Earthquake

Justin538

New Member
During an earthquake, would the tower advise the pilot not to land?

I never thought about this before, and the situation, while scary, seems a little amusing.
For instance, my imagination shoots out a conversation like this.


Pilot: Tower, I look foward to stepping down onto stable land.

Tower: Sorry, we don't have any of that right now. Maybe tomorrow.
 
You can't really not let a pilot land, you're just there to make sure the runway environment is safe (no other aircraft on or around it). It's the pilots decision wether or not to land. Another example would be if there is a really strong cross wind and a pilot comes in, it's not your responsibility to know what the max demontrated crosswind of that aircraft is, that falls on the pilot, and is ultimately his/her decision to land/go around/ or go elsewhere.
 
We had an earthquake a few months ago... well a few and a ton of aftershocks. I work at the airport and we were affected. It is not pilot decision when there is an earthquake of a certain magnitude. I think its anything over a 4.2 or something. Not sure about exact details but they close the runways and engineers have to come out and test their structural integrety. So planes fly around in circles around the city at slow speed etc etc. usually takes 30 minutes to an hour to check out. Anyway... that is just how they do it here at IND
 
You can't really not let a pilot land, you're just there to make sure the runway environment is safe (no other aircraft on or around it). It's the pilots decision wether or not to land. Another example would be if there is a really strong cross wind and a pilot comes in, it's not your responsibility to know what the max demontrated crosswind of that aircraft is, that falls on the pilot, and is ultimately his/her decision to land/go around/ or go elsewhere.
At Shemya (way out on the Aleutian islands) they will ask you what type aircraft you are (C-17, C-130) before reporting the winds. Wouldn't you know it, the winds are almost always 1kt under the maximum for your A/C!
 
During an earthquake, would the tower advise the pilot not to land?

I never thought about this before, and the situation, while scary, seems a little amusing.
For instance, my imagination shoots out a conversation like this.


Pilot: Tower, I look foward to stepping down onto stable land.

Tower: Sorry, we don't have any of that right now. Maybe tomorrow.

The tower would evacuate and hand the airspace over to the TRACON or ARTCC. The Good Friday earthquake of 1964 toppled the ANC control tower. It was a 9.2 on the richter scale. From what I've read/heard, it killed all the controllers inside.


Ale0240thumb.JPG
 
The tower would evacuate and hand the airspace over to the TRACON or ARTCC. The Good Friday earthquake of 1964 toppled the ANC control tower. It was a 9.2 on the richter scale. From what I've read/heard, it killed all the controllers inside.


Ale0240thumb.JPG
Lucky for me the SEA tower was designed and built because of the 2001 earthquake here that shattered all the windows in the existing tower (which is now ramp control).
 
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