RDoug
Well-Known Member
Re: NTSB investigating ATC request Southwest to intercept Ci
Personally, and from a controller's perspective, I think the SWA guys did a great job, did absolutely nothing unsafe or otherwise anything to endanger passengers and crew, complied with a controller's reasonable request, and did so admirably. Indeed, in a pre-9/11 world, we would have done this all the time. Quite frankly, the resulting uproar targeting them smells more of phoney "outrage" once again on the part of Administrator Babbitt in the wake of other recent and unrelated ATC problems. As for why Air Defense Command wasn't scrambled, that was the call not of the controller/supervisor, but rather the DEN (Domestic Events Network), and the NTSB preliminary establishes that they had been notified by ATC that the Cirrus had been out of radio contact. I don't see anyone at DEN taking any heat, but then they're all pretty much all in FAA management so that's what I would expect.
The only valid criticism in this whole mess is that the controller/supervisor didn't employ visual separation and consequently allowed separation between two IFR aircraft to decrease to .1NM and 100 feet. I know, it's silly and visual was implied and assumed, but in the controller world "implied" is never enough and "assume" makes an "ass" of both "u" and "me" (old controller saying). That visual thing is straight out of Radar 101. But, again, the suspension just because the controller didn't say the magic words, "Maintain visual separation," stinks of politics and media butt-covering.
It really is time for Administrator Babbitt to go. This stuff is just getting ridiculous, and is directly impacting his credibility with both pilots and controllers alike. It can't be much longer before credibility with the flying public and the media follows.
Personally, and from a controller's perspective, I think the SWA guys did a great job, did absolutely nothing unsafe or otherwise anything to endanger passengers and crew, complied with a controller's reasonable request, and did so admirably. Indeed, in a pre-9/11 world, we would have done this all the time. Quite frankly, the resulting uproar targeting them smells more of phoney "outrage" once again on the part of Administrator Babbitt in the wake of other recent and unrelated ATC problems. As for why Air Defense Command wasn't scrambled, that was the call not of the controller/supervisor, but rather the DEN (Domestic Events Network), and the NTSB preliminary establishes that they had been notified by ATC that the Cirrus had been out of radio contact. I don't see anyone at DEN taking any heat, but then they're all pretty much all in FAA management so that's what I would expect.
The only valid criticism in this whole mess is that the controller/supervisor didn't employ visual separation and consequently allowed separation between two IFR aircraft to decrease to .1NM and 100 feet. I know, it's silly and visual was implied and assumed, but in the controller world "implied" is never enough and "assume" makes an "ass" of both "u" and "me" (old controller saying). That visual thing is straight out of Radar 101. But, again, the suspension just because the controller didn't say the magic words, "Maintain visual separation," stinks of politics and media butt-covering.
It really is time for Administrator Babbitt to go. This stuff is just getting ridiculous, and is directly impacting his credibility with both pilots and controllers alike. It can't be much longer before credibility with the flying public and the media follows.
