Widebody; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 0.5
Confusion; Situational Awareness; Communication Breakdown
ATC Issue All Types; Conflict Airborne Conflict; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Separated Traffic; Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Executed Go Around / Missed Approach
Human Factors; Airspace Structure; Environment - Non Weather Related; Company Policy; Procedure
It was my first [workday] of the week. However we have been working long hours and working over two hours or close to it for over a year now while getting 30 minute or less breaks most of the time. This is a chronic long term fatigue situation and a band aid put people in positions of power; (Supervisor); (Operations Manager); or others where they have not trained correctly and do not know the job and hope things will all work out. Tower and TRACON ran smooth before because a lot of people here know how to do the job and work well as a team. When there are people who do not understand and appreciate how difficult this job is and how quickly bad things can happen; are running things at the very minimal staffing and rest then catastrophes can happen. We are barely holding on as a facility and it is extremely scary. This situation again happened at the busiest airport in the country. We are supposed to be the pinnacle of safety and efficiency. We have been begging for help in many situations so this type of stuff doesn't happen. Nothing has happened yet. We are still going along like everyone is superman and we don't need overtime and 20 minute breaks is all anyone needs. Also; closing positions that need to be open because they don't want to go over two hours so that the grievances don't pile up.Here is the first incident. I will keep it quick and simple. I had 6 or 7 Heavy aircraft and 5 different aircraft had similar sounding call signs. There was a situation prior to this that caused an Aircraft go around. He went around and then came back to me on a 270 heading at 5000 feet and I don't remember him checking in but he might have. I gave a heavy an intercept heading to join the localizer because he was at 8000 feet and 35 miles from the airport. However I kept hearing some sort of frequency blocking. Someone said they were turning heading that I didn't think should have been. However I had just spoke to this aircraft so it sounded familiar. The Aircraft that went around was less than 10 miles away and he was going base leg at 210 knots. By the time I figured it out he was going 270 knots and was headed right at an Aircraft on the localizer. My first reaction; because I hadn't had time to scan the north runway for traffic was to turn him back and climb him. Then I saw it wasn't going to work and turned the Aircraft out and went north with him. This was just one incident. It was almost 2 heavy aircraft hitting about 10-15 miles out from the airport.After this incident I spoke to my supervisor and said I didn't feel good to work. They got me off of position and I got a break. I was still shaking from the event. I was then approached by my Supervisor to come back because he really needed me. He did this more than once. He said he would only put me on the monitor position which is the same exact airspace that this incident just happened. Also; monitor position on east flow is not a Cush position. It is a difficult position. I stayed there for two hours; and then got a 30 minute break and then came back to work the same position that I had the incident on and informed management that I was bothered by the event. I stayed there for almost two hours as well. This was all after I had a major close call and told management I was shook up. On top of all of this Thursday night I had the flu. I was contemplating calling in sick but I am nervous and was nervous to call in because our managers have been giving sick leave letters with patterns. One of the patterns referenced was calling in sick in conjunction with an RDO. Sunday would have been that conjunction. We need help. Please help us. We have been asking and now begging for help for the last year or more. No one is doing anything or helping in any way. I was told that there was an order given in this situation that we could not slow or hold any aircraft from the center. It was requested but not approved. There will be a catastrophe. Now we are being punished for doing what we need to do to stay healthy and fresh. We cannot work in these conditions any more.
TRACON Controller reported the incorrect aircraft read back the approach clearance which caused a confliction with traffic landing on a parallel runway.