News: FAA ATC chief resigns over sleeping controllers

[Ditchdigger]

Require the controller to actually do something in the quiet periods ...

I'm not sure how many are actually aware that the FAA's rules forbid a controller from doing anything not directly related to air traffic control. No books, magazines, browsing the internet, TV, cards to play solitare, commercial radio, personal phone calls... Nothing. Stare out the window at the runway lights, or at the sweep going around on the radar screen, that's ok.

[sevenstrokeroll]

there are some good ideas...like that reverse selcal...great idea

and sure, hold the pilots to the same standards...but, and this is a big BUTT (ha)...you have to verify that there wasn't a stuck mic or other freq blockage.

galaxy flyer...no doubt in my mind you are a line pilot...u have seniority figured out!

[S76Heavy]

@Ditchdigger: so they have not figured out that it is during periods of low arousal that people's minds (and sometimes their bodies too) drift away?

They must be as myopic as the stupid EASA for thinking that regulations can change how biology works. Evolution takes thousands of years, not a regulation change.

I bet that it will eventually become accepted like the catnaps in the cockpit; there must be lots of controlers already doing other stuff just to stay awake, and as a pilot I feel safer for it. I trust professionals to know where to draw the line between a distraction and an aid.
And I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment that knowledge and with it, common sense has been lost in regulators and management.

[albatross]

Many years ago entering the Mirabel QC Canada control zone at 0600 with a 206L helicopter:
"Mirabel Tower C-GUXT"
Silence
" Mirabel Tower Charlie Golf Uniform X-ray Tango"
Silence
"Mirabel Tower UXT?"
Silence
"Mirabel, Mirabel, Mirabel -UXT?"
Silence
"Houston - Apollo 13 - with a problem!"
Reply
"Aircraft calling Mirabel- say again"

It all worked out from there -being as there had probably been no AC movements since 0030 local completely understandable.
I was not fully awake myself.

Night shift is a bitch - used to work in a smelter in Northern Quebec and after 0400 it was always a problem to stay awake if nothing was happening.

[sevenstrokeroll]

one part of the equation (a smaller one mind you), is that many towers use to be up / down approach controls/towers...the radar guy downstairs, tower guy upstairs.

but then some genius said, lets put all the tracons in one big room. fine

except the guy in the local tracon now had to commute to a distant facility. so he wanted to maximize his work time, with minimum sleeping breaks/off duty times.

same thing happens to airline pilots...my airline use to have three domiciles in california...now none, nearest is in the deep south.

more commuting, more snoozing...

FAA ...not impressed with you!

[Blockla]

Why not install equipment in the tower cab (to be active on the night shift) that would sound a loud klaxon if the controller fails to key his mike within thirty seconds of receiving a call?

This is a stop-gap measure at best, what about sleep inertia? If the controller is sleeping on duty then waking him/her up and expecting an 'instant' decision might be worse than letting him/her sleep... I remember a mate of mine who had an incident around 2am where the pilot was suffering from sleep inertia and reported the wrong level, despite being questioned multiple times...

I have worked in a few ATC locations with different approaches to sleeping and staffing during night shifts. Where I currently work is an excellent way to work night shifts, but the shifts are still fatiguing (short turn around into two nights). But I would imagine that managers are disgusted about the 'waste' of man power.

My previous employer had a $$$ only approach to working nights, it was/still is a crap way of working nights, it was not unusual to see multiple sleepers while on duty at various stages throughout the night. I've never seen it in my current location.

Applying (regulated) duty hour rules and proper fatigue management to ATC shift patterns is the only way forward (as airlines/regulators should be dong with pilots), we know so much more about the science of sleep but the $$$ always get in the way of managing it properly. Too much "when I was a controller" thought processes regarding attitudes to night staffing from management levels in ATC.

Closing towers and making the CTAFs is one solution, not a good one at most locations, it doesn't address fatigue issues in 'Area control or approach control' locations.

[Ditchdigger]

@Ditchdigger: so they have not figured out that it is during periods of low arousal that people's minds (and sometimes their bodies too) drift away?

