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By ANDY PASZTOR

Aviation regulators suspended an air-traffic controller and supervisor at a Cleveland regional control center, after the controller lost contact with aircraft on the facility's radio frequency for more than three minutes Sunday while watching a movie on a portable video player.

The Federal Aviation Administration released a statement Monday indicating that the controller violated agency policy by bringing a DVD player to his radar position early that morning. The controller inadvertently activated his microphone, according to the FAA, and ended up briefly transmitting the movie's soundtrack to all the planes in that sector assigned to a specific radio frequency.

The incident lasted for more than three minutes, the FAA said, and now both the controller a "front line manager" are suspended from operational duties pending an investigation. FAA officials didn't identify the two people suspended.

The event comes after a spate of controller missteps nationwide in the past few weeks, including at least eight instances this year in which controllers or supervisors nodded off while they were supposed to be monitoring or responding to radio messages from aircraft. The pilots of at least three planes, including an air ambulance carrying a patient, were forced to land on their own without help from airport-tower controllers.

In the past few weeks at least seven other controllers have been suspended for violations of FAA rules, all but one for nodding off on the job.

The latest problem was brought to the attention of air-traffic control officials by "the pilot of a military aircraft using an alternate frequency," according to the FAA's statement.

Since the controller's microphone stuck in the transmit position, he couldn't hear any incoming radio calls or issue instructions to any planes during the brief period. He was watching the 2007 movie "Cleaner," starring Samuel L. Jackson, according to a person familiar with the incident

The embarrassing slip-up on the overnight weekend shift by the Cleveland duo became public as FAA chief Randy Babbitt, other agency leaders and the head of the union representing the nation's 15,000 controllers launched a nationwide drive on Monday to reiterate the importance of professionalism and staying alert to controllers at various facilities.

So far, the agency has beefed up overnight staffing at 26 airport towers, revised controller work schedules to increase the amount of time they must have off between shifts and promised a "top to bottom review" of the entire U.S. traffic-control system.

Opening the first of the nationwide meetings slated to discuss fatigue and professionalism issues, the FAA chief said at a Georgia control center that the earlier controller errors and lapses of judgment "put a real terrible blemish on the great work" controllers typically perform. The problem of controllers nodding off on duty is "something we need to address and address quickly," Mr. Babbitt told the controllers and some journalists allowed into the session. One of the reporters filed a pool report quoting the FAA chief saying he doesn't support napping even during breaks. "We don't pay people to sleep at work at the FAA."

Also on Monday before the latest controller misstep was disclosed, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood reiterated that "controllers need to take personal responsibility" to correct what he called instances of "some very bad behavior." Fatigued controllers are "a very big concern," Mr. LaHood said in a CNN interview, adding that he and FAA officials would consider ordering further changes if warranted.

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