FAA holds meetings on air traffic control safety

New rules for air traffic controllersSTORY HIGHLIGHTSNEW: FAA officials, union representatives begin a cross-country tour in AtlantaNEW: FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt says mistakes "will not be tolerated" The FAA reported a seventh case of a controller asleep on the job this yearControllers now must have a minimum of nine hours off between shifts Atlanta (CNN) -- Top officials from the Federal Aviation Administration and the air traffic controllers' union kicked off a cross-country tour of air traffic control facilities on Monday, two days after a seventh reported case this year of a controller falling asleep on the job.

FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt and Paul Rinaldi, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, are expected to hold a series of meetings about safety and professionalism. Their first stop was at a radar facility in the Atlanta area.

"None of us in this business can tolerate any of this," Babbitt said of the sleeping controllers. "It absolutely has to stop. ... One mistake is one too many."

This "will not be tolerated," he insisted. "We run the safest system in the world," but these incidents have "cast a cloud."

Inside the life of an air traffic controller

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