Fatigue Gets Everybody's Attention

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recently added three safety recommendations on air traffic controller fatigue to the existing aviation issue area of its 'Most Wanted' transportation safety improvements list. The Safety Board is asking the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to develop a...

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The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recently added three safety recommendations on air traffic controller fatigue to the existing aviation issue area of its 'Most Wanted' transportation safety improvements list.

The Safety Board is asking the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to develop a program to educate controllers and those who schedule them about the causes, effects and safety implications of fatigue. And the Safety Board asked the FAA to work in conjunction with National Air Traffic Controllers Union (NATCA) in revising work-scheduling policies to reduce the incidence of fatigue on the job.

"Since air traffic controllers play such a crucial role in the safety of our air transportation system, we must ensure that the performance of these professionals is not compromised by something as preventable as human fatigue," said Safety Board Chairman Mark V. Rosenker.

NATCA says the new recommendations don't come soon enough.

For example, NATCA said there were six operational errors at the Memphis Air Route Traffic Control center between Aug. 12-17. Three of the errors occurred in one area of the airspace that Memphis Center controllers work. Of these, one was an arriving flight into Memphis and the other an arriving flight into Little Rock, AK. Training of new developmental controllers was involved in two of the other three errors.

Memphis Center (ZME) is responsible for the safe flow of air traffic for over 100,000 square miles of airspace, covering Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and parts of Alabama and Kentucky. ZME controllers are responsible for over two million operations a year.

Memphis Center was authorized by the FAA to have 354 controllers on staff for a safe staffing level before the agency imposed work and pay rules on NATCA one year ago and announced a reduction in the authorized number of controllers. Currently, there are 249 fully certified controllers staffing six areas 24 hours a day, seven days a week. These same controllers are also responsible for the on-the-job training for the trainees currently working to achieve their certified professional controller (CPC) status.

In the past, most areas were staffed on a daytime shift with 13-14 veteran controllers. If there were not that many controllers on duty, overtime was called in and leave for personal or vacation time was prohibited. But currently, most shifts are beginning with eight to nine controllers who are still tasked with training duties. At the beginning of the summer vacation period, overtime was scheduled and controllers were working six-day weeks. This overtime was used to cover training new controllers along with training veteran controllers on a new procedure. Fatigue set in, but, says NATCA ZME Facility Representative Ron Carpenter, "at least the coverage was there for the shifts."

However, Carpenter said scheduled overtime is now a thing of the past with controllers now forced to work with less people and sectors combined. Combining sectors means the controller is working twice the airspace they normally would be responsible to control.

Also in August, NATCA reported four operational errors in one week at the New York Air Route Traffic Control Center. "We have fewer controllers working longer time on position. That has led to them becoming more fatigued and losing their focus and has reduced our margin for error to a bare minimum," said NATCA New York Center Facility Representative Julio Henriques. "Controllers are being pushed to their breaking point."

National Air Traffic Controllers Association President Patrick Forrey has sent a letter to Acting FAA Administrator Bobby Sturgell, requesting an emergency meeting "to see what can be done to restore system safety before tragedy occurs."

Forrey noted that a recently released General Accountability Office (GAO) report on runway incursions highlighted the risk of a potential catastrophic collision due, in part, to lack of adequate technology, FAA's failure to exhibit national leadership on high-priority, runway-related safety actions, and unprecedented numbers of overworked controllers at facilities around the country.

"These conditions are placing both pilots and air traffic controllers at great risk of mishap. We have witnessed several alarming close calls in the airspace above Chicago and Oakland, and on runways at Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Newark. Two general aviation planes collided in mid-air. One was under the control of Miami TRACON where it appears that a busy controller issued a traffic advisory but was unable to prevent the collision," he added.

"NATCA is extremely worried that the safety margins--which have kept the nation's skies the safest in the world--have all but eroded. We have initiated our own technology review to identify capacity and safety enhancements that we can propose to the agency and its stakeholders. In the interim, however, we are requesting an emergency meeting between the agency's top ATC executives and NATCA to see what we can do together to restore system safety before tragedy occurs," said Forrey.

For its part, the FAA says it has been "extremely successful" at hiring and training controllers nationwide over the past three years.

In fiscal year 2007, the FAA hired 1,815 new air traffic controllers and expects to hire a similar number of new controllers this year. Staffing at the vast majority of FAA Air Traffic facilities falls within the authorized staffing range. At the end of September 2007, the FAA had a controller workforce of 14,874, well above the planned target of 14,807, the U.S. aviation agency added.

But it said that at some individual facilities, a large numbers of retirees present short-term staffing challenges, and those facilities generally use operational overtime to provide full coverage. The FAA is currently focusing hiring efforts at about two dozen facilities -- of a total of 315 air traffic facilities nationwide -- where overtime use is high or where six-day work weeks are in effect for some portion of the controller workforce.

"In the vast majority of cases, the controllers volunteer for overtime. That situation exists primarily at small facilities, but the FAA is also focusing specific hiring efforts at a few larger locations such as the Atlanta TRACON," the FAA said.

"During this period of increased hiring and training, broader safety measures have remained positive. The FAA is meeting its targets for reducing operational errors and serious runway incursions, which are down year-over-year. There is no apparent correlation between the number of operational errors and an increase in controllers who are in training. Last year, less than one error occurred for every 10,000 hours of "developmental" controller position time. On average, fully certified controllers are working operational positions 85 percent of the time, compared to 15 percent operated by developmental controllers" the agency noted.

Controller time on position system-wide is running about 4 hours and 48 minutes for an eight-hour workday. System overtime is at 1.7 percent, which is about the same as last year. And total operations per controller are roughly the same as in 1999 and 2000, when the FAA was operating under the previous contract with the NATCA, the FAA stated.

Regarding the NTSB's latest recommendations regarding fatigue, an FAA workgroup is now reviewing controller work scheduling policies and practices to determine whether changes are needed to minimize controller fatigue. The FAA Academy is also incorporating fatigue awareness and countermeasures training into a new updated air traffic basic course for new hires and is evaluating recurrent fatigue training for the rest of the workforce.