Sleeping a criminal offence or a sign?

We reproduce an article from the "Scotsman" link provided below.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thu 18 Oct 2007
Air traffic controllers suspended for sleeping on duty
NICK PISA IN ROME
FOUR air traffic controllers have been suspended at an Italian airport after it emerged they had been sleeping while on duty.

The group, based at Milan's Linate airport, scene of a disaster in 2001 when 118 people were killed after a passenger jet collided with a private plane, were suspended after an internal investigation.


Officials at Italy's national Agency of Air Traffic Controllers launched an inquiry after being tipped off about the incident.

It discovered that pilots who had been due to land in the early hours of the morning had been met with silence when radioing the tower.

Controllers at nearby airports, who were monitoring communications, stepped into handle the flights while calls were made to Linate to wake up the dozing controllers.

In a statement the agency confirmed that four controllers, including a shift manager, had been suspended for failing to "respect night shift duties".

The statement added that at no time was any plane in danger as there was a back up system, adding the agency had "full faith in its air traffic controllers whose professionalism and preparation was recognised the world over".

It is not the first time that air traffic controllers at Linate airport - used by British Airways and the budget airline Easyjet - have been at the centre of controversy.

In an investigation seven years ago it emerged that controllers had skipped work to play football while colleagues covered for them.

During that six-month period, there were 45 near misses in the skies above the airport, although officials denied the absenteeism was to blame.

In 2004 a Milan court found four people guilty over the 2001 disaster including the airport director and an air-traffic controller who were both sentenced to eight years in prison.

This article: http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1661802007

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is this more a case of potential criminal negligence, or a sign that duty hours and fatigue management programs are inadequate? We refer to our previous post talking of a just culture. Does this happen more than it is reported, of course it does!

Everyone should report for duty in an appropriate state of health to be able to perform those duties; but was does that mean? Most Air Traffic Controllers we know say that night shift (and early starts) are just part of the job and you "just deal with it". The strange thing about fatigue is that when you are suffering from it you are less able to judge that you are fatigued and thus more than likely will report for duty in an inappropriate state. If you realise this at 2.30am, do you say you need relief, or soldier on and try and stay awake?

Largely across the globe fatigue has bee ignored; or has been self managed at work, by sleeping at or under consoles, waking up to respond to co-ordination or aircraft, then continuing snoozing as if nothing happened. In many parts of the globe night shift operations are insignificant; one or two aeroplanes a night over the entire 6-10 hour shift. Hardly a stimulated environment!

This is not true in many locations, night time operations can be busier than day time operations; for example the gulf states or West Asian nations have many transiting aircraft at night as aircraft leaving Europe for East Asia etc. hit that part of the globe in the dead of night. Generally speaking in these locations staffing levels and stimuli are as adequate as during the day and thus the work environment is less conducive for snoozing. Also the full staffing complement means that there are 'normal' breaks and rest periods away from the consoles; unlike single manned positions where the stimuli is low.

Many ANSPs reduce night time staffing to levels up to 1/10th of day time staffing; this primarily is based on lack of traffic, complexities and workload. But what does that mean for the staff attending night shift operations? A long, tedious night where staying awake is the biggest challenge and next to impossible due to the lack of stimuli.

We've all heard stories of people asleep at night, do you have one, please comment.

I remember a story of the sleeping freighter pilot in the middle of nowhere about 3 in the morning at FL220 with an open mic, snoring could be heard over the air-ground frequency.