Air traffic controllers say new work rules, which started Sunday,will compromise safety in the skies.

Controllers at major international airports -- including Fort Lauderdale and Miami -- are concerned in particular that the Federal Aviation Administration's cost-cutting will make it even harder to keep up with burgeoning traffic.

Under the new rules, according to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association:

--Controllers can no longer call in sick when they are simply tired.

--They cannot call in sick with a cold.

--Breaks after two hours are no longer guaranteed.

The new rules have been in the works since contract negotiations between the FAA and the controllers' union broke down in April. But a plane crash that killed 49 people at Lexington Blue Grass Airport early Sunday morning brings them into sharp focus.

The crash's sole survivor is First Officer James Polehinke, of Margate, who was in serious condition Friday night at the University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital.

The lone controller in the Kentucky tower had turned his back to the airfield before the pilots took off on the wrong runway. He had worked from 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, then returned to work at 11:30 p.m. the same day to begin another eight-hour shift. Investigators said he had only two hours of sleep. The FAA has since added a second controller.

Things aren't so different at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, said Howie Rifas, president of the local NATCA.