Air traffic controllers complain errors caused by tiring work schedules

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150811/us-faa-secret-study-glance-31779adefc.html

Aug 11, 3:18 AM (ET)
By JOAN LOWY

NASA researchers warned the Federal Aviation Administration nearly four years ago that air traffic controllers' schedules lead to chronic fatigue and undermine safety.

The FAA has kept the NASA study secret.

Voluntary reports from a confidential aviation safety database run by NASA show that controllers are still complaining that they make dangerous errors because their work schedules don't provide enough time for sleep. Schedules cited by the study as especially fatiguing are a week of five midnight shifts — usually from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. — and six-day work weeks for several weeks in a row, usually with at least one midnight shift per week.

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A controller at Louisville International Airport in Kentucky described bringing two cargo planes dangerously close together as they descended during a midnight shift last October. He had cleared one plane to descend from 8,000 feet to 6,000 feet, only to find another plane that he had thought was farther behind had nearly caught up. The second plane was at an altitude of 7,000 feet, while the first plane was still descending.

Explaining what led to the error, the controller said he regularly works five midnight shifts a week. "On the weekends I sleep normally at night," he said. "Monday nights are usually accomplished by staying up for 24 hours." He recommended controllers be allowed to work four 10-hour midnight shifts a week rather than five 8-hour shifts to allow more time for recovery. NASA researchers made the same recommendation in 2011.

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Two controllers working at Albany International Airport in New York last summer described clearing a small airliner for takeoff on a runway that was closed for maintenance. The first controller acknowledged he forgot to tell the second controller, who cleared the takeoff, that the runway was closed. Both controllers cited fatigue as the reason for their mistakes.

"For months, we have been working six-day work weeks with two hours of OT (overtime) regularly scheduled on the front or back of our shifts," explained the first controller.

"We here have been working six-day work weeks with minimal staffing, minimal breaks," said the second controller.

They also said rest breaks during shifts weren't frequent enough because staffing levels are too low.

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http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150811/us--faa-secret_study-90d8d77a30.html

Aug 11, 3:17 AM (ET)
By JOAN LOWY

A study the government kept secret for years says that air traffic controllers' work schedules often lead to chronic fatigue, making them less alert and endangering the safety of the national air traffic system.

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The study found that nearly 2 in 10 controllers had committed significant errors in the previous year — such as bringing planes too close together — and over half attributed the errors to fatigue. A third of controllers said they perceived fatigue to be a "high" or "extreme" safety risk. More than 6 in 10 controllers indicated that in the previous year they had fallen asleep or experienced a lapse of attention while driving to or from midnight shifts, which typically begin about 10 p.m. and end around 6 a.m.

Overall, controllers whose activity was closely monitored by scientists averaged 5.8 hours of sleep per day over the course of a work week. They averaged only 3.1 hours before midnight shifts and 5.4 hours before early-morning shifts.

The most tiring schedules required controllers to work five straight midnight shifts, or to work six days a week several weeks in a row, often with at least one midnight shift per week. The human body's circadian rhythms make sleeping during daylight hours before a midnight shift especially difficult.

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Schedules worked by 76 percent of controllers in the field study led to chronic fatigue, creating pressure to fall asleep. "Even with 8 to 10 hours of recovery sleep, alertness may not recover to the full rested baseline level, but may be reset at a lower level of function," the report said.

"Chronic fatigue may be considered to pose a significant risk to controller alertness, and hence to the safety of the ATC (air traffic control) system," the study concluded, especially when combined with little stimulation during periods of low air traffic and the human body's natural pressure to sleep during certain times of the day.

The 270-page study makes 17 recommendations to the FAA, including that the agency discontinue mandatory six-day schedules "as soon as possible." At the time, about 4 percent of controllers were being assigned "a six-day constant schedule," the study said, but the share of controllers who had actually worked a six-day schedule in their previous work week was 15 percent.

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FAA officials also refused to share the report with researchers from the National Academies, which advises Congress on science issues.

The board's recommendations were the result of a 2006 accident in which a regional airliner crashed while taking off from a runway that was too short in Lexington, Kentucky. Forty-nine of the 50 people on board were killed. The air traffic controller who cleared the plane for takeoff didn't notice it turn onto the wrong runway. The controller had worked all night and had had only two hours sleep in the previous 24 hours.

NASA researchers completed the study draft several months after a series of incidents involving controllers falling asleep on the job embarrassed FAA officials and led to the resignation of the head of the agency's air traffic organization. In one incident in 2011, two airliners landed at Washington's Reagan National Airport late at night without assistance from the airport's control tower where the lone controller on duty had fallen asleep.