Air Safety and Sleep
A still from the air traffic
controller movie, Pushing Tin
controller movie, Pushing Tin
I was looking at an interesting but tragic article on air traffic controller sleep and fatigue the other day and what I learned was actually quite scary. The CNN story stated:
In the August 27 Comair crash in Lexington, Kentucky, the lone air-traffic controller was working on just two hours of sleep, according to the NTSB.
The controller cleared the CRJ-100 to take off from the correct runway, which was 7,003 feet long, but the airplane mistakenly turned onto a shorter runway that was just half that length. The plane crashed into a fence and trees at the airport perimeter, killing 49 of the 50 people onboard.
The controller in the tower had worked a 6:30 a.m.-to-2:30 p.m. shift the day before the accident, then returned nine hours later and worked from 11:30 p.m. until the 6:07 a.m. accident, the NTSB says. He told investigators his only sleep between shifts was a two-hour nap.
So here I must wonder, what was this guy thinking? He was scheduled to work for about a 24 hour period with a decent break in between and he only took a 2 hour nap!
While I have no idea what is required of these people, I would venture to say that if I were an air traffic controller, I would certainly try to get more sleep than 2 hours before going to work where, literally, people's lives are on the line.
It was reported that there have been 4 other fatigue-related incidents (all italics are mine):
Chicago, Illinois, March 23, 2006: The NTSB letter says a controller cleared an Airbus A320 passenger plane to cross a runway and then, less than 15 seconds later, cleared a Boeing 737 to take off on the same runway. The pilot of the Boeing saw the Airbus and stopped before reaching the taxiway intersection. The controller told investigators he had slept only four hours during a nine-hour break between shifts.
Los Angeles, California, August 19, 2004: A controller cleared a Boeing 737 passenger plane to taxi onto and take off from a runway at the same time that another plane, a Boeing 747, had been cleared to land on the same runway. The pilot of the landing plane saw the 737 and pulled up 12 seconds before a collision would have occurred, passing about 200 feet above the runway. The controller had slept five or six hours before returning to work, the NTSB letter says.
Denver, Colorado, September 25, 2001: A controller approved a request from a Boeing 757 cargo plane crew to depart from a runway, even though the runway had been closed for construction. The aircraft passed within 32 feet of lights that had been erected in the construction zone. Investigators determined that the controller had slept less than two hours during a nine-hour period between work days.
Seattle, Washington, July 8, 2001: A controller cleared a Boeing MD-80 passenger airplane to cross a runway at the same time a Boeing 767 passenger airplane was about to land on the runway. The pilots in the landing airplane hit their brakes to avoid a collision, stopping only 810 feet short of the MD-80. The controller was working his third shift in two days, with eight-hour rest periods between shifts.
As you can see in the LA incident, the person got at least 5 hours of sleep, while the others were quite a bit less.
My question is this: could it be that these people cannot fall asleep quickly enough to get the rest they need in between shifts?
This could be a real possibility. Think about the stress they must be under while working. That is not likely something that they would be able to just shrug off, drive home, nap, and drive back. I would doubt that they would be allowed to take sleeping pills, and also, at least in the ComAir case, they were being asked to sleep at a time of day when they may not be tired.
Could it be that they are being required to work shifts that their bodies cannot sustain?
I think this too is a real possibility. The human body may not have been meant to handle these types of work schedules.
However, I will say that common sense would say, if you do not feel up to it, don't go in to work.
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8 Comments:
I don't see how the first example is the air traffic controller's fault. If he cleared the jet to take off at the proper runway but the jet turned onto the wrong one, isn't it the pilot's error?
As a mother of an air traffic controller I can tell you their schedule doesn't take much consideration into the need to get adequate sleep. This group as well as other (doctors/nurses etc.) are given schedules which constantly changing with the expectation they can sleep any where and any time. It's too bad our bodies didn't work that way. A regular schedule (basically one that doesn't change day to day) would support the need to get the real sleep they all need to perform their jobs the best they can. It sometimes is so simple... I don't know what the FAA can't figure it out!
as a wife of an retired air traffic controller I can say without a doubt that controllers do not get enough sleep. The work schedule they have is dangerous to all involved. The controller's health, passgers and pliot are all effected by lack of sleep.I don't understand why our goverment or the FAA can't see the the kind of stress controllers face all the time. Lack of sleep doesn't help anyone.
I am an Air Traffic Controller and can say without a doubt that our schedules are not condusive to rest. We have families and other responsibilities away from work and when you are only getting a nine hour break between shifts it is very difficult to balance the two. To make matters worse, the FAA has imposed unfair work rules on Controllers which has driven many into retirement (an average of three per day, there are fewer than 15,000 in the whole country). My facility is alloted 46 controllers and we're currently working with 24. Six day work weeks are pretty much the norm and it's only getting worse. Evidently rest is not a priority with the FAA, think about that the next time you fly!
Rest isn't a priority, with the FAA, just as you said.
With the advent of the imposed work rules, the FAA has given itself free rein, and they run with it. Recently, they have clarified leave policy, stating that "fatigue" is not considered an illness, and therefore leave will not be granted for it.
