Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Confusion; Situational Awareness; Workload
ATC Issue All Types; Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical
General None Reported / Taken
Procedure; Staffing; Human Factors
This morning we had a dangerous amount of staffing for the area. I have filled out reports before about staffing issues but now we had an emergency aircraft and I was not able to get any help because of staffing in my area. I was working the neighboring Approach airspace. I saw numerous arrival traffic coming and since no Supervisor was in the area I called to the OMIC desk and requested something be opened because of the impending traffic flow. The Supervisor in charge came to our area and looked at the traffic. Since the only two controllers signed in; and working at the time was me and another Controller at Sector X; they couldn't open a sector to help manage the flow. The Supervisor returned to the OMIC desk when an early morning Controller arrived. I asked if he could help me out and take some airspace away and open a sector; which he did. We had three people on staff and three sectors open leaving no controllers for help if help was needed. Low and behold an air carrier started to descend and descend rapidly. [The neighboring Center] called to notify us that he had an emergency and was descending due to cabin pressure loss. I over heard this and immediately notified the OMIC desk via the landline of the situation and mentioned he was going to need someone over there to assist. I quickly called the Approach Control; knowing this aircraft was going to need to go to at least 10;000 FT to block airspace. In the meantime; the Controller over at Sector X yelled over and asked I could release lower which I approved. Since I was so busy and needed assistance to make phone calls; I overlooked an Air Carrier flight at FL210 crossing paths with this rapidly descending aircraft. Thankfully I caught it in time to turn the air carrier out and provided the best service I could to the emergency aircraft with no help being available to me. Once the aircraft had the situation under control they decided to proceed direct at 8;000 FT. I was trying to get all coordination accomplished and also work both combined sectors that I failed to utilize my emergency checklist and never did get persons on board and fuel remaining. I feel that it was a failure on my part but the lack of help available really put me into an unsafe situation. Staffing and overtime needs to be utilized! We had two people on staff from 0530-0600 three people on staff from 0600-0630 four people on staff 0630-0700. This is our busiest time of day on Saturday's; we are the only area in the building that is busy and everyone knows this. Having eight people originally on the shift was already below numbers then an additional two sick leave calls left us in a dangerous situation. I noticed and recognized that safety was being compromised so I took it upon myself to talk with the OMIC about how we need more help. Numbers on the ESIS were double digits and yellow for 2.5 HRS. The response to me from the OMIC was that he is unable to make a decision on overtime until 0600 when the other OMIC gets in. We finally did get one overtime approved bringing our numbers up to seven when the overtime came in later which was way too late; the traffic was before that. I feel they need to be proactive and call people at 0200-0300 and get the help here when the traffic demands it. The OMIC joked with me about how he wouldn't want a call at that time for overtime! I think that's horrible to compromise safety on what time a phone call is placed vs. getting the help in. This also was my first emergency handling situation like this. I don't recall ever getting trained on what type things need to be done when an aircraft is diving low to get to a safe altitude. I feel that some type of refresher training should come out on emergencies and assistance.
Enroute Controller experiencing an emergency descent acknowledged failure to secure all required information from the aircraft; the reporter claiming lack of staffing as a primary causal factor.