Air Force Officers Fall Asleep With Nuke Codes

Fortunately, Wynne and Moseley can't be blamed for this one; but their replacements and many others connected to another Air Force nuclear faux pas have some serious explaining to do. CNN is reporting that US Air Force officers responsible for a component that contained deactivated launch codes for ICBMs fell asleep on the job in clear violation of protocol. Col. Dewey Ford, a spokesman for the Air Force Space Command in Colorado, told CNN that the incident took place on July 12 during a component swap that's used to "facilitate secure communications between an underground missile-control facility and missile silos near Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota." The electronic nuclear code component is considered classified by the Air Force unless you can slip past the sleeping guards. The four officers involved, who were responsible for keeping the component secure until it is returned to the base, placed it in a lockbox for temporary storage. Then Mr. Sandman paid them a visit and three of the four officers fell asleep for two to three hours according to Ford. Protocol requires at least 2 officers to be awake while they have the component in their custody. The electronic code component was later returned to Minot where an investigation was started by Missile Command, Space Command, the 20th Air Force and the National Security Agency. The Air Force claims neither the codes nor national security were compromised as the codes and the component remained in a secured facility; but that won't help these four guys or Air Force leadership as they get grilled for another embarrassing boo-boo. This follows a B-52 last year from Minot (of all places) that took a nice little cross-country flight with the crew unaware that six nuclear warheads were on board and the accidental shipping of ICBM parts to Taiwan in March. Many analysts contribute those incidents to the sacking of the former Secretary of the Air Force and Air Force Chief of Staff, so this blunder can't look good either.

(CNN)

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Air India pilots hit snooze button, overfly destination

It seems like just yesterday I was posting about a couple of GO! Airlines pilots who overshot their destination in Hawaii because they were sleeping in the cockpit, and now this. The Times of India is reporting that the pilots of an Air India flight fell asleep in flight and flew 359 miles past their destination of Mumbai. With 100 passengers behind them, the pilots were ultimately awakened by some nervous air traffic controllers over the radio. The flight originated from Dubai at 01:35 a.m. then stopped at Jaipur at 07:00 a.m. before continuing to Mumbai. An unidentified source told the Times "after operating an overnight flight, fatigue levels peak, and so the pilots dozed off after taking off from Jaipur." Of course, Air India officials are vehemently denying this report and claiming the flight only momentarily lost radio contact and only flew 14 miles off course. Well, they both can't be right here.

(Via Fox News)

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Study shows Predator pilots face more fatigue, emotional exhaustion, burnout, and video-game thumb

A new study from the Naval Post Graduate School has shown that pilots in Predator UAS squadrons suffer more from "significantly increased fatigue, emotional exhaustion, and burnout" when compared to traditional flight crews. A previous report showing similar results had prompted the Air Force to readjust their crew schedules, but according the new study there has been little change to the outcome. Another issue found with these drowsy pilots is that their home life and marriages start to go down the tubes as well due to their work environment. The root of the problem has been unidentified as inadequate manpower, but the new study failed to produce any other ideas to solve it. Perhaps they should place the entire Predator control system on XBOX Live.

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