Air traffic controller found asleep at Australian airport

An air-traffic controller who was found asleep at his desk in Brisbane highlights a labor shortage in the sector that still hasn’t been fully addressed, according to a safety investigation into the 2022 incident. 

The controller was discovered dozing in front of his console at the end of a night shift on Dec. 9, 2022, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said in a report released Tuesday. Still wearing his headset, he was lying across two chairs in the corner of the operations room, covered by a blanket. At the time, he was the sole controller responsible for flights approaching and leaving Cairns airport to the north, the report said.

The safety bureau found the controller was fatigued by back-to-back night shifts and the low workload that night had made him even more sleepy. While his actions didn’t result in any accidents, investigators concluded that a lack of resources inside Airservices, which is responsible for managing Australian airspace, had compromised safe rostering and also played a part in the incident.

Like the rest of the aviation industry, the ranks of air traffic controllers worldwide depleted during the pandemic when flying ground to a halt. In Australia, a shortage of the critical workers has even left some airport towers unmanned, forcing pilots to fend for themselves.

Airservices is still trying to plug staffing holes. It told the safety bureau that the roster of controllers for northern Queensland state — home to Cairns — won’t be adequately filled until October.

On the night of the incident, there was only one scheduled aircraft arriving and then departing Cairns Airport after 2 a.m. 

The snoozing controller had worked at Airservices for about 10 years. The day shift manager woke him up, checked there were no aircraft in the area, and an incoming controller took over. The ATSB couldn’t determine when he’d nodded off, but said there were five other periods after 2 a.m. with no logged activity when he might have been asleep.