What happens when an air traffic controller is asleep?
blogs.law.harvard.edu
What happens when an air traffic controller is asleep?
1–10 of 24 posts
Re: What happens when an air traffic controller is asleep?
#2It's short and it's definitely worth a read. I had no idea that there were airports without control towers.
Re: What happens when an air traffic controller is asleep?
#3For some reason I feel pretty sleepy after reading this.
Re: What happens when an air traffic controller is asleep?
#4This article is spot on. An excellent description of the way traffic flows through airspace and the role of ATC in movement of aircraft. I can add that as a pilot is would be a bit disconcerting and unusual to be on an instrument approach into an airport and be handed off to the tower only to receive no response. This would likely happen with only a couple of minutes of the flight left and at a time when workload is high (assuming IMC conditions). There would probably be a little confusion before deciding to switch back to the previous frequency.
Not particularly dangerous - but the pilot does have to be prepared for handling some atypical tasks on an otherwise routine approach
Edit to note: VFR (visual flight - night or day) would be a non-event (from the pilot's perspective) with a sleeping controller so long as traffic is relatively light, as it would be at night most places
Re: What happens when an air traffic controller is asleep?
#5It's really the difference between peer to peer and token ring.
One is done on a general channel which approaches failure the more traffic.
The other uses a "token" to signify communication and passes the token to whom they wish to speak to.
Re: What happens when an air traffic controller is asleep?
#6Surprised no one has mentioned this. Disclamer: ex-employer
http://www.quintiq.com/news-and-events/news/2010/quintiq-lan...
Re: What happens when an air traffic controller is asleep?
#7This article is spot on. An excellent description of the way traffic flows through airspace and the role of ATC in movement of aircraft. I can add that as a pilot is would be a bit disconcerting and unusual to be on an instrument approach into an airport and be handed off to the tower only to receive no response. This would likely happen with only a couple of minutes of the flight left and at a time when workload is…
Yes, for a nearly deserted airport the tower controller isn't as important as people would expect.
The article doesn't mention it but I believe that the sleeping controller is also supposed to be handling ground control - planes taxiing and ground vehicles like fire, security, baggage, etc.
Re: What happens when an air traffic controller is asleep?
#8http://www.avweb.com/news/sayagain/191072-1.html has a (now retired) US air traffic controller's thoughts on a fatal collision involving two of the three planes a European controller was responsible for. It suggests that not all cases of sleep deprived controllers are harmless.
Re: What happens when an air traffic controller is asleep?
#9It's short and it's definitely worth a read. I had no idea that there were airports without control towers.
There are also airplanes without radios (though such planes normally operate at untowered airports).
Re: What happens when an air traffic controller is asleep?
#10http://www.avweb.com/news/sayagain/191072-1.html has a (now retired) US air traffic controller's thoughts on a fatal collision involving two of the three planes a European controller was responsible for. It suggests that not all cases of sleep deprived controllers are harmless.
Like most serious accidents, the sleep deprived controller is just one part of what went ridiculously wrong there. Had the controller actually been sleeping the entire time, and the pilots followed the automated systems, it's entirely possible that they would have been ok. In addition, the equipment failure/downtimes severely limited any operator's situational awareness.
It's one of the cruel ironies here, that a completely passed out controller likely would have lead to a better outcome.