, known as sequestration.

Seven air-traffic control towers in Southern California will close next month as a result of forced federal budget cuts, the Federal Aviation Administration announced Friday. The FAA had considered closing as many as 189 towers at smaller airports across the nation, including 14 in Southern California. The agency must cut $637 million from its budget by Sept. 30 as part of $85 billion in so-called sequestration cuts across the federal government. Southern California will lose towers in Fullerton, Oxnard, Riverside, San Diego, Victorville, Pacoima and Lancaster.

Twenty-three air traffic control towers in California are among more than 200 nationwide scheduled to close April 7 as the Federal Aviation Administration begins imposing $600 million in federal budget cuts. It was unknown which traffic control towers would be affected when the automatic federal budget cuts in the so-called sequestration kicked in March 1, but the FAA last week released a list of airports, mainly small and medium-sized, that will be affected. They include airports in Riverside, Fullerton and El Monte.

NEW YORK - Minutes after a JetBlue flight took off from New York for Las Vegas, the pilot began muttering things that didn't make sense to his co-pilot. He started talking about the need to "focus," lamented that "things just don't matter," and yelled at air traffic controllers to keep quiet. At some point, Capt. Clayton Osbon purportedly told his first officer that "we're not going to Las Vegas" and launched into a sermon. That set off a chain of events that culminated in a federal charge of interfering with a flight crew being filed against Osbon on Wednesday, a day after he was tackled by passengers at 35,000 feet and later carried off to a hospital.

J. Lynn Helms, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration who carried out President Reagan's order to fire more than 11,000 striking air traffic controllers and oversaw efforts to keep airlines flying during the crisis, has died. He was 86. He died Dec. 11 of cardiopulmonary failure at his home in Westport, Conn., a family spokesman said. Helms had a reputation as a decisive, technically brilliant aviation industry executive who led a number of companies out of financial straits, including Piper Aircraft, which he ran for six years.

The Oakland Raiders were the NFL's second-ranked running team last season, yet were 23rd when it came to throwing the ball. Not to worry. Al will address that. That's Al Saunders, not Raiders owner Al Davis. Saunders, who oversaw some of the more successful passing offenses in NFL history, was hired this year as Oakland's offensive coordinator, filling the job vacancy created when Hue Jackson was promoted to head coach. It was a move that brought Saunders' career full circle, seeing as the 64-year-old coach once worked as a Raiders ball boy and twice interviewed with Davis for the job as head coach.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, embarrassed by reports of air-traffic controllers asleep at their jobs, said today that as well-trained professionals they have a "personal responsibility" to get their job done -- including resting when they're off the clock. LaHood reiterated that while he is open to suggestions from the Federal Aviation Administration and the air-traffic controllers union, "we're not going to pay controllers to take naps. I've already decided that. " Speaking to the Chicago Tribune's editorial board, LaHood, a former Republican congressman from Peoria, also said the federal government will fund high-speed rail lines because "the people want it," despite opposition from some Republican governors and the deficit-cutting plans of House Republicans.

There seems to be an epidemic of under-sleeping these days. This year alone, seven air traffic controllers have been caught sleeping on duty. In two well-publicized cases, pilots were heard nearly pleading with control towers to guide them in. (The planes landed safely.) The most recent incident occurred Saturday, when a controller was observed sleeping at a Florida tower. (He did not miss any calls from pilots.) In response, the FAA has adjusted controllers' schedules and mandated that additional controllers be assigned during sleepy midnight shifts.

— Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced Wednesday that two air traffic controllers had been fired — one for sleeping on the job, the other for questionable guidance of a jetliner over Florida. They had been among nine suspended during Federal Aviation Administration investigations into a rash of incidents involving controllers, including several who were sleeping and one who was watching a movie when he was supposed to be directing air traffic. Separately, the FAA said aircraft carrying the first lady or vice president would receive a higher level of scrutiny from controllers since the aborted landing of a plane carrying Michelle Obama this week.

A plane carrying First Lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden had to abort a landing at Andrews Air Force Base because an air traffic controller allowed it to get too close to a military cargo plane landing ahead of it, a federal aviation official said Tuesday evening. The Federal Aviation Administration said neither plane was in danger. Obama and Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, were returning from New York City aboard a Boeing C-40, akin to a 737, on Monday when their plane neared the base behind a C-17 cargo plane.