Is the stress associated with being an air traffic controller exaggerated?

Question

Obviously a lot is on your plate day in and day out, but all the statistics about alcoholism and suicide....is it really that bad? Is your heart just racing the entire day?

Answer 1

Working at an ATC is a very demanding job especially at a large urban airport.  You have to be able to visualize the radar screen in the event of power failure and know where the various aircraft for which you are responsible are located until the emergency generators kick in and power up the radar units again.  Knowing that you are responsible for the safety of hundreds if not thousands of souls can be very difficult to handle and can be very hard on their mental and physical health.

Answer 2

The tiniest mistake and you would be responsible for hundreds of deaths -- no it is not exagerated.

Answer 3

It is a lot of plates spinning at once so to speak, but it really isn't that bad.  ATC's have a mental picture in their heads of what takes the most priority.  They tend to be pretty wired after work and it isn't a job where you can just zone out.  Although a lot of it depends on the volume of the traffic as well as weather conditions for the day and the class of air space.

Answer 4

No it is not exadurated.  It is really stressful, some days are worse then others.  I am a civilian contractor in Afghanistan working at Kandahar internation airport and you might not think that air traffic would be that busy in afghanistan but during the day there is a lot of civil aviation not to mention all of the military operations that are going on all of the time.  I work out of a mobile radar facility with some of the worst radios and with pilots from all over the world who barely speak english.  Russians, French, Dutch, Brittish, just to name a few.  The worst being the Afghan Air Force.  All they understand is a heading and an altitude, just hope that you don't need them to hold because they won't.  They don't even know the difference between IFR and VFR they just land only god knows how.  The real  diffacult thing is that there is no automation everything is hand written.  With the military operations that are going on, the military might take half or more of the airspace for missions to support troops on the ground or there is artiliary fire is a certain area so no aircraft can go into that area becaue that fire might be going up over 20,000 feet.  It is all fly by the seat of your pants and just do what works not like in the US where it is a canned operation you know who is coming and when.  At Kandahar you might go from one guy to over 10+ in the blink of an eye with no warning.  Just hope that the RADAR does not all of a suden break and you have to switch to NON-RADAR all of a sudden. We don't see the volume of traffic that you would see at a busy airport in the states but also in the states they don't have to worry about a rocket attack at the airport by the Taliban shutting down the runway having to resequence all of the traffic and get them as high as possible and into holding so that they don't take ground fire.  It makes for an interesting day.  The worst part is that there is no booze out here so i can't even have a beer when i get home.  Lets just say that i am in really good shape because I do a lot of running and going to the gym.  One of the best ways to blow off steam after a tough day at the office.  That being said I love my job and i could not imagine doing another job.  It is only the day shifts that are really busy because civilians are not allowed to fly at night.  So After dark you are working with your feet up most of the time so that helps with the stress.  Also the money.  I am heading back to the states to work for the FAA in the next few months.

Answer 5

YES! I admire a lot of ATC's greatly for what they do, I wouldn't last a day.

Answer 6

You sit very still in your chair for an hour and a half or so.  You don't move very much, but when you get up you're sweating like crazy.  That's really how it is, at least at the center.

So imagine what's going on inside your body that's making you sweat without doing any physical activity.

Don't get me wrong.  It's not like it's busy or overly difficult all the time.  In fact, most of the time it's fairly routing.  But when it gets busy (and it will) you have to handle it and it's very stressful.

Answer 7

Imagine a video game where you have to keep hundreds of fast moving dots from touching one another. everyone of those dots represents 300 real human lives, maybe you know some of them. you play this game everyday  for 6 hours at a time for 20 years. Sometimes the dots don't do what you want them to do. Sometimes they can't hear you. Theres not a lot of room for error. Sure there are a lot of times when its slow, but there are a lot of times when its not. If thats not stressful I don't know what is. Some controllers handle it very well, some don't.

I know of a controller who was assisting an air taxi facing fuel starvation over open ocean. His own 14 year old daughter was a passenger on that plane. the wreckage was never located. All he could do was listen. Do you think that wouldn't drive someone to alcoholism or suicide?

Answer 8

I'd say so.  Not every air traffic controller is working terminal frequencies in the New York/Newark area.

I had a controller once I had to call three times to get a response during a night flight.  I think he was asleep.