FAA orders new procedures for controllers

derg

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FAA orders new procedures for controllers to prevent planes landing without assistance

By JOAN LOWY , Associated Press

Last update: March 25, 2011 - 11:37 PM

WASHINGTON - The Federal Aviation Administration gave air traffic controllers new procedures Friday as officials try to contain the fallout from an incident earlier this week in which two airliners landed at Reagan National Airport without assistance because the lone controller on duty was asleep.

Regional radar facilities are now required to alert controllers working alone at night in an airport tower that a plane is approaching, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said in a statement. The radar controllers are "to confirm that there is a controller prepared to handle the incoming flight," he said.

Regional controllers have also been reminded that if no controller can be raised at an airport tower, proper procedures require they offer pilots the option of diverting to another airport, Babbitt said.

Controllers at a regional FAA radar facility in Warrenton, Va., about 40 miles from Reagan, didn't offer that option to the pilots who were to unable reach the airport's tower between 12:04 and 12:28 am on Wednesday.

Repeated phone calls from the regional facility to the tower also went unanswered.

The planes — an American Airlines flight from Dallas and a United Airlines flight from Chicago with a combined 165 people on board — landed safely.

Pilots can always decide on their own authority to divert to another airport, said Rory Kay, a former Air Line Pilots Association safety chairman and an international airline captain.

The controller on duty in the tower — a veteran air traffic supervisor — acknowledged to investigators who interviewed him Thursday that he had dozed off, the National Transportation Safety Board said. The controller, who has not been identified, was working his fourth 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift in a row, according the board, which is investigating the episode.

The incident has renewed concern about the potential safety consequences of controllers suffering from fatigue, a longstanding concern of the board.

It has also sparked criticism of FAA's practice of scheduling a single controller on overnight shifts at some airports, but especially at Reagan, which is in Arlington, Va., and just across the Potomac River from downtown Washington.

"This is not a mom-and-pop airport for small planes, and is in the vicinity of some very sensitive airspace," Kay said.

At least one congressional committee has launched its own investigation, and the issue is expected to be raised next week when the House takes up a bill to provide long term authority for FAA programs.

On Wednesday night, less than 24 hours after the incident, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood ordered a second controller be added to the overnight shift at Reagan

About 30 other airports around the country also have a single controller on duty on the overnight shift. In some instances, the controllers work alone for only a part of the shift.

FAA is examining whether staffing on those overnight shifts should be increased.

On Friday, the safety board recommended to the FAA that it no longer allow air traffic controllers to provide supervisory oversight while performing operational air traffic duties. The recommendation wasn't directly related to this week's incident. But if FAA were to follow the board's recommendation, the agency would effectively have to assign at least two people — a supervisor and a controller — to every shift.

In a previous letter to FAA, NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman pointed to several previous airport accidents in which the air traffic supervisor on duty was also working as a controller directing air traffic instead of being free to devote attention entirely to the supervising of controllers.
 
Problem solved:

_Super_loud_alarm_clock.jpg


Somewhat different than the Airbus model, but same effectivity....
 
Seems like the problem of fatigue runs rampant in aviation. In an industry that you simply can't have fatigue related incidents, you'd think the FAA would finally get it. But instead of staffing a tower at the proper levels (at least two in a cab), let's just call the guy and wake him from his nap.


Edit to add: Last night I departed SJC at about 11:30 PM. I am assuming that there was only one person in the cab because I pulled up, held short and asked to take off. I then realized that I asked for, and recived take off clearance on ground.
 
Seems like the problem of fatigue runs rampant in aviation. In an industry that you simply can't have fatigue related incidents, you'd think the FAA would finally get it. But instead of staffing a tower at the proper levels (at least two in a cab), let's just call the guy and wake him from his nap.
Controlled Controller Napping™

Edit to add: Last night I departed SJC at about 11:30 PM. I am assuming that there was only one person in the cab because I pulled up, held short and asked to take off. I then realized that I asked for, and recived take off clearance on ground.
Probably...if they're not looking directly at the keypack they won't know if you called them on local or ground.

The old home-port's tower multiplexes all the time after 6 PM, too - almost always a single controller up there...if not by 1800 then certainly after 1900. Usually the first words on initial call are "[Aircraft ident] Smalltown Ground switch to Tower." It can't possibly be a healthy situation even at (or especially at) a slow airport. Boredom undoubtedly starts getting the better of you.
 
So, umm, what did they change or fix?

Apparently nothing. I thought that they had to effect the handoff in a situation like this anyways. Wheter it be through the new system that makes a target flash on the screen, or the old school calling them on the land line? Boondor?
 
Seems like the problem of fatigue runs rampant in aviation. In an industry that you simply can't have fatigue related incidents, you'd think the FAA would finally get it. But instead of staffing a tower at the proper levels (at least two in a cab), let's just call the guy and wake him from his nap.


Edit to add: Last night I departed SJC at about 11:30 PM. I am assuming that there was only one person in the cab because I pulled up, held short and asked to take off. I then realized that I asked for, and recived take off clearance on ground.

Maybe your fatigue led to the lack of freqency change and your plane needs proper staffing of two people. BOO YA!!!

JK dude, been there done that.
 
Last night I departed SJC at about 11:30 PM. I am assuming that there was only one person in the cab because I pulled up, held short and asked to take off. I then realized that I asked for, and recived take off clearance on ground.

At my local airport, we always have at least 2 people in the tower when it's in operation, but after ~9pm, whoever is on tower usually just transmits on both tower and ground frequencies, so it would be easy to assume that there's only one controller.

I had no idea a tower could be scheduled to have just one controller. What if the guy needs a bathroom break? What if the bathroom break lasts longer than usual because he had some stale chineese food for lunch? Does the airport close?
 
Apparently nothing. I thought that they had to effect the handoff in a situation like this anyways. Wheter it be through the new system that makes a target flash on the screen, or the old school calling them on the land line? Boondor?

arrival coordination is covered in the LOA/SOP between tower and approach, if a tower has a radar display with a ARTS/STARS read out this is what is used but NO handoff is made between approach and tower.that new system of flashing handoffs via the computer has been around for over 40 years so it isnt that new.
 
All that has changed is now there is a ton of unnecessary coordination (tower has to call with departures too when they taxi)
It doesn't address the fatigue problem even a little. Personally if I am calling tower and they don't answer I am just going to create feedback on the speaker Eeeeeeeeeerrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!!!!! If that doesn't wake them nothing will.
 
My understanding of Reagan National is that only under special circumstance can you land there after 9:59PM. I think that is why they only had one controller there...

Just my Monday morning armchair QB thought: I think they should have diverted to Dulles.

http://www.metwashairports.com/reagan/2544.htm <-- Noise Abatement Procedures at National
 
new rule, don't fall asleep. horrraaayyy for the feds. what would we do without em.

seriously...."This is my 4th 10pm - 6am shift in a row...." Really, Big deal.....You work nights, sleep in the day... It's not that diffucult.......
 
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