Cardiff - "Controller's lunch break delayed landing"
 

Don't normally hang around in here, but spotted this when I was browsing elsewhere and thought you might like a look...
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100n...name_page.html
Shall leave the comments to you chaps who know far more than me. ;)

The NATS website is currently boasting about "state-of-the-art technology for Cardiff Airport control tower". This obviously doesn't include a commode ...

There are only 2 ATCOs available for night duties at Cardiff, this does rather limit things when it comes to breaks.
Not sure if they were fully staffed that night or not but there comes a point when due Scratcoh people have to take breaks.
As for the loos, there used to be two very nicely positioned at the bottom of the tower stairs, then they were taken away from us and turned into storage cupboards. Now if one requires a natural break they have to go to the other end of the building.
I would very much doubt that would be the reason however for the place having to temporarily close, far more likely down to staffing issues or scratcoh

Another piece of journalistic brilliance ..... a lunch break at midnight ???

Apparently the captain told the punters that "the person qualified to land this plane is on a break". So that would be him and the first officer then. :confused:

How would we manage without the media?

Obviously the full story is yet to come out, but both the snippet from the passengers and the journalistic approach are, as usual, indicative of the general publics' lack of knowledge of what an air traffic controller actually does.


From a passenger, a Mr Jones (appropriate for Cardiff)

I fully agree, just when are NATS going to supply us with those colostomy bags we asked for when undertaking night duties?!!

Van Der Hum,

Or is it pilot code for "the autopilot has broken"!!!

At my airfield before the days of full 7-day ops (but not 24 hours cos the local council won't allow it) we used to staff weekends with 2 controllers each 9 hour day, taking a 1 hour lunch break in the middle. On saturdays we opened at 8 am and closed at 5 pm, while sundays we opened at 11 am and closed at 8pm. Some operators obviously had difficulty handling that because on one occasion, there were three aircraft holding one sunday morning when we arrived to open up!

Controller's "lunch" break delayed landing
 

A cracking faux pas from the Journalist - who eats lunch at 1240am??

Hmm. I'm sure the controller timed their break specifically to coincide with the arrival of this aircraft just to be awkward-well that's the spin the media seem to have put on it in the usual jet drama horror tabloid style.
The more likely situation is that there was a staffing problem at EGFF and the controller in question was required BY LAW to take a 30 min. SCRATCOH break. If they had decided to stay plugged in even for a few minutes extra to provide a service for this aircraft,the law would have been broken. If during this time there is an incident directly attributable to the controller who has not taken a fatigue break,the book would be hurled squarely at them. Just my theory so hopefully one of m'colleagues from EGFF can put us right as to what happened. As an aside I seem to remember a similar story hitting the pages of the Scottish red tops a few years ago with an aircraft inbound to one of the western isles. The single controller on duty refused to provide a service until he had completed his SCRATCOH break and the inbound had to hold for half an hour. All legal though.

Thats the trouble nowdays, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. Imagine the headlines if the controller had worked in excess of his/her hours then had an incident.

We have had this situation here in Norway too. Because of staffing problems.
Our company have been f:mad:ing us last years...so people been quitting or moving abroad to work. (and ofcourse they stopped the education as well for 2 years..just to make things worse)
So i.e. Bodø ACC sector south("Old" Trondheim ACC) have to close some hours at night now and then.
But the "fun" will start there later this year. Like it looks now, there will probably only be 4!!??? ATCO's staffing a ACC sector on 24 hours basis.
Which means middle of Norway will be closed most of the week.
Not looking forward to the newspaper headlines. :\

The aircraft in question held for 18 minutes, and from what i can gather this will become the norm during nightshifts at EGFF.....

If some of the loonies on this thread worked a few nights they might understand that it is perfectly possible to be eating "lunch" at 2am.

HD

This 'loonie' works at TC. This 'loonie' works nights. This loonie may eat something during the night shift, but it is not 'lunch'.

Lunch is a meal at midday, dinner is a meal in the evening, Breakfast - well, thats the meal in the morning that 'breaks' the 'fast' that usually occurs if you sleep all night.

Despite some northern English spin, tea is a mid morning or mid afternoon snack taken at a time other than the above meals.

I don't know what you were trying to prove, all I was saying was lunch at 1240am is not strictly true, and certainly not the correct use of English. Something which a journalist should get correct, even if all the other bull that they print is factually incorrect, or misleading, or speculative.

I'm off for my early morning meal :ok:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I read somewhere that there is another unit in the South West which can provide radar services right through the night. Can't quite remember it's name though!?;)

Whats in a name, I work shifts and we just call it our meal break.

If I'm on a night duty and to aviod the body getting all screwed up, if I get up at in the middle of the afternoon I still have breakfast, dinner will be around 2100hrs and tea when I get home around 0600. Never fancied having a breakfast before going to bed.

clicker,

the point I was trying to make was that journos cannot even get the semantics correct, whatever you want to call your early morning meal.

Pedantic yes, semantics, yes, but if they cannot even do that, then what hope is there of a balanced informed piece of reporting about aviation affairs?!!

I can see this starting to creep the thread somewhat, but I consider it exceptionally unprofessional, for precisely the reason demonstrated, to make such a facetious and inaccurate PA to the passengers.

And I would NEVER criticise ATC in public at my home unit, when they're likely to read about it!


Never mind, I'm sure Thomson won't need any favours this summer...

Anotherthing

I'm a fellow loonie, since I agree with your reasoning. It may be a meal or a snack but it certainly isn't lunch (using the Oxford English dictionary version anyway).

Another difference from HD's world is that some of us actually have to work aeroplanes for significant portions of our night shifts. Apart from the beginning and end of shift periods, what exactly DID you do at LHR during a night shift HD ?? :p

I,m sure it will come to you if you think hard enough! But it does make you wonder why the unit that can't manage to provide the services all through the night gets to control the overall flow of traffic in that corner of the world....

So, who will get to be in charge of the Severn TMA?