The Federal Aviation Administration’s Approach for Determining Future Air Traffic Controller Staffing Needs (2014) / Chapter Skim
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2 Aviation Safety and Controller Staffing
2 Aviation Safety and Controller Staffing
Pages 29-53
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From page 29... ...
Finally, the chapter addresses concerns in establishing and maintaining a "safety culture" in which staffing levels must be sufficient for managing traffic and for enabling proper reporting and controller involvement in safety management and in which the appropriate data are collected and used in the planning and implementation of controller staffing. INDICATORS OF THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CONTROLLER STAFFING AND AVIATION SAFETY This section places ATC-related accidents1 in the context of all aviation accidents.2 It then considers how accident and incident data might be 1 The committee considered ATC-related accidents to be those in which accident investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board found that air traffic control was either a "cause" or a "factor" in the accident.
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From page 30... ...
Source: NTSB Aviation Accident and Incident Data System accessed through FAA's Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing System. analyzed to help in understanding relationships between air traffic controller staffing and aviation safety.
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From page 31... ...
. 4 The committee was unable to determine whether the distinction between air carriers and air taxis and commuters in the Air Traffic Activity Data System was precisely the same as the distinction between the aircraft operating under Part 121 and the aircraft operating under Part 135; thus, the committee reported the combined air carrier and air taxi and commuter numbers as "commercial aviation."
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Discussions of ATC safety typically focus on maintaining safe separation between aircraft, although controllers are required to give first priority both to separating aircraft and to issuing safety alerts. 5 For example, FAA's tracking of ATC incidents that threaten safety focuses almost entirely on loss of separation; similarly, FAA's risk analysis process within the Air Traffic Organization (ATO)
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From page 33... ...
The 2012 OIG report compares contract towers and FAA-operated towers with similar average traffic densities. The OIG used the numbers of operations and the hours of service for FY 2009 and FY 2010 to calculate the average traffic density9 for its population of 240 contract 7 Contract towers are operated by one of three companies.
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From page 34... ...
towers and 92 FAA towers and then matched a randomly selected sample of 30 contract towers to 30 FAA facilities with similar air traffic densities.10 Average traffic density is only one of several metrics characterizing the demands placed on controllers as they manage traffic. Other metrics that can influence controller workload include traffic complexity, types of users, and special geographical and meteorological features of an airport.
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From page 35... ...
concluded that "comparisons of operational error rates alone are not sufficient to draw conclusions about the relative safety records of air traffic control facilities" (GAO 2003, 3) and that "comparisons .
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. For these reasons, fatigue deserves special attention as a risk factor for air traffic controllers.
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The treatment of potential fatigue concerns in such reports by FAA and NTSB has been variable, and important elements of information relative to fatigue are often not included. In view of the small number of safety incidents that can be attributed to ATC, data-driven evaluation of the effects of controller fatigue on safety would be difficult on the basis of incident data alone even if such elements are included in incident reports.
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From page 38... ...
ICAO defines an FRMS as "a data-driven means of continuously monitoring and managing fatigue-related safety risks, based upon scientific principles and knowledge as well as operational experience that aims to ensure relevant personnel are performing at adequate levels of alertness." An FRMS shares characteristics with safety management systems (SMSs) , including effective safety reporting, senior management commitment, a process of continuous monitoring, a process for investigation of safety occurrences that aims to identify safety deficiencies rather than apportion blame, the sharing of information and best practices, integrated training for operational personnel, effective implementation of standard operating procedures, and a commitment to continuous improvement.
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are especially likely to start the second day shift with a sleep deficit. After the second day shift, controllers have 8 hours to recuperate before they have to arrive for the final midnight shift.
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reported plans to eliminate all con tractor spending on air traffic controller fatigue research in FY 2014 and FY 2015. Research would be limited to what could be performed by in-house personnel, and field studies would be canceled.
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The committee tried to address this question by using a scheduling tool under development by FAA, Operational Planning and Scheduling (OPAS) , to investigate the effects of the minimum duration off between a night and a day shift on required staffing levels.
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Accordingly, the committee is uncertain whether current FAA practices monitor this safety record sufficiently to identify where further safety improvements can be made. The committee is even less certain whether these practices analyze the association between ATCrelated accidents and incidents and staffing indicators,20 such as overall staffing levels relative to staffing targets, the use of overtime, and fatigue risk factors.
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From page 43... ...
Such built-in adjustments to air traffic management procedures complicate efforts to relate staffing to safety because the impacts of inadequate controller staffing levels are manifested as a degradation in the performance of the NAS (i.e., in flight delays) rather than as a reduction in safety.21 The level of safety reflects not only individuals' actions but also the broader organization's collective functioning in preventing and mitigating risks where they are possible to predict and in committing to monitor for and address unpredictable risks as they emerge.
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From page 44... ...
to identify and report safety and operational concerns voluntarily; the Aviation Safety Reporting System, which collects voluntarily submitted aviation safety incident and situation reports from pilots, controllers, and others; and operational databases that record when each controller is on duty and could be examined for a controller's work history to determine whether fatigue, for example, may have contributed to an incident. 22 For more recent research on safety culture and air traffic control, see Mearns et al.
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From page 45... ...
FAA has effectively limited the ability of outside researchers to provide the independent and in-depth analyses of safety that, historically, were provided by the academic and research community. While the collected information in FAA's Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS)
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From page 46... ...
local safety councils at each air traffic facility to identify and resolve safety concerns as they are reported. As of January 2014, 22 of 23 en route facilities and 84 of 292 terminal facilities had completed local safety council training.26 Accounts suggest that at least some controllers may perceive that they do not have the time to contribute ATSAP reports and join in the local safety councils or that the reports are not worth providing because they do not lead to improvements, which may temper the impact of these collaborative efforts.27 More objectively, the committee found that the time required by controllers to participate in these councils is not included in the processes for determining facilities' staffing levels, as described in Chapter 3.
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From page 47... ...
Similarly, the benefits of FRMS will be achieved only when the appropriate tools are in place and when the reasons for changes in scheduling according to fatigue risk management best practices are substantiated and clearly communicated. SUMMARY This chapter reviews the safety record of aviation and the role that air traffic controllers play in that record.
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From page 48... ...
the differences in safety reporting practices at the two types of tower. In addition, GAO reports that comparison of operational error rates alone is insufficient to draw conclusions about the relative safety records of different ATC facilities.
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that appear questionable from a fatigue management perspective, and mitigation may require adjustments in staffing levels. Recent initiatives to address fatigue through policy and training have not had sufficient follow-up evaluation to verify that they provide the intended fatigue risk mitigation.
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Recommendation 2-4. FAA should ensure that staffing levels are sufficient to foster appropriate reporting by controllers and to enable controller involvement in organizational learning and responses to safety issues (such as safety councils)
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2013. FAA's Operational Planning and Scheduling: Impact of Adjusting Minimum Rest Between Shifts on Air Traffic Controller Staffing.
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2013. Devel opment of a Methodology for Understanding and Enhancing Safety Culture in Air Traffic Management.
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10-Hour Work Schedules on the Test Performance/Alertness of Air Traffic Control Specialists. Inter national Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, Vol.
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