Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 4.5
Situational Awareness; Workload
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Air Traffic Control Separated Traffic
Company Policy; Environment - Non Weather Related; Human Factors; Staffing
On a regular basis I see situations get out of control late at night. On this particular night; I was left working an overloaded sector by myself when TMU (Traffic Management Unit); and all facility management had gone home for the night. I returned from my last break at XA:00 pm [late at night] to find my supervisor gone and another controller working the sector. Almost exactly at that time; the sector was shut off for all EWR and LGA traffic. There was a lot of EWR and LGA traffic still in the air because of all the weather delays from the afternoon. I opened the D-Side (Radar Assist) and we proceeded to hold 14 aircraft and work over flights at the sector. The MAP (Monitor Alert Parameters) value for this sector is 15. At XA:30 PM the controller working the Radar was going to hit 10 hours of duty; so the Midnight shift supervisor instructed me to relieve her at the Radar and work the sector myself. When I took over the sector at XA:34 PM; we had 18 aircraft in the sector. 14 of them were holding. I proceeded to work it out of the hold by myself for the next 50 minutes when it calmed down enough to combine to the midnight scope. I would recommend that TMU and management be more proactive in planning for weather and overload situations that could occur late at night. Also; I would appreciate it if the area supervisor wouldn't leave for the night if the area were still busy.
Center Controller reported working a combined overloaded sector with no Assist or Supervisor in their area.