They must be as myopic as the stupid EASA for thinking that regulations can change how biology works. Evolution takes thousands of years, not a regulation change.

There's one school of thought that holds that management's ranks are composed of individuals who couldn't cut it doing the actual work, and that resentment towards those who can cut it plays a greater role in policy making than any actual concern for safety. I'll leave it up to everybody to judge the validity of that for themselves.

I bet that it will eventually become accepted like the catnaps in the cockpit; ...

I hadn't mentioned it earlier, but the FAA also prohibits such catnaps by controllers, at any time. Even when the facility is fully staffed and a controller has a full hour of break time, 15 minutes of sleeping is a forbidden activity.

...there must be lots of controlers already doing other stuff just to stay awake, and as a pilot I feel safer for it. I trust professionals to know where to draw the line between a distraction and an aid.
And I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment that knowledge and with it, common sense has been lost in regulators and management.

Any comments I make about controllers and the FAA are based strictly on second hand information. These are the things I'm told by Mrs. Ditchdigger when she gets home from work.

That having been said, I have my own opinion, which is that, as a human being, in any field of endeavor, stupid and onerous regulations breed contempt for regulations in general.

[aterpster]

Ditchdigger:

There's one school of thought that holds that management's ranks are composed of individuals who couldn't cut it doing the actual work, and that resentment towards those who can cut it plays a greater role in policy making than any actual concern for safety. I'll leave it up to everybody to judge the validity of that for themselves.

That school of thought is not unlike believing in the Tooth Fairy or Easter Bunny. Controllers, as a group, live in a world that is tilted a tad off vertical.

[S76Heavy]

There is also the Peter Principle that states that people get promoted to a level beyind their competence.

However, I do not subscribe to the view that one can manage everything from a peach cannery to a hospital without in depth knowledge of the product nor the way it is produced and by whom.

As long as managers treat people like tools, there will be trouble. More so when senior positions are filled by political appointments rather than subject knowledge. And we all suffer for it.

[Chingchung]

HKATCA President

You know the story very well.....

[groundbum]

or use a bit of technology

rather than lotsa controllers scattered over the back of beyond controlling zippo planes, why not at night use some technology so that one controller does, say, ten airports at night from some remote location. That way he/she has enough activity to stay awake and the cost savings would be enormous. If the remote relay breaks switch to uncontrolled status..

[Ditchdigger]

That school of thought is not unlike believing in the Tooth Fairy or Easter Bunny. Controllers, as a group, live in a world that is tilted a tad off vertical.

That's why I didn't state it as fact, but left it open to individual judgement. I will say this though--rather than the Tooth Fairy or the Easter Bunny, let's consider Santa Claus. While his physical existence is doubtful, he has plenty of imitators, and there's no questioning the fact that his policies are embodied in the practice of the holiday.

On edit:

or use a bit of technology
rather than lotsa controllers scattered over the back of beyond controlling zippo planes, why not at night use some technology so that one controller does, say, ten airports at night from some remote location. That way he/she has enough activity to stay awake and the cost savings would be enormous. If the remote relay breaks switch to uncontrolled status..

For (what I consider to be), some very well thought out and very well expressed opinion on that topic, may I recommend the blog, Praxis Foundation . The most recent entry has to do with this topic, but many of the past entries deal with the very topic you've raised.

All I'll add is that to begin to employ such technology on the midnight shift will ineviably lead to its use around the clock.

[flydive1]

Changes to controllers scheduling

Press Release – FAA Announces Changes to Controller Scheduling

[RatherBeFlying]

I'm not sure how many are actually aware that the FAA's rules forbid a controller from doing anything not directly related to air traffic control. No books, magazines, browsing the internet, TV, cards to play solitare, commercial radio, personal phone calls... Nothing. Stare out the window at the runway lights, or at the sweep going around on the radar screen, that's ok.

On a tower with zero movements over an hour during the graveyard shift, I'm amazed anyone could stay awake without being into amphetamines

[Shell Management]

I like the idea of using technolgy to serve multiple locations from one control room.

But surely something like the deadmans handle in trains is all that is needed at a minimum.

