ATC Workload Truths

Ever watched news about ATC—controllers falling asleep, doing drugs, near misses? Can any of that be true? Here is one controller’s perspective.

Elim Hawkins

Saturday, March 16, 2024 at 08:00 AM ET

Verified

They don’t line themselves up. Somebody’s working hard to get those three lanes of traffic with that spacing. Imagine doing that on a 10-hour shift six days in a row.

Key Takeaways:

Chronic staffing shortages in U.S. Air Traffic Control force controllers into grueling schedules, including six 10-hour shifts, severely impacting their quality of life and contributing to widespread fatigue.
This severe fatigue directly compromises aviation safety, making controllers more prone to errors, hazardous attitudes, and even falling asleep on duty, which has been linked to recent near-miss incidents.
The current deficit of approximately 3,000 controllers will take at least five or more years to address, even with efforts to increase training capacity, indicating a prolonged period of operational strain.

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Depending on where you get your news, you’ve probably wondered how much truth there is to stories about ATC. Six near misses made the news in 2023, caused by staffing shortages? Controllers falling asleep on position? Drugs? Are controllers actually leaving the job to seek better quality of life? Yes; yes; no; maybe some.

Near misses are not directly caused by staffing shortages. It’s already public knowledge that a few controllers have fallen asleep on position. No occupation is a “drug-free environment.” Of course, a controller would leave to find something better. The only thing that keeps some of us is the fact that we need a job and/or we don’t have anything else that we enjoy as much.