Fatigued air traffic controllers involved in Sydney near-collision

Air traffic controllers assessed as being at high risk of fatigue were involved in a serious runway incident at Sydney Airport, according to internal records and call recordings obtained by Reuters. The near miss happened on July 27, when a Qantas turboprop on final approach narrowly avoided a Qantas Boeing 737 that had been cleared to cross the runway. It was the first of six proximity events recorded at Sydney Airport in about one month.

Of the ten controllers on duty at the time, five were classified as high risk for fatigue, one as medium risk, one as low risk, and three had no risk ranking. In an internal call, the shift manager said two of the three controllers directly involved in the critical maneuver were at high risk of fatigue and the third was at medium risk. The manager called the staffing situation "a bit of madness" and said staff were shaken by how close the aircraft came.

The fatigue management system does not directly measure physical tiredness. It uses automated assessment based on workload and shift scheduling to estimate risk.