FAA Concerned About Controller Fatigue? Like Big Oil Worried About Gas Prices

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/06/18/faa-concerned-about-controller-fatigue-like-big-oil-worried-about-gas-prices/

by Mike Hall, Jun 18, 2008

For more than a year, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ignored warnings from safety experts and its own workers about the toll fatigue is taking on its controller workforce and the dangers it presents to the flying public.



That’s why Patrick Forrey, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), says this week’s FAA symposium on “Aviation Fatigue Management” is:

Nothing more than another publicity stunt, designed to show an appearance of concern….The FAA holding a symposium on fatigue is like the Big Oil companies holding a symposium on high gas prices. While not a crisis entirely of its own making, the FAA must be held accountable for its failed management and policy decisions and brutally stressful, understaffed and exhausting working conditions that have caused the NTSB to add controller fatigue to its list of most important safety concerns.

He says NATCA will participate in this week’s FAA forum, which is designed to address the fatigue problem in the entire aviation industry from air crews to ramp operations to dispatchers to air traffic controllers. But NATCA plans to develop its own “fatigue management system” for air traffic controllers.


In September 2006, the FAA, after walking away from the bargaining table, imposed a set of harsh work and pay rules that are a key factor to the staffing crisis that has forced fewer controllers to do more work. The ranks of fully trained and certified controllers are down to their lowest levels since 1992. Since the work rules were imposed, more than 2,600 controllers have left their jobs—nearly 20 percent of the workforce. Says Forrey:

The agency has contributed to the fatigue problem by worsening the controller staffing crisis and imposing work rules on controllers in September 2006 that mandated longer work periods and fewer rest opportunities and even prohibited controllers from calling in sick due to fatigue.


FULL story at link.

[MercutioATC]

1. Keep doing your thing, Omaha Steve!!!

I realize I'm the only one who replies to the ATC posts, but I really do appreciate you posting them.