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Wonder Not Why ATC Sleeps-It’s 2 a.m.

There is a lot of buzz going on right now with so many air traffic controllers caught sleeping on the job. Everyone is lowering the boom on these individuals, and perhaps it is rightly so. And yet it seems to me that it is not a complete coincidence that suddenly in 2011, multiple air traffic controllers are caught sleeping on the job. Has this never happened before? Has no one ever noted it?

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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  • MH370: Two Years after

    search
    Time passes. Shakespeare said “Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.”

    As of today, the mystery of MH370 has gone unsolved for two years.

    Better that the tower in Malaysia had been proactive and caught that there was something going on before it flew off course;

    Better if maintenance had found the issue, if issue there was;

    Better if safety checks had caught an issue, if issue there was;

    We don’t have a clue what issue there was.

    Hundreds of theories have been developed and discarded. Millions in funds have been spent on the search. Every penny could have been saved if something had been caught in a timely fashion; but whatever it was that we missed, we don’t even know, and won’t know, until the wreckage is found and studied.

    The terrible irony with an accident like this one is that more money has been spent on looking for the wreckage than the families will ever receive. And no matter how much compensation there would be, it could never be enough.

    Good things may happen as a result of a search, but it is difficult to define them. For example, look at the search for Air France 447 which sparked a rethinking of the black box. After that crash, battery parameters (for pinging) were a result. If only the battery could last as long as the boxes that protect the data from the weight of the ocean.

    MH370 went so far afield, following the pinging of the battery never even came into play.

    In the search for a lost plane, improvements are small and out of proportion to the loss. At times, it feels the tools we are working with are like spoons where a forklift is needed. The steps we have taken feel like inches in a journey of infinite miles. And that is what we face here. Until the wreckage is found, the journey is infinite. And I believe one day the wreckage will be found. I hope it will be in time to do some good; and that something will be learned from it to prevent similar accidents from happening again.

    Check the date on today’s calendar—it is 2 years ago today.

    Two years is a random number. It has been two years, and still the plane is just as lost. The people are just as missing. The families are still reeling. We cry out for justice and compassion for the families of who lost loved ones aboard MH370. For the sake of the families, we hope the calendar will not kill the search.

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    NTSB TO HOLD A PUBLIC FORUM


    Washington, DC – The National Transportation Safety Board will hold a safety forum on professionalism in aviation beginning Tuesday, May 18, 2010. The three-day, en-banc forum will be chaired by NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman.

    “NTSB’s investigations into the midair collision over the Hudson River last August, the crash of Colgan Air flight 3407 in February 2009, and the October 2009 Northwest pilots’ overflight of their intended airport provided the impetus for this forum because all of them clearly demonstrated the hazards to aviation safety when pilots and air traffic controllers depart from standard operating procedures and established best practices,” Hersman said. “During the forum, we will gather information on the screening, selection and training of pilots and controllers and methods to reinforce professionalism and excellence.”

    Panelists participating in the forum will represent industry, government agencies, labor, academia, and professional associations. A technical panel composed of NTSB staff from the Offices of Aviation Safety and Research and Engineering, and the NTSB Board Members, who will make up the Board of Inquiry, will question the panelists.

    Dr. Tony Kern, an internationally recognized human factors and pilot performance expert, is the forum’s keynote speaker. The names of the participating panelists and the agenda will be provided in early May.

    The forum, titled “Professionalism in Aviation: Ensuring Excellence in Pilot and Air Traffic Controller Performance,” will be held at the NTSB’s Board Room and Conference Center, located at 429 L’Enfant Plaza, S.W., Washington, D.C. The public can view the forum in person or by webcast on the NTSB’s web site.

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    Using Cell Phones in Planes May Endanger the Flight

    According to Dave Carson of Boeing it just takes a stray cell phone signal “in the right place at the right time” to create serious technological havoc in the cockpit, and older planes are more susceptible to interference.

    Video here

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    What is the Value of a Human Life?

    In case you forgot, Dana Air Flight 992 is the McDonnell Douglas MD-83 aircraft en route from Abuja to Lagos, Nigeria which crashed on June 3rd 2012, in the Iju-Ishaga neighbourhood of Lagos, demolishing a furniture works and printing press building.

    The accident, a combination of engine failure and subsequent forced landing, killed 163 people, ten of them on the ground. Eleven miles from the airport, the MD-83 crashed on its tail. It and the neighborhood went up in flames.

