Air Traffic Controller Crackdown Misguided, Potentially Ineffective

Safety concerns persist as federal regulators continue to discipline air traffic controllers for dozing off on the job. Since March, at least five air traffic controllers have been caught napping while monitoring overnight flights.

With all the recent media coverage, you might think this is a new national emergency - it’s not. Midnight-shift air traffic controllers have always had a grueling schedule and a hard to sustain lifestyle. The public is only now taking notice.

A Wall Street Journal blogger put it best in an article published Tuesday, “If you wanted to design a job conducive to involuntary napping, it would be hard to do much better than putting workers with ever-changing shift schedules in a dark room, with limited supervision, for hours at a stretch.”

The reality is that this problem has gone ignored and unreported for far too long. According to an AP report it once was an open secret in the FAA that overnight air traffic controllers would sometimes sleep on the job. Sometimes it was accidental, other times controllers arranged unsanctioned naps with another colleague briefly covering their job duties.

The FAA and National Air Traffic Controllers Association working group recommends letting controllers take naps for as long as two-and-a-half hours. The group also recommended that controllers be allowed to nap during paid breaks, based on sleep research from the NASA, the Air Force and others. Other nations such as Germany and Japan allow for air traffic controllers to take nap breaks.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood outright rejected those recommendations.

“On my watch, controllers will not be paid to take naps. We’re not going to allow that,“ LaHood said Sunday.

Instead, the Federal Aviation Administration is taking a disciplinary approach by enforcing longstanding FAA rules. Under the rules, controllers are not allowed to sleep on the job - even on breaks. Violating these rules could lead to dismissal.

Managers will be required to report to work slightly earlier or stay at work later to remind overnight controllers that they can’t fall asleep on the job. Most of the controllers will remain alone, unsupervised during the early morning hours.

A few changes announced by the FAA may make a small difference. The agency ordered that 27 airports add a second midnight-shift controller. The FAA is also requiring controllers take at least nine hours off between shifts, rather than the current eight hours.

The infamous “rattler” schedule –with a morning shift followed by a midnight shift - remains possible. With unsustainable floating shift schedules allowed and sanctioned naps still unacceptable the FAA is unlikely to notice much of an improvement in air traffic control towers across the U.S.

Photo by Nemo

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Second Air Traffic Controller Sleeps through Midnight Shift

For the second time in two months, an air traffic controller was caught sleeping on the job. A Federal Aviation Administration report says the unnamed controller didn’t accidently doze off - he intentionally slept for five hours.

The incident happened at McGee Tyson Airport in Knoxville, Tenn. on February 19 – more than a month before a supervisor working alone at Washington’s Reagan National Airport unintentionally fell asleep for nearly a half-hour.

Unlike the incident a month ago, the Knoxville controller is being fired by the government for “unprofessional and inappropriate behavior.”

It’s easy to blame an irresponsible employee, but as the Sleep Education Blog reported recently, the problem runs much deeper.

Air traffic controllers face notoriously difficult sleep schedules. One common schedule for air traffic controllers known as the “rattler” involves returning to work a midnight shift only hours after working a daytime shift. The nickname “rattler” comes from the damage the shift does to sleep patterns.

The problem of fatigued air traffic controllers are hardly a new one. In 2007, the National Transportation Safety Board released a report that shed light on how sleep deprivation affects job performance. The report revealed that air traffic controllers get an average of only 2.3 hours of sleep before a midnight shift. Rapidly rotating shifts and short rest periods between shifts lead workers to be fatigued before a shift even begins.

To make things worse, most midnight-shift air traffic controllers work alone. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association emphasizes staffing problems as the cause for both cases, and is demanding there be extra controllers during overnight shifts as safety measure.

The FAA is hesitant to hire, because air traffic controllers generally earn high pay and have pricey benefits. The U.S. Labor Department Bureau of Statistics reports that the average salary of air traffic controllers was $109,218 in March 2009. Transportation officials may have a difficult time justifying that kind of cost in the current political and budgetary climate on Capitol Hill.

It’s possible that air traffic controllers will see some type of regulation that affects their schedules as a reaction to both incidents. In the meantime, the AASM has provided air traffic controllers and shift workers with a list of tips that can help with the midnight shift.

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Planes Land in D.C. Airport While Traffic Controller Sleeps

Numerous attempts to contact air traffic control went unanswered during the final approach to Washington D.C.’s Ronald Reagan National Airport early Wednesday. Two planes had to rely on directions from a regional facility located about 40 miles away, while the nearby control tower remained mysteriously silent.

Only one person was scheduled for duty at the time and that air traffic controller was asleep, sources tell the Associated Press.

Authorities insist the risk Wednesday was minimal because pilots are trained to announce an emergency landing over a special broadcast channel in the event that no air traffic controllers are present. The pilots would not be able to see if there was equipment on the runway that could be a landing hazard.



Air traffic controllers like many professionals in the airline industry face grueling and irregular work schedules that puts them at risk. Shift work disorder is especially prevalent. People with shift work disorder may fight their own circadian rhythms on a daily basis. The body may signal its time to sleep mid-shift and by the time shift workers get home circadian rhythms can make it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep.

The airline industry has had its share of problems possibly related to shift work disorder and other sleep problems. An NTSB investigation named impairment from fatigue and pilot inexperience as causes of the deadly crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407 in February 2009. One pilot napped in the airport while the other took a cross-country red-eye prior to the flight.

Recent investigations found similar working conditions to be common in the industry. Pilots are required a rest period of only eight hours between shifts. The rest period can occur at any time, day or night, without considering whether the pilot has the ability to fall asleep.

Low wages among pilots who work for smaller carriers also pose a safety problem. Pilots may try to save money by sleeping at hostel-like “crash-pads” instead of hotels. With up to a dozen airline employees sleeping in bunks in the same room, “crash-pads” aren’t a good place to sleep.

Last fall, the Federal Aviation Authority proposed scheduling regulations intended to address pilot fatigue. Those changes were met with strong opposition.

It appears that regulators have turned their attention to air traffic controllers. Reagan airport has agreed to increase its overnight staffing, after a direct request from Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

It will remain to be seen if the sleeping air traffic controller will lead to major industry changes.

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Fatigue Formula May Prevent Future Air Traffic Tragedy

Shortly after 6 a.m. on August 27, 2006, 49 people were killed when a Delta Connection flight skidded off the end of a Fayette County, Kentucky runway on takeoff. The commuter plane was on the wrong runway – one too short for the plane.

Only one man was on watch in the control room when it happened. He failed to notice the plane until it was too late. He was wrapping up an overnight shift after logging only two or three hours of sleep the prior afternoon. He had 10 hours between shifts, but couldn’t sleep because of his sleep cycle. Prior to the deadly crash, the controller had worked two evening shifts, two daytime shifts and a full overnight shift.

A group of sleep researchers at Washington State University say the disaster could have been easily prevented. The researchers estimate the controller was only operating at 71 percent effectiveness because he was fatigued and fighting his circadian rhythms.

A more flexible, sleep-friendly schedule would have helped the controller work at maximum efficiency. AASM member Gregory Belenky suggests airports switch from rule-based staffing schedules to more flexible schedules. The shifts would be based on how much sleep people can actually attain, rather than hours set aside for sleep.

The concept is one step further than regulation the FAA proposed last year after the fatal 2009 commuter plane crash near Buffalo. Under the proposal, airlines would have to take into consideration the time of day, time zone and circadian rhythms when scheduling shifts. Pilots unions strongly opposed the changes, claiming the policy would have a negative impact on safety.
The blame in the 2006 crash can’t be completely pinned on the lone controller. The pilot and crew were also fatigued from shift work.

Once again, fatigue proves to be of serious concern to the public health. Shift work is necessary in our non-stop 24 hour society, but it doesn’t have to be harmful for workers and the public at-large. Employee wellness efforts and shift work awareness can go a long way.

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FAA Proposal Targets Pilot Fatigue

In February 2009, the national discussion shifted when a red-eye flight suddenly came to a terrifying end. A regional commuter plane dropped from the sky onto a suburban Buffalo subdivision, claiming the lives of 50 people.

A year-long investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board revealed startled, confused pilots badly mishandled a cockpit warning and lost control of the plane. Neither had slept much before their shift.

Crash site of Colgan Air Flight 3407, (February 2009)

Transportation officials say one pilot napped in the airport while the other took a cross-country overnight flight in the hours before the take-off of Colgan Air Flight 3407.

Nearly two years after the nightmare crash, federal regulators are addressing dangerous pilot fatigue. The FAA is proposing new regulations that would greatly expand on current pilot fatigue rules.

The minimum rest period between flights would increase by an hour to nine hours, with at least eight designated hours for the pilot to sleep. Minimum consecutive hours off would increase by 25 percent, or 30 hours per week.

The proposal would also consolidate rest requirements, which differ for domestic, international and charter flights. Airlines would also have to take into consideration the time of day, time zone and whether the pilots have the ability to fall asleep.

The sweeping reforms may hit a roadblock however – two major pilots unions strongly oppose the plan. Representatives for the unions claim the regulations would have a negative impact on safety. Charter airlines also object to the changes.

Fifteen years ago the pilots and unions were able to block a similar proposal. Since that time, the National Transportation Safety Board reports more than 250 people have died in plane crashes linked to pilot fatigue.

Photo Courtesy Chuck Anderson

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