"Abuse" of sick leave under such conditions will lead to adverse action, up to removal from service.
The Comair controller could have been fired for taking leave to get rested.
6 day workweeks, 2-2-1 schedules, more traffic, fewer controllers, it all adds up.
The FAA has figured this out, they have done many studies on scheduling and sleep patterns. They know that the 2-2-1 (2 evening shifts, 8 hour turnaround, 2 day shifts, 8 hour turnaround, mid shift) is stressful and sleep depriving. They can't ignore it, so they must use it for a reason.
Even in the face of recommendations from the OPM, they keep using it.
My facility recently added an area while we were critically understaffed. We are alloted 340 controllers, we have 260. We will be staffing the areas with 42 CPCs each, which, in my area, is down from 48 last year. 3 more will retire this year, with the top 10 in the area eligible now. We can't train people fast enough to keep the levels up, even if we had the trainees.The remedy is to rush training, doing in 2 years what used to take 3 and a half.
My duties include CIC (substitute supervisor), OJTI (ATC Instructor) and ringer (Trainer for other areas, where some of our old sectors went) All of this adds to the stress and fatigue.
Hoping an ATC subject matter expert can help me with this one. As an aviator, I have crew-rest guidelines to follow; such as 12 hours on duty, 9 hours off, with exceptions only being granted by our command. Are ATCs given the same policy? From what I have read I can't establish any kind of "controller-rest rules in place. Thanks for whatever input you have...
I'm an air traffic controller at the Air Forces 3rd busiest airport in the world.
Truth is…the job can, at times, suck! Even for those of us who LOVE it. We're not appreciated by those we protect. We save more lives on a daily basis than any other profession. Pilots seldom understand or have an awareness outside their own limited perspective and even go so far as not to listen to control instructions at times.
Everything we say is recorded, and we're responsible to back it up in a court of law should the unthinkable happen. We're responsible for knowing more rules, numbers, functions, and facts than humanly possible. No mistakes allowed!
We're generally cocky. And that's okay because we're in control. We control everything in our environment. It affects our personal life in more ways than most people can even imagine. Our spouse will not understand us or our job. We don't bring the job home- but we will bring the stress.
We will have crash dreams. We will control traffic in our sleep. You can't imagine the stress. We can never again tolerate a read-back error at a drive thru restaurant. Indecision is unacceptable in any scenario - especially from those you love. We generally have a lack of tolerance in communication. We expect people to say what they mean and mean what they say. Life is black and white (yes...it is...there is no gray) for a controller. Driving will never be the same again - we use the rules of anticipated separation. It's okay because it's legal.
Controllers come in two varieties: the home schooler/Bible thumpers and the drunks. There's something "not right" about ALL of us. We either look 10 yrs older than our age or 10 yrs younger. We know all the different variations of the word "stress". And we criticize any aviation movie that's not accurate.
Most of us are on blood pressure medication. We never get normal sleep because our mind never stops. We work while you sleep at night (and on Christmas too). We never have "normal" days off. We rarely have a "normal" social life but generally make up for it by "going too far" when we relieve the stress. We can't participate in all of our kids' school activities. Our friends don't understand that we can't leave work for "lunch" or get off early. People will think that we're the guy on the ramp with the lights.
We will be the last person a pilot talks to as we hear the terror in his voice before he crashes. We will never forget it. We'll relive it again and again. You won't make the money that we do. You may have the house and the cars, but we have the clothes, the watch, the shoes, and the attitude. You need us that way, you want us that way. It's in our DNA.
In our world we're unbelievably hard on each other (ridiculously hard). The requirement for thick skin is an understatement (no crying allowed). When one of us fails we will laugh at you (and laugh hard we will). When one of us succeeds we won't acknowledge it (it's your job...so what). If we're laughing on the radio and you hear us, chances are.....we're laughing at you!
I'm an air traffic controller and supervisor. To the pilot... Controllers must have eight hours off between shifts. Sounds fair. Drive home. Get ready for bed. Get up - shower, shave, eat a meal (breakfast? supper?) pack a lunch, drive to work. Try to sleep in there somewhere. Eight hours? Fat chance. The FAA is mandated to have controllers off for a minimum of eight hours between shifts. So if a controller works until 2:30 PM and comes back in for the 10:30 PM midnight shift (quite common and the legal eight hour minimum) like the Lexington controller, they need to get some sleep while off. This is outside their normal sleep cycle so a two hour nap isn't surprising. Let's assume that the day before was also a shift that ended at 2:30 PM and they got a full night's sleep- 5 or 6 hours anyway. Now go home and try to get some sleep after work. Your body is just not able to. How about some of the new sleeping pills? Out of the question. Any drug that helps you sleep is illegal. So controllers go the other way. Caffeine. Coffee. Red Bull. "Rock Star" is popular where I work. It used to be caffeine and nicotine but nicotine has been removed from the work place. Good riddance.
And about pilot error... The Lexington flight was headed to ATL. I suspect that they were given instructions by the tower controller stating "You need to go now or take a delay because of airborne volume en-route to ATL." I would guess the pilot rushed to get off the airport and didn't do any of the post taxi / preflight checks because no one wants to explain a delay. Just my humble opinion.
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