    Why do I bring this up now, a little over a year later?

    Because 11 families have received $100,000 each–

    Because sixty-five families whose compensation payments have not been made, due largely to documentation issues and they are suing Dana Air —

    Dana Air claims “95 of 125 families have received interim compensation of $30,000.”

    I have been reading rhetoric lauding Dana Air for making what someone calls “unprecedented progress” in paying compensation.

    Putting the value of a human life at $100,000 is lowballing the value of life. I am surprised that anyone would be commending such devaluation.

    Is the operator looking for a gold medal for forking over a mere $100,000 for a loss of life?

    Is this all a life is worth in that part of the world or is this something Dana insurer is declaring a fair compensation?

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    All In The Family

    George’s Point of View

    Maintenance abroad, no matter how good the mechanics are; monitoring; who does it; how good is it?

    • If something terrible should happen, our hands are tied in the courts.
    • If the person at fault is in, subject to, and adjudicated in a foreign country, the laws may be antiquated, inadequate, indefensible or unenforceable.
    • In the U.S., suing a company from a foreign country does not guarantee that a court here will hear the case. The injured or the victim families suffer unrequited consequences.

    Let’s keep our U.S. planes serviced right here in the U.S.

    Scene: Back to the future


    Doc Brown
    No wonder this circuit failed.
    It says “Made in China”.
    Marty McFly
    What do you mean, Doc?
    All the best stuff is made in Japan.
    Doc Brown
    Unbelievable.

    What is the quality of imported products? It all depends on the decade. The appetite, desire and need for imported spices impelled the development of trade, forced Columbus to hop in the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria and go looking for a trade route, and we all know that he found, instead, the American continent.

    Spices, fruits and veggies out of season, products are all imported.

    So should airlines based in the US be exporting their maintenance outside of the country? Aside from ridiculous logistics, I think the problem here is regulation. How can standards of regulation be upgraded to optimum levels if our maintenance is shipped out of the country? Aside from that, it is impractical and somewhat silly. Think about it–when our bathroom faucet springs a leak, do we send the house to China? Do we uproot the bathroom and send it to China? Do we even send the part? No, we have maintenance–the plumber, ubiquitous panty line notwithstanding–comes IN and with his expensive clock ticking away, replaces the part and saves the day.

    That’s not to say that Mohammed must always come to the mountain. But in the wake of proliferating engine shutdowns, defective parts, structural design issues and hull failure, maybe we need to rethink sending our maintenance out of the country. Maybe it is cheaper, but is it better?

    Let’s look at the big picture, where relying on non-US standards takes us: Look at the fiasco of Chinese drywall–where families across the country are suffering with degrading, stinking, sulphur infested drywall as their home values and quality of life plummets. Look at the ongoing stream toy recalls, as warnings of children’s toys covered by lead paint, or lead components are broadcast daily. Look at the massive pet food recall of 2007, where 17,000 complaints and over 2000 pet deaths were related to melamine in dog food with chinese rice components containing melamine.

    Until every outside resource is going to have the quality rating of Quantas, do we really want to export our maintenance? Not only does it not make sense…well face it, it just does not make sense. Maintenance and the maintainers should reside under the umbrella–and the sharp teeth–of our legal system. Under our own US regulatory system, we need to hone the edge of our own country’s in-house maintenance, exercise the craft that once made “Made in the USA” the top of the line INTERNATIONAL standard, and frankly, let our corporate dollars feed—not bleed—our own job-hungry nation.

    SEE: http://www.wbur.org/news/npr/113942431

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    Body Found on Gulf Air Flight

    What: Gulf Air Airbus A330-200 en route from Bahrain to Manila
    Where: Manila
    When: Oct 20th 2010
    Why: Prior to landing in Manila, a Filipino electrician, Marlon Cueva, 36, of Lubang Island, Mindoro Occidental, who had been working in Abu Dhabi for three months was found with a cord around his neck in the lavatory. The news is reporting this alternately as a murder or a suicide. Although news reports say he was found inside the toilet at the rear of the plane by a flight steward after landing, other reports say the discovery was called in thirty minutes before landing. His wife and relatives were waiting at the airport for the plane to arrive, and they say there was no reason for him to commit suicide. Police are investigating if this could be a murder.

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