Planes land without clearance at DCA

[Evan]

Only one controller in the tower??? Fast asleep???

NYTIMES - Two passenger airliners landed at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington without clearance or guidance from the airport’s control tower early Wednesday, and officials were looking into the possibility that the air traffic controller on duty had fallen asleep.

One of the planes, an American Airlines Boeing 737 from Dallas, approached the airport around midnight but aborted its landing and circled the airport after pilots got no response from the tower. About 15 minutes later, a United Airlines Airbus 320 from Chicago also tried unsuccessfully to establish contact with the tower.

Both planes made contact with a regional tower that guided them in, and both landed safely, said Peter Knudson, a National Transportation Safety Board spokesman.

Mr. Knudson said that it was unclear why the Reagan controller had not responded, and that the agency was looking into the possibility that the person had fallen asleep. In a statement, Laura Brown, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said the agency was looking into “staffing issues and whether existing procedures were followed appropriately.”

[Fear_of_Flying]

Only one controller in the tower??? Fast asleep???

Hmm, maybe the controller was playing on his laptop.

[RJ-Fan]

Hy folks,

even worse than in Luxembourg, where they make planes land with too much tailwind a.s.o., hense the tailstrike of a Luxair Q400 2 months ago!

[Eric Diffoot]

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/03/23/washington.planes.controllers/index.html

With ATC recording. One controller for DCA at night, kinda of odd.

[Peter Kesternich]

Hy folks,

even worse than in Luxembourg, where they make planes land with too much tailwind a.s.o., hense the tailstrike of a Luxair Q400 2 months ago!

If a pilot lands with a tailwind and knows about it it's his fault, not ATC's... No pilot can be made to land by ATC!

[guamainiac]

Who fired the controllers?

What airport was this?

A wee bit of irony?

It's like the old joke about pilots who have landed with the gear up .. and then there are those who are about to. If you work a night watch, you will fall asleep and it's just a matter of time when.

Remember the flight off LAX that kept going out over the Pacific a few years ago? Both pilots nodded off.

[Highkeas]

In an aviation newsletter I get it is reported that they used an ATC some 40-miles away to coordinate their landings plus using VFR.

FAA is seeking to see if controller was locked out, asleep, equipment failure, or what. Also recommending at least two controllers be on durty here and elsewhere.

[Vnav]

In an aviation newsletter I get it is reported that they used an ATC some 40-miles away to coordinate their landings plus using VFR.

Potomac TRACON is located in Warrenton VA which is probably 25-30 miles from DCA, but since it's all radar controlled environment, I'm not really sure that it maters how far away they were.

Commercial airline ops at airports with uncontrolled Towers is neither illegal nor that uncommon. It's in our OpsSpecs and we used to do it quite a bit although it's a little rarer now that we eleiminated a lot of the late night flight banks. However, there are many commercial airports where the Tower doesn't operate 24 hours and as long as a few procedures are carried out, there's no problem landing there.

Admittedly DCA is normally a 24 hour Tower Controlled airport so this is somewhat unusual, but Potomac TRACON is certainly allowed to clear them for the approach and the crews are certainly allowed to land there.

[guamainiac]

It is not a question of legality but of "SOP".

You, in a post 9/11 world are going to set down in DC without a clearance?

I gotta wonder what AA would say if there was the slightest issue.

That pilot would be issued walking papers.

[Curtis Malone]

That pilot would be issued walking papers.

For what exactly?

[Vnav]

It is not a question of legality but of "SOP".

You, in a post 9/11 world are going to set down in DC without a clearance?

I'm not sure what 'post 9/11' has to do with it...from a strictly Air Traffic Control point of view, there are no special procedures for going into DCA anymore, and back when there were, those procedures were with Potomac Approach, not DCA tower. As a regularly scheduled Air Carrier with a TSA approved Security Program in two way comms with Potomac, those flights would be in full compliance with the DC Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA).

Potomac declared DCA as a non Towerred airport and told the flights to utilize the 119.1 frequency as a CTAF. At that point, you don't need landing clearance.....you simply announce your intentions to land.

Of the thousands of airports in the US, only about 20% of them are Towerred at any given time. I've landed at places like Fort Myers and Tallahasee in uncontrolled conditions and while I grant that DCA is normally a much busier place, at O' dark thirty in the morning, there's not much going on there either.

If these two crews decided to divert and go somewhere else, I certainly wouldn't second guess them. As it was, I know at least one of them broke off an Approach to confer with Potomac and get a few things straight. They didn't rush things or act unreasonably and eventually followed standard procedures for operating to a non towerred airport

[Deadstick]

I think it's important to know the facts of what happened before this controller's career is ruined. I'm hearing reports he was asleep, and he may well have been. The question is why. Was he sick and tried to call in but there was no one to take the shift? If so, had he taken some kind of cold or flu medicine that made him drousy? Was he just so bored because of no arriving traffic he nodded off? Was he busy boinking some female TSA agent and couldn't be bothered to clear two flights for landing? Who knows yet?

This controller has an exemplary record. I'd like to know what the circumstances were before he's rotated in the microwave.

[Curtis Malone]

This controller has an exemplary record. I'd like to know what the circumstances were before he's rotated in the microwave.

I don't think you need worry. He(she?) is a federal employee, I scarce think there are any thermal devices in his(her?) future.

[Vnav]

I think it's important to know the facts of what happened before this controller's career is ruined.

Well, to his credit, he's coming clean with no excuses......From a REUTERS report

(Reuters) - An air traffic controller told U.S. investigators on Thursday he had fallen asleep on the job, leaving two jetliners to land in Washington without any airport guidance.

"As a former airline pilot, I am personally outraged that this controller did not meet his responsibility to help land these two airplanes," Randy Babbitt, the Federal Aviation Administration administrator, said in a statement.

The controller, a supervisor, told NTSB investigators who interviewed him he fell asleep for a period of time on duty, the board said in a preliminary report on the incident.


The controller, according to the NTSB, said he had been working his fourth consecutive overnight shift and was the lone person in the tower at the time of the incident.

[guamainiac]

Oooooooops on the 9/11 stuff but would there not be something in the AA SOP for contacting the field?

Not looking to blame a pilot here.

Nor, a controller. Sleeping? I am not shocked and blame the system.

Why? For the same reason I blame the system for not figuring out human biology or at least not applying what is known.

Anyone who has ever pulled a military watch, worked a late watch, or any degree of night work knows that your system will begin to shut down. Like it or not about 3 in the morning I could feel the chill come and had to fight sleep. Some folks are different but there is no getting around it.

And yes during that other "nasty little war" they gave out pills to combat this.