[Tscottme]

I worked briefly as a maintenance controller and a new boss wanted to put his mark on the outfit by changing everyone's schedule. We had found an employee that preferred working nights, he became the night MX controller. When new boss hired on he decided that MX Controllers would rotate shifts so nobody got "stuck" on nights. New schedule meant nobody was happy and nobody ever got used to working nights. Every call to MX Control was answered within the first 30 rings because nobody had spent more than a few days trying to work nights and sleep days.

I've been working nights for over 10 years. Being a permanent night person is the low-cost answer. How is permanently assigning one or two controllers to work nights not the answer? A nap is all but mandatory for night workers. It's better than the harshest coffee. That the FAA prohibits naps tells you more about the FAA's denial of reality than all the vaccum tubes in all the computers they operate.

From the Reagan National "news" story I understood that each ATC cab has a telephone line called a "shout line", accesable to other ATC facilities for getting someone's attention even if they aren't plugged in. It activates a PA speaker in the facility.

Only a bureaucrat would try and fix a problem of not enough work to keep a man awake at night by assigning 2 men to share the workload.

[Fawad]

As if sleeping on duty wasn't bad enough

Air traffic controller suspended for watching movie on duty

WASHINGTON — An air traffic controller has been suspended for watching a movie when he was supposed to be monitoring aircraft, deepening the Federal Aviation Administration's embarrassment following at least five cases of controllers sleeping on the job.

In the latest incident, the controller was watching a movie on a DVD player early Sunday morning while on duty at a regional radar center in Oberlin, Ohio, near Cleveland that handles high-altitude air traffic, the FAA said in a statement Monday.

The controller's microphone was inadvertently activated, transmitting the audio of the movie — the 2007 crime thriller "Cleaner," starring Samuel L. Jackson — for more than three minutes to all the planes in the airspace that the controller was supposed to be monitoring, the agency said.
The controller's microphone became stuck in the transmit position, preventing him from hearing incoming radio calls or issuing instructions to planes during the incident, the agency said.

The controller was alerted to the mishap when he was contacted by a military pilot. Besides the controller, the FAA also has suspended a manager at the Oberlin center. In all, the FAA has suspended nine controllers and supervisors since late March.

In five of the cases the controllers allegedly fell asleep. In another case, the FAA is investigating why two controllers in Lubbock, Texas, were unresponsive to radio calls.

Air traffic controller caught watching movie - Travel - News - msnbc.com

[wlatc]

The state of American ATC

I agree with Joepilot70 that the media is all over U.S. air traffic control and, in their enthusiasm, are particularly unburdened by the rules of good journalism. That said, there clearly is a deterioration of confidence in the professionalism and competence in the American ATC system. The flying public is coming to regard ATC as yet another reason to hate – even fear - flying.

The resignation of ATO Chief Hank Krakowski was a necessary first step, although he was not the cause of the problem.

The cause is complacency.

Complacency on the part of management, complacency on the part of training providers and most importantly, complacency on the part of controllers. People in the system have become so focused on the wrong things - the "I'm right - they're wrong" mentality - that the important business of providing safe and efficient service is taking a back seat.

To correct this, I suggest the following:

1) Both controllers and first level supervisors must be required to demonstrate technical competence at least every year or two. Professional pilots must constantly hone their skills and demonstrate their competence via regular flight check rides and simulator exercises; controllers need to do the same. As with pilots, no pass = no ticket.

2) Work shifts need to be evaluated on the basis of operationally safety and controller health – not what controllers like because of the “long weekend.” Quick turnarounds and “The Rattler” are not working and never have.

3) The system which allows pilots and controllers to report errors (including their own) without fear of punitive action must remain in force. The media must respect that. Making statements such as “the huge increase in reported errors” does not represent the system’s decline, just its new transparency. It is irresponsible to misrepresent these reports.

4) It is in the nature of media these days to make every story a spectacle. A loss of standard separation incident becomes a “frightening near mid-air collision that could have killed hundreds.” By the same token, constantly mouthing the FAA lines about “safety was never an issue” and “we’re still the world’s safest ATC system,” need to be challenged. We won’t fix what we don’t acknowledge.