Travellers in the US were shocked to learn that air traffic controllers were sleeping on the job. Could it happen here? asks GERRY BYRNE
IT’S BAD ENOUGH hoping the pilots stay awake. Now the people who stop planes crashing into each other are nodding off, making mistakes, sometimes watching movies instead of radar. Among those affected: an air ambulance with a critically ill patient on board, and two airliners which had to take the risky step of managing their own late-night landings.
Ten air traffic controllers in the US have been fired or suspended in the past month – nine dozed and one watched movies – and their boss, Hank Krakowski, head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), has resigned. Last year a controller was suspended after allowing his kids to approve takeoffs from JFK. Last Saturday Michelle Obama’s plane had to abort a landing at a Washington airport when controllers allowed it to get too close to the aircraft in front.
Couldn’t happen here? Well, we’re not immune to errors by air-traffic controllers. Two jetliners got even closer than Mrs Obama’s over the Irish Sea in September 2007 when a controller accidentally set them on a collision course. They avoided crashing by just 17 seconds after cockpit anti-collision systems alerted both pilots, who took evasive action.
On the plus side: a vigilant Dublin controller who diverted an inbound jet heading for a brightly lit north Dublin hotel, which the confused pilot mistook for runway lights. Not so alert was the tired Lexington, Kentucky, controller who, in 2006, failed to spot an airliner straying onto the wrong, shorter runway one dark morning. It failed to get airborne before crashing, killing 49. Or the overworked Los Angeles controller who, in 1991, forgot she left a commuter aircraft waiting at the end of the runway where a Boeing 737 was to land. All in both aircraft died, along with 21 in a building hit by wreckage.
Most of the US controllers caught sleeping had inadvertently nodded off when working alone in the control tower. Last week the FAA ordered that they must now work in pairs through the night. A culture of controllers bringing sleeping bags and taking turns to nap was also uncovered.
Older controllers say this sometimes happened in Irish towers when late-night traffic was much lighter, but has not happened for years.
“Sleeping on the job is not a problem in this country,” says Lilian Cassin, spokeswoman for the Irish Aviation Authority, which controls air traffic at Ireland’s main airports. Longer rest periods are one reason why Irish travellers are not endangered by tired controllers.
Up to now, US controllers could be required to commence a night shift just eight hours after completing an earlier one. Allowing for time taken to commute and eat, this often meant a controller got six hours or less in bed before starting a night shift.
Nasa research has revealed that frequent short naps are the best way of keeping alert at night, but US authorities seemed to regard napping as a character defect and banned it, even during meal breaks. Yet in Germany and Japan, controllers may take sleeping breaks in specially provided quiet rooms.
Now US controllers are to get an extra hour off, giving them a minimum of nine hours between shifts. This will bring them closer to the standard at Dublin Airport, where controllers are required to work just one night shift at a time. At Shannon airport,
controllers get a minimum of 11 hours off before a night shift. Experts warn that proper sleeping during the afternoon is difficult. And at night the brain secretes melatonin, a hormone that makes us dozy no matter how hard we try to stay awake.
