View Full Version : ATC sleeps in, tower closed, aircraft circles 20min
Sleep-in, so plane flies on
02sep05
An air traffic controller who slept in has been blamed for a passenger plane being forced to circle over Canberra waiting for the air traffic tower to open.
The controller's alarm apparently failed to work on Wednesday morning and the air traffic control tower at Canberra International Airport was not opened at the usual time of 5:30am.
It opened 20 minutes later at 5:50am, and the delay caused a Qantas Boeing 737-800 flight from Perth to circle over Canberra airport for 20 minutes.
The plane, carrying 68 passengers, finally landed at 6:12am, 12 minutes after its scheduled arrival time.
Airservices Australia, which operates air traffic control operations across the country, said an investigation had been launched into the incident.
A spokesman for the government-owned body said two senior controllers would now be rostered on to open the tower at Canberra airport as a result of those circumstances.
"There's always more than one person in the tower. It's just that we have to have a senior controller in to open the tower," the spokesman said.
"There are going to be two senior controllers in the tower."
The spokesman said Tuesday's incident did not pose a safety threat to passengers or the aircraft.
"The controller slept in. In other industries people sleep in. It's a fact of life," he said.
Qantas said it was not concerned for the safety of its passengers at any time.
Lon More
2nd Sep 2005, 10:35
Also in Rumours & News.
Couldn't happen here now that I've retired :}
Long time ago I worked Noise Monitoring at Gatwick. I used to fall asleep in the van with my feet up on the dashboard - radio volume turned waaaay up so I would hear when someone started up. Unfortunately one night I fel asleep with my foot on the Tx switch, alledgedly, it sounded like overtime was being worked in a sawmill:\
SM4 Pirate
2nd Sep 2005, 11:02
Yawn :=
Hands up who's never slept in.
If there was no safety issue, the funniest part of it is that Canberra is our national capital! Who say's we're half asleep way down here at our end of the world.
newswatcher
2nd Sep 2005, 11:16
The controller's alarm apparently failed to work on Wednesday morning The spokesman said Tuesday's incident........... Glad Airservices Australia know what day of the week it is!
:p
andrijander
3rd Sep 2005, 07:56
Heard from a coleague -so again, myth or history?- that a couple of years ago at maastricht airport the same thing happened. Allegedly there should have been 2 atco's but, due to the fact that there was only one flight early in the morning and then nothing to do till l8r, the guys decided one of them could sleep a bit longer and join after a while. So, only one guy left to man the tower for the first flight. He was there on time, opened the tower, the flight gets a bit delayed, the guy is tired, the guy falls asleep in his position...a/c arrives and calls in....nothing...calls in again....nothing nothing. Eventually, about 20 mins later, the second guy comes in and finds out what's up and the a/c lands.
Funny thing is, next day and about 10 min after the tower opening time, one controller from the muac gets the mike and goes on guard "wake up! wake up!" while making ring an alarm clock...
At ESPA/Luleå they have a single controller at work during the night, and he/she is allowed to sleep on a cot to the rear of the tower. (They are only there as standby for medical flights)
The way they do it, is that they set an alarm some time before the first mail plane is expected each morning. Now, a former instructor of mine is a rather heavy sleeper (apparently), and did not wake from the alarm one morning......and after a while Sundsvall ACC called with the inbound estimate for the mail C208. No reply. Tried all phonelines, and guard. Sleeping beaty did not wake up.
In the end (with the C208 in the hold) Sundsvall called the gate guards at the airforce base (ESPA is comb. mil/civ), and my former instructor woke to the sight of a conscript in combat gear shaking her awake!
hadagutful
3rd Sep 2005, 12:58
What a load of nonsense, as if the crew of a 737 can't use their radio, MBZ procedures, to land rather than hanging around burning (costly) fuel and keeping their pax longer in the air.
I could just imagine the crowded circuit at Canberra at
6 a.m. in the morning.
Is this another aviation media "story" or did it really happen ?!!
Well I suppose that it is better to be asleep in your bed with the ac not receiving a service from you than falling asleep on console whilst it is under service ..... I'm sure the one I saw was not the first and probably won't be the last. Obviously the banter in the approach room wasn't interesting enough to keep said controller awake. (no excuse really as it was mid-afternoon)
Down Under is not like it used to be!
In the 60s I flew a VIP One Star from Laverton near Melbourne to the Hamilton annual country show. The Hamilton airfield was a dirt strip equipped with cattle to keep the grass short and maybe a goat to exercise ATC.
A couple of low passes chased the cattle away from the strip before landing.
During lunch the one star was asked by the local Mayor's wife - " Are you an Air Marshal with Vice?" which caused him to go red in the face for some peculiar reason.
Had to enlist a local with a car to chase the cattle off the strip again before departure.
Approaching Laverton base I was advised that the airfield was closed due to absence of the fire tender which was attending to a domestic fire.
Couldn't find the fire during a couple of orbits so calmly advised the lone ATC that in the absence of any other traffic or cattle on the runway I no longer needed his clearance to land and would do so forthwith.
What would be the consequences now?
Whenever I'm up in the tower late at night, waiting for an air ambulance to return for hours and hours . .
i switch from headset to loudspeaker, put volume to max on twr & app freqs and wait in "relaxed" mode.
I do try not to sleep, but its not that easy when i'm working alone on tower and approach for up to 16 hours (split shifts) on some days.
I'd rather be fully awake for the approach and landing phase, and do it right, than half asleep.. forget rwy inspection.. forget atis.. you get the picture.
DirtyPierre
4th Sep 2005, 09:24
Milt,
Haven't been to Laverton recently have you? The tower is full of cobwebs and if you landed on the runway, look out for the housing development on the overrun!!
EXATCO
7th Sep 2005, 07:13
Many years ago, at an airport in the Med where the ATC was run by the RAF, in the wee small hours of the morning the Watch had their "heads down" - mainly in arm-chairs.
A VERY senior non-commissioned ATCO got up and sat at the Tower/Visual control position, donned headset and proceeded to issue landing instructions to a civil airliner. The aircraft was cleared to land and, subsequently, was given taxiing instructions to the civil apron.
The controller took off his headset and returned to his armchair to continue his slumber.
The only problem being that there had been NO aircraft!!!! Spooky or what ....
The fact that this story can be told proves that the chap was monitored throughout, by his fellow controller who thought it was unwise to try and wake our diligent somnambulist.
HEATHROW DIRECTOR
7th Sep 2005, 07:39
<<Many years ago, at an airport in the Med where the ATC was run by the RAF>>
OK.. many years ago, at an airport near the Med, run by *** (Brit ex-pats) a BOAC flight approacheth..... There was no response on the R/T so the aeroplane went through the radio failure nause... landed... and the Captain proceeded to the ATC facility, where he found the guys asleep... so he duly signed "On Watch".
The resulting furore next day when SATCO did his rounds and read the log was legendary...
(This is a 3rd hand story so probably bears little resemblance to the truth).
karrank
7th Sep 2005, 07:44
Was told a story many moons ago of Carnarvon Flight Service. A bloke settled in his chair one Saturday morning and was woken some time later by an aircraft roaring down the runway. First thing he notices is a flight plan form pinned to his shirt...