"Stefan" wrote in message
...
I know that the whole idea of the hierarchic structure involved was that
the controller should trust that the established and approved workflow was
reasonable.

The person doing the job who must have the final say as to whether they feel
they can do the job satisfactorily.

In this situation, some of the equipment in the ATC facility was out of
action. Not enough, by all accounts, necessarily to make it dangerous to
work the facility, but some. It would be perfectly reasonable for someone
who was comfortable working a fully staffed facility with normal levels of
functioning equipment to say, in the event of staffing/equipment shortages:
"Sorry, I just don't feel I can provide a safe service in this set of
circumstances".

The hierarchic structure is not there to allow the guy on the ground to
trust that everything will be OK. In this case it's there to solve the
problem of someone saying: "Sorry guys, I can't operate this as I don't
think I can do so safely".

D.