Glad I don't work at Reagan Tower

[mustangdriver]

http://slatest.slate.com/id/2289264/

[davidbray]

What really bugs me about this, is that now everyone is panicking about how potentially unsafe the skies are. I have seen too many news stories already about this, and in Chicago we have reporters talking to passengers at O'hare. I really get annoyed at the what I call "scare-mongering" that the media gets into whenever anything happens in aviation.

Just curious, as a controller, what do you think of all the media coverage? Obviously this happened late at night and the operations per hour were, well, low.

[mustangdriver]

I know I am not the only controller here, but these are my thoughts on it. First off this is bad...very bad. Low traffic or not, the tower needs to be alert. Does that mean you can' kick back once in a while? Of course not. Going to sleep is too far. That being said, those who have never worked night shift have no idea just how rough night shift can be. You are fighting you body. So much so that studies have found that people that work night shift have a higher chance of getting sick. My opinion is that a control tower is no place for one guy by himself. There should be two people at all times. Even going to take a leak requires the controller losing the picture for a few minutes. Reagan airport in the area with multiple airspace restrictions is no place for a guy by himself.
Alot of people are saying no big deal. In my book it is a very big deal. Sure we have all flown into to a uncontrolled field, but those airports are slated to be uncontrolled fields. They have those proceedures in place. Reagan does not. Accidents are a chain of events. By this taking place he added a link to that chain.
The question I have that no one is asking is why the heck was approach letting them alnd there with this going on. What if this was some sort of attack? What if there was a truck parked in the middle of the runway? It was still dark out when this was happening. I feel these planes should have been diverted to other airports until they found out what was going on.
So yes, I feel the media is having a fun time with it, however what took place is indeed dangerous. That is my opinion atleast.

[davidbray]

I don't disagree that it was bad, and that approach should have diverted them. The biggest shock to me, and while the media is quick to throw their poison arrows at the tower controller, was that the FAA deemed the airport closest to the nation's capitol to only need one controller at any time. I thought that I had read someplace that at least one point the NTSB had recommended towers being manned by at least 2 controllers.

[tom d. friedman]

my best friend was the top controller at cleveland hopkins int. airport. he had near 35 years experience from the army to laguardia, to toledo , to cleveland. he plotted all the airspace for the cleveland air shows, flyby's for sports events, coordinated w/ the secret service when a president would come to cleveland etc, was on duty on 9/11. he stated that controllers now don't have to have a pilot's licence to do the job!! i find that beyond shocking!!

[Woodsy Airfield]

It use to be that experience as controller in the military, as pilot, or college education would be a gate of entry into ATC - at least back in the '70's. I've been out of contact since 1980's, but I must wonder if the approach control at Reagan is co-located in same building as tower. While I was in USAF, I worked VFR tower and the bases I was assigned to were directly below or attached to tower. I have to believe that approach control or base ops could spare an extra body and have a backup key or pass card to run up steps and open tower door to check on operator.....

[tom d. friedman]

leon, i'm talking about keith alves, i'm sure you know him.

[Woodsy Airfield]

Tom - The name sounds familiar, but I don't recollect meeting him.......

[The Inspector]

Just wait until the cowboys in Congress get through slashing the FAA's air safety budget in the name of 'deficit reduction'..................

[muddyboots]

No need to go there

[rossjools]

, I totally agree with those who've said there should be at least two in every tower at any one time, especially at night. Here in Australia we used to have flight service officers at every secondary control zone tower in the country and at night there were always two of them. Then sometime in the 80s things started to go down the "World's Best Practice" road and soon we saw all sorts of aviation services being cut to the bone and further. Do we have to wait until there is a tragedy at an airfield somewhere before our Governments wake up to the fact that "World's Best Practice" isn't. By the way, I have worked shift work most of my life and quite a bit of night shift in the last ten years so I do know what I'm talking about.

Cheeres,
Ross.

[Kyleb]

An incident like this happens once and people want to double up on controllers on the overnight shifts in how many towers?

I guess we will also require two pilots in every cockpit, two drivers in every car, etc? Naah. At some point, we have to count on individuals to do what they are supposed to do.

[muddyboots]

except that one screw up could cost hundreds and hundreds of lives.

[Kyleb]

except that one screw up could cost hundreds and hundreds of lives.

That's the case in thousands of situations. Anyway, there are procedures to address the no comm situation. The reason there is/was only one controller is that there isn't much traffic at Reagan at night. So if every decade or two a couple of airliners have to sequence themselves, I don't see the problem.

In the end, the pilot is there to handle exceptions to the norm.

[The Inspector]

Remind me to not have you help out on an Annual or overhaul-If there were aircraft accidents in the U.S. on a weekly basis like there are in the rest of the world on a weekly basis, we'd have a Chicago 191 about every six days. In China, if there are no foreign nationals on a particular flight