Jet carrying first lady aborts landing

the FAA said in a news release.

The incident came after a month of bad publicity for the nation’s air-traffic system prompted by several reports of controllers nodding off at work. Seven controllers in six separate cases have either admitted falling asleep or were unresponsive.

The first lady’s jet was nearing Andrews, the military air base just outside Washington, D.C., used by the president and his family, and a controller at a regional air-traffic facility in Virginia directed it to get too close to the military jet.

A second controller at Andrews’ tower saw that the planes were too close and ordered the 737 to climb instead of land, the FAA said.

Although the incident was clearly an error by a controller and reduced the margin of safety, it did not appear to have put either aircraft in imminent danger, according to a retired senior controller.

Gary Brittain, who handled aircraft in the busy skies around Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport before retiring, called the incident an

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