Haneda Airport Controller Suspended for Blog Posts
Oct. 28, 2011
Japan's transport ministry said Friday it has suspended for three months a chief traffic controller at Tokyo International Airport at Haneda after he posted flight plans for U.S. presidential aircraft Air Force One and other planes on his blog.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism also reprimanded six other officials, including the director of the Narita office of the Tokyo Regional Civil Aviation Bureau, for mismanagement.
However, senior transport ministry officials, including the then director-general of the bureau, did not receive warnings over the incident.
The ministry set the suspension period at three months because the 56-year-old controller had no intention of making money from the wrongdoing though the information posted on the blog could have been used for terror attacks against the aircraft, officials said.
According to the ministry and other sources, the controller in question uploaded a total of 192 images related to his work on the blog, which he opened in 2001. Of the images, 21 were taken inside the control room, some of which showed flight plans and traffic control radar screens.