10-night shifts in 12 days… traffic control employee was sleeping during flights, major accidents averted

When you sit in an airplane, you pray for only one thing, that there is a safe landing and you reach your destination safely, but what if the person who is controlling the traffic for your pilot falls asleep?

In the year 2022, such a case came to light in Australia, where in December, an officer of Australia's air traffic control company named (Brisbane Air Traffic), while telling the traffic route during a 5 am flight, fell asleep on his desk, people saw the officer sleeping on two chairs on his desk covered with a blanket.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) was investigating this matter, they recently released a report on this matter. They said that the employee was managing the (Cairns Terminal Control Unit) (TCU), the employee was doing the night shift, but when the employees who were on the day shift entered the office, they found that the officer was sleeping on two chairs covered with a blanket.

Was working 10 night shifts for 12 days

ATSB was investigating the officer's mistake regarding security, after which they released a report on this matter on Tuesday. The report revealed that the officer fell asleep during duty because he was doing 10-night shifts for the last 12 days, which start at 10 pm and end at 6 am.

report came out

In the report, ATSB Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell said that there are many reasons behind the employee falling asleep during work. The first of these is that the employee had worked 10-night shifts in the last 12 days, due to which he did not get enough sleep, which is why he fell asleep during duty. Also, the report said that the employee was continuously working night shifts and the workload is less in night shifts, due to which the employee's ability to work more and make quick decisions would have been affected.

Also, the report says that the lack of staff at Brisbane Air Traffic has also emerged as a major reason for such incidents. However, now that it has been two years since the accident, Brisbane Air Traffic has recruited more employees in its office.