Jeju Air flight 7C-510 had to reject takeoff from Jeju City, South Korea, on September 29th.

The Boeing 737-800 plane was accelerating to takeoff for Busan, South Korea, when the tower instructed the crew to stop.

The crew subsequently rejected takeoff at high speed. Several tires deflated and the plane became disabled on the runway.

All one hundred and fifty people aboard remained unharmed.

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The Boeing 777-300 plane heading from Seoul, South Korea, to Zurich, Switzerland, was over Berlin, Germany, when it lost communication with the ATC.

The German Air Force subsequently dispatched two fighter jets that escorted the plane to Stuttgart, Germany.

The plane landed safely in Stuttgart. All two hundred and eleven passengers aboard remained unharmed.

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The Boeing 737-500 plane heading from Constanta, Romania, to Paris-Beauvais Airport, France, was intercepted after it lost contact with ATC in the Hungarian air space.

The communication was subsequently restored and the plane continued for a safe landing in France.

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The Boeing 737-700 plane heading from Munich, Germany, to Sibiu, Romania, was intercepted after it lost contact with the ATC in the Hungarian airspace.

The communication was subsequently restored and the military aircraft returned to the base.

The passenger plan continued for a safe landing in Sibiu.

The incident is under investigation.

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The Boeing 787-800 plane was heading from Ahmedabad, India, to Heathrow Airport, England, when it lost communication. Czech fighter jets were dispatched to intercept the plane and were able to communicate with the captain. The captain signaled about having technical issues due to which they were unable to communicate with the ATC.

The fighter jets from Germany, Belgium, and United Kingdom subsequently took over in their respective airspaces and escorted the plane until it safely landed at Heathrow airport.

There were 231 passengers and 18 crew members aboard at the time; all of them remained safe.

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The Boeing 777-300 plane was heading from Mumbai, India, to London, England, when it lost communication with the ATC.

Two fighter jets intercepted the aircraft and subsequently, the communication was restored.

The plane continued for a safe landing. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.

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The Airbus A320-200 plane was heading from Toulouse, France. to Keflavik, Iceland, when it lost communication with the ATC. A fighter jet was dispatched for escort.

The passenger plane, escorted by the fighter jet, then diverted to Glasgow Prestwick Airport where it landed uneventfully.

Everyone aboard remained safe.

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The Boeing 757-200 plane flying from John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York, was on approach to Shannon airport when the crew received an unsafe gear indication.

The crew continued for a low approach during which the ATC confirmed that the gear appeared to be down.

The plane landed safely. Everyone aboard remained unharmed.

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The Airbus A380-800 en-route from Auckland, New Zealand was on approach to Melbourne’s runway when it was descended below the minimum assigned altitude, and climbed back after receiving instruction from the ATC.

The plane landed successfully. All people onboard remained unharmed.

An investigation regarding the occurrence has been initiated.

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The Airbus A320-200 flying from Lisbon, Portugal was mid-air when it lost contact with the ATC.

The plane landed safely.

No one was injured.

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According to the airline, the radio contact with Greek ATC was lost for a brief period of time when the Boeing 767-400, en-route from Frankfurt, Germany, to Kuwait, was transiting through Greek Airspace.

The fighter jets returned to the airbase as the communication was restored.

The flight continued to Kuwait.

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The Avro RJ-85 was flying from Paris, France, when it lost radio communication with the ATC right after entering the British Airspace.

The plane accompanied by Typhoons landed safely Newcastle Airport, UK.

No one was injured.

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The Boeing 777-200, heading from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to London, England, lost contact with the ATC while it was entering Hungary’s Airspace.

The Hungarian Authorities dispatched two Saab Gripen fighter planes to intercept the plane, however, the communication was restored shortly afterwards. The fighter jets returned to the base while the flight continued to London.

The incident is being investigated.

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Authorities said the plane, flying from Dehradun, Uttarakhand, had reached its scheduled destination in New Delhi on time but the ATC advised the pilots to divert to Lucknow due to poor weather conditions. Shortly before reaching the airport in Lucknow, the pilots received low fuel indication and declared an emergency.

The plane landed safely. Everyone aboard remained unhurt.

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The Airbus A320-200, flying from Munich Airport, Germany, lost communication with ATC mid-air. The plane could contact back the ATC after around 10 minutes.

The plane landed safely.

No injuries were reported.

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The airline said that the ATC declared a ‘precautionary emergency’ after a brake light indicator came on.

The Embraer 175 plane landed uneventfully. There were 41 people aboard the plane; all of them remained unhurt.

The maintenance personnel inspected the plane and cleared it to continue the flight to Houston.

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The Airbus A319-100, flying from Domodedovo International Airport, Moscow Oblast, Russia, was about to land when it reported to the ATC about a possible nose gear steering problem.

The plane landed uneventfully.

No one was injured.

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The flight TGN267 crashed after it lost contact with the ATC during a flight from Sentani airport, Jayapura, to Oksibi, Papua. There were 54 people aboard at the time; all of them were killed.

The report released on October 7 said, “The downloading process to retrieve data from the FDR was unsuccessful. For further examination, the FDR data will be downloaded at BEA facility in Paris, France.”

The report further said that the cockpit voice recorder had a 2-hour recording but it did not give any clue as to what caused the crash.

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The Beechcraft A36 was en-route to Piedmont Triad International Airport, North Carolina, from Sarasota, Florida, at the time.

The airport’s director Kevin Baker said the pilot was communicating a problem to ATC before the crash, but could not explain it.

The FAA and NTSB were investigating the crash.

According to an NTSB spokesperson, 3 people lost their lives in the accident.

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This is in addition to an increase in controller errors. However, the increase in controller errors is (supposedly) a statistical glitch–not more errors actually but more reportage due to a new non-punative reporting system.

It makes me wonder what has led to the circumstance of lone air traffic controllers manning all-night shifts. Has this been going on for decades? Or is this a recent development of economic cutbacks and our changing fuel economy, and our highly qualified personnel may be fighting to keep a position even on the swing shift, as job alternatives dwindle.

Why is there an evening shift at all when the airlines have been combining flights and canceling flights, and rearranging flights and consolidating fights for economy’s sake? If the fact that an airport with minimal evening traffic chooses to have a lone overnight ATC shift, the act is practically a lagniappe. And if that is the case, then how sad it is that an act of extended service has turned to bite those offering the service.

We do not put a lifeguard on the beach during the night when there are no swimmers, when swimming in dark waters is foolish. And yet, if we did place a lifeguard on that beach, we would not expect him to sleep. But would we expect him to stare out at the waters all night with no concession to human biorhythm? Is that not somewhat cruel? By the way, FAA’s rules forbid a controller from doing anything not directly related to air traffic control.

When I hear the head of the FAA Air Traffic Organization Hank Krakowski has stepped down, it leads me to suspect that there is some scheduling pattern or policy that is directly attributable to him, something he did to disrupt the culture of air traffic control, that may be behind the significant coincidence of six (or more) sleeping ATControllers. I do not know if his stepping down is typical bureaucratic scapegoating, if he is doing the honorable thing because he’s in charge and the buck stops with him, or if he is truly responsible for some policy change that has led to the sleeping ATC.

There are solutions, but they won’t be solutions today’s citizen of “instant everything” will like. There will be either the hiring more than just two controllers to turn night to day; or there will be (eventually) curtailing night flights and a loss of 24 hour conveniences.

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