[LINK] O/t: No air traffic control at Darwin airport after 10 pm

[Ivan Trundle]

> On 24 Jun 2024, at 6:24 pm, Stephen Loosley <stephenloosley at outlook.com> wrote:
> 
> Reddit Wall: Whistleblower pilots fear mid-air collisions as staffing crisis leaves control towers empty in Australia —  Darwin Airport has zero air traffic control services overnight (bloomberg.com)  submitted 9 hours ago by marketrent 22 comments


The staffing issue began during COVID: more than 130 controllers were offered generous packages to leave Airservices (they were incentivised by the payout: I, too, took a generous payout at the time, though not working as a controller).

Recruitment of new controllers takes time (3+ years), and the percentage of those who are not suitable is unfortunately alarmingly high.

So we now have controllers who are being asked to work overtime, and take on additional shifts, which has a serious impact on their wellbeing and sanity overall.

It’s not just Darwin, BTW. There are a number of regional airports that have no approach controllers at night.

However, airline pilots have rules (which they follow) when towers are unstaffed - its’ only when airports get to near capacity that it might cause an issue, or when GA planes are added into the mix (general aviation - ie. light planes etc). Most GA pilots know to avoid busy airports after 10pm.

Having said that, 80 new trainees will be at their desks this year, which sounds like a lot, but not when an extra 150 a year is needed until a new ATC system is put in place.

The whole issue is compounded by the fact that Darwin is managed by RAAF controllers...

iT