A Ryanair jet from Britain carrying more than 300 passengers had to abandon a landing after the air traffic controller forgot to turn up for work.
Baffled air crew got no response from Leipzig/Altenburg airport in Germany when they radioed for permission to land the Boeing 737-800 jet from London.
The plane had to make an emergency diversion to Berlin's Schoenefeld airport more than 30 minutes away.
Passengers were taken by coach to catch a replacement flight in Dresden and arrived at their destination more than 12 hours late on Sunday evening.
The Ryanair jet itself eventually arrived back at Stansted Airport more than six hours late.
German air traffic controllers blamed the drama on a cock-up over staff working rotas which left the Leipzig air traffic control tower empty.

A pilot had to abort a landing because his airliner was flying too low, a report revealed yesterday.
Crew on the flight to Glasgow airport were only alerted to the problem by a "terrain terrain pull up" message from the aircraft's warning system.
They had to abandon the approach and try again.
The report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch found an air traffic controller at Glasgow had failed to send the correct approach route to the Airbus A320 crew.
It was the controller's second mistake over the passenger flight arriving from London's Heathrow airport.
They should have been told they were flying in an area of "steeply rising ground" but were following an approach route given earlier instead.
On their second bid to land, air traffic control put the crew on an approach below the permitted altitude.

Specifically, USCA said in a statement that it considered that the contents of the decree "violates several articles of the Spanish Constitution, some of them" on fundamental rights, "particularly with the breach" of existing labour law".
Spain’s Air traffic controllers have an application before the High Court against Royal Decree

The Union of the Air Traffic Controllers Association (USCA) has filed a lawsuit this morning resulting from the change of working conditions of controllers by Royal Decree launched by the Government on February 5.

Specifically, USCA said in a statement that it considered that the contents of the decree "violates several articles of the Spanish Constitution, some of them" on fundamental rights, "particularly with the breach" of existing labour law".

Back in December 2009, YWN-Israel reported an incident at Ben-Gurion International Airport involving an incoming Lufthansa flight and an El Al flight waiting to take off. At the time, Civil Aviation Administration officials in Israel reported air traffic controllers involved were suspended as the preliminary evidence in the case pointed to human error on their part.
Some 10 weeks later, the investigation has been completed and it has been learned that the planes’ automatic warning systems are credited with averting disaster as the planes were as close as 250 meters (yards) from one-another, yet air traffic controllers were clueless.
Investigators cleared the El Al crew, stating the errors were made by the flight crew of the Lufthansa Airline plane. At the time, there were 428 passengers and crew onboard the two flights.

The JFK air traffic controller who brought his son into the control tower and allowed him to direct air traffic also let his daughter do the same thing the following day.

On Feb. 17 the controller, who the Daily News identifies as 49-year-old Glenn Duffy, took his young daughter into the control tower and let her direct the departure of a Jet Blue flight.

"Jet Blue 57, contact New York departure," the young girl said on the audio recording.

"Jet Blue 57. Thank you, have a good day," the pilot responded.

An unidentified man then called her "the next generation of air traffic control" on the recording.

The air traffic controller and the supervisor on duty have been suspended, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The agency is not identifying either employee.

A child apparently directed pilots last month from the air traffic control center at John F. Kennedy Airport, one of the nation's busiest airports, according to audio clips. The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday that it was investigating.
"Pending the outcome of our investigation, the employees involved in this incident are not controlling air traffic," the FAA said in a statement. "This behavior is not acceptable and does not demonstrate the kind of professionalism expected from all FAA employees." The agency declined to comment beyond the statement.

Disgruntled would-be passengers are complaining about hundreds of canceled or delayed flights as air traffic controllers begin a four-day strike across France.
France's civil aviation agency has ordered airlines to cut back half of the flights in and out of Paris' Orly airport and one in four at Charles de Gaulle amid staffing shortages caused by the walkout.
Five unions of air traffic controllers called the four-day strike to protest conditions of plans to integrate European air traffic control. Workers fear losses of jobs and civil servant benefits.
The strike beginning Tuesday comes amid a seasonal school holiday in France. Union leaders are hoping to pressure President Nicolas Sarkozy's governing conservatives ahead of regional elections next month.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board share a common goal: promoting safety in aviation and preventing aircraft accidents. The record shows the NTSB and FAA agree on a course of action about 88 percent of the time. Of literally thousandsof safety recommendations made to the FAA, the Board has classified about 82 percent “Closed — Acceptable Response,” and approximately 6 percent remain open in “Acceptable” status.

We have made substantial progress in meeting the safety intent of the NTSB’s “Most Wanted” recommendations.
Fatigue

Recommendations A-94-194/A-95-113/A-97-071/A-06-010/A-07-030: Set working hour limits for flight crews, aviation mechanics, and air traffic controllers based on fatigue research, circadian rhythms, and sleep and rest requirements.

FAA Actions:

Louisiana-based oil and gas industry giant Petroleum Helicopters (PHI) took its flight operations safety to a new level on 17 December without so much as adding a single new antenna on its helicopters.

Using existing VHF radios and with internal changes to the Universal Avionics-built flight management systems and Mode S transponders on more than a dozen helicopters, PHI pilots from that date were able to talk to air traffic controllers in Houston, who see them on virtual radar, as they fly to increasingly distant platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

Houston and the Gulf of Mexico represent the second initial operating capability for ADS-B "critical" services, meaning the use of aircraft-transmitted GPS-based position, altitude and speed data for air traffic separation and management.

Air traffic controllers at Manchester Airport have changed instructions to pilots after confusion led to taxiing planes colliding.

Aircraft involved in the two collisions in 2007 and 2008 were damaged, but none of the 468 passengers was hurt.

The pilot of the Boeing 737, which struck the tail of a passing plane, said the words "give way" confused him.

A report, by the Air Accident Investigations Branch, prompted the airport to withdraw the term.

Instead, the pilot told investigators, air traffic controllers should use the phrase "hold position".

The confusion between the pilot and controllers led to the right winglet of the Tenerife-bound Boeing 737 hitting the tail of a 107-passenger Lufthansa Airbus A320 which had been due to fly to Frankfurt.