kabarsula Fatigue risk and staffing pressures emerge in Sydney Airport safety probes bandar SLOT INDONESIA

Elevated fatigue risks, overtime and staffing pressures inside Sydney Airport’s air traffic control tower have emerged as recurring areas of investigation following a string of near misses. 

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has released preliminary reports into four of six aircraft coordination and conflict incidents it is investigating at Sydney Airport during July and August.

While the reports do not contain findings or analysis, ATSB Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell said staff resourcing within Sydney Tower at the time of many of the incidents had emerged as a “recurring area of enquiry”.

“These investigations will look to understand the significance of staff resourcing pressures within the tower, specifically, the practice of combining operational roles, the routine reliance on overtime to fill shifts, and training or supervision activities being conducted alongside operational duties,” Mitchell said.

The reports also note that Airservices Australia’s roster modelling predicted elevated fatigue risks for staff at the time of many of the occurrences.

The revelations follow concerns raised by Sydney air traffic controllers in September, who told AFR Weekend the tower was “horrendously under-resourced” and alleged excessive overtime, shortened breaks and pressure to work additional shifts.

One controller told the publication that overtime was causing “massive fatigue issues for staff”, while another described Sydney Tower as the “worst workplace I have ever worked in”.

Airservices chief executive Rob Sharp had previously acknowledged the organisation relied too heavily on scheduled overtime following the pandemic, but rejected suggestions chronic staffing shortages had contributed to the safety incidents.

In correspondence with the Transport Workers’ Union reported by AFR Weekend in September, Sharp said “no significant operational issues have been identified” and that “safety is not compromised when issues with staffing levels occur”.

The ATSB has stressed its investigation has not established that staffing or fatigue contributed to any of the incidents.

“It is important to note that an elevated fatigue risk in and of itself does not mean a controller was fatigued, or that fatigue influenced their performance,” Mitchell said.

“We are examining the effectiveness of the measures in place to manage this identified risk.”

The ATSB said it was examining whether staff resourcing factors directly contributed to any occurrence or were underlying conditions that had been recognised and effectively managed by Airservices.

Four incidents detailed

The four preliminary reports cover incidents between 27 July and 18 August.

On 27 July, a Qantas Boeing 737 was cleared to cross in front of a QantasLink Dash 8 while the regional aircraft was in its landing roll.

On 9 August, a Jetstar A320 braked abruptly to avoid a Qatar Airways Boeing 777 under tow. A flight attendant aboard the Jetstar aircraft fell during the braking and sustained a fractured wrist.

Later that day, a Qantas Boeing 737 was cleared to cross the runway in front of a Virgin Australia 737 that had just been cleared for take-off.

On 18 August, a Qantas A321 had to brake to allow a Qantas Boeing 737 to pass in front of it.

Sydney rate 20 per cent above national average

The ATSB has also released a statistical analysis examining ground-based aircraft conflicts at Australia’s five busiest major airports between 2016 and August 2026.

The research was designed to determine whether 11 occurrences recorded at Sydney Airport during July and August represented a growing post-COVID trend or a more localised pattern.

Nationally, reported ground-confliction rates remained broadly steady over the decade.

Sydney, however, recorded the highest post-COVID confliction rate per aircraft movement among the major airports, at around 20 per cent above the national average.

“This should however be viewed in the context of Sydney Airport being the most complex in the country,” Mitchell said.

“The analysis also found increases specific to Sydney in potentially high consequence occurrences, including runway incursions, taxiway near collisions and losses of separation attributed to air traffic control actions.”

A Sydney Airport Air Traffic Control Working Group led by the Department of Infrastructure has since been established, bringing together Airservices, CASA, airlines, unions and Sydney Airport.

Airservices is also implementing a Service Resilience Plan for Sydney Airport.

The ATSB will release final reports containing findings and analysis at the conclusion of each investigation. It said any critical safety issues identified before then would be immediately communicated to relevant stakeholders.