HoodaThunk?

Yet another factor in the Comair crash investigation has come to light. The controller in the tower, aside from being alone up there, had put in 15 hours at work and slept just 2 in the 24 hours prior to the crash. According to the NTSB the controller had 9 hours of time between the end of his shift Saturday and the beginning of the Sunday shift. The rules say there must be a minimum of 8 so this, unlike the fact that he was alone in the tower, is not a violation of the FAA’s regulations.

The Air Traffic Controllers’ union (First PATCO back before Reagan busted their illegal strike, now NATCA) has long maintained that staffing levels in the nation’s towers are too low. There have been numerous tv and newspaper stories with quotes from union reps and controllers alike that we need more controllers and this incident investigation is lending some weight to that position. If the staffing is so tight that a single person calling in sick or taking vacation puts you below the minimum staffing requirement, then you’ve got too few people on the roster. This isn’t like the FAA’s got stockholders or something, they’re a government agency. If they need more staffing, then the Agency should be screaming to the Congressional committee that provides that.

If they have been, who’s been ignoring them? If they haven’t, then why not?

I should point out that the revelation of the low amount of sleep this controller had might be interesting but it is clearly not the proximate cause of the crash. The tapes confirm that he provided the correct instruction to the flight crew. So far as I’ve heard, the controller made no mistakes in the performance of his duties. Aside from the fact that his attention was drawn – of necessity – to the radar screens and away from the traffic on the ground, I haven’t heard anything to support the notion that his directions contributed to the crash.

I await more details from the investigation and will comment more when more is known.