Ministry: 3-hour closure of Tallinn airspace overnight had 'minimal impact'
The Ministry of Climate says the impact on air traffic of airspace around Tallinn being closed in the small hours of Monday was minimal, "Aktuaalne kaamera" reported.
The three-hour closure was the result of staffing shortages, though the ministry says there is no overall shortage of air traffic controllers.
Deputy secretary general of the Ministry of Climate, Sander Salmu, said: "The number of air traffic controllers is sufficient, but the question is whether all the people who could have responded actually did. If you have several people on standby, but at that moment they can't come in and they have the legal right and option to decline, then it meant that not all the people who were supposedly in reserve at that moment were able to show up."
Meanwhile, Mihkel Haug, head of the air traffic management department at Lennuliiklusteenindus AS (EANS), Estonia's air traffic control authority, said the situation overnight Sunday to Monday had been exceptional and had not happened before over the past decade.
"It was closed as we had some problems with staffing, and since flight safety is our top priority, people's private lives also need to be respected, and we didn't find a good solution," Haug said.
"We still worked in the evening to find a solution, altered the daytime rotation, and tried to do our utmost to keep the restrictions minimal," he added.
Haug said there should still be several air traffic controllers on duty at night, adding "this is to ensure their work and rest time so that we don't end up with a dangerous situation where a tired controller is alone on duty all night."
This was the rationale behind the three-hour downtime, "so the controller could rest, go to the bathroom if needed, take a short nap, and be ready for the morning traffic," Haug went on.
Between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. Monday, no plane took off or landed from Tallinn Airport, due to the airspace closure.
While no flights were canceled due to the tower's closure, the air traffic control center informed partners about the impending downtime around midday on Sunday, which did lead to the delayed departure of an Antalya to Tallinn flight, by about an hour.
The decision did not affect overflights because those are handled by other personnel, Haug added, noting one air traffic controller coordinating operations at Tallinn Airport was still present in the tower overnight.
In the case of an emergency medical flight, the airspace could have been reopened during the closure period too, he said.
Air traffic controller shifts are between seven and 11 hours long, with a quarter of that time being designated for rest breaks.
The Police and Border Guard Board stated in a written response that it had contacted the control tower on Sunday evening to clarify how to proceed in the event of a life-saving emergency. No such calls happened overnight Sunday to Monday.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Marko Tooming
