Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 20
Confusion; Communication Breakdown; Distraction
ATC Issue All Types; Conflict Airborne Conflict; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Human Factors
I and my Developmental were starting a pre-brief to assume the A-AR position for training.  It was moderately busy; but somewhat chaotic due to recently certified controllers on the positions involved.  The A-AR 'Controller' had just begun the position relief briefing when I noticed Aircraft X at 8;000 FT; on a converging course nose to nose; with Aircraft Y; descending out of 9;000 feet.  It was probably too late to avert an OE at this point.  I tried to coordinate verbally with the E-AR Controller to formulate a plan to maintain/re-establish separation between the aircraft; but could not get a response.  At this point it was becoming a critical safety situation; so I basically told the A-AR Controller to 'do something; anything.'  The most frightening part of this incident was that both 'controllers' were frozen; with the E-AR Controller doing nothing to fix the impending problem and not communicating that he was even aware of the problem; and the A-AR Controller was too busy complaining and yelling across the room to take action to avert it.I don't know how you fix this.  The last ATM brought in and overwhelmed the facility with 15 developmentals with no formal training program in place.  We have a million dollar ETG lab that sat unused due to lack of personnel/staffing/expertise.  There was no cadre of professional OJTI's.  Due to the number of developmentals; everyone trained these people.  This is a complex facility; and it requires nuanced training by experienced controllers to make new controllers successful.  Instead; we had freshly minted CPC's training developmentals.  We now have a majority of controllers here with low CPC time; and no other FAA experience.  Yet the Memphis hub believes now is the time to cut staffing at P31 by 20-25%.
P31 Controller describes head on situation where controllers talking to the two aircraft do nothing to stop the operational error or fix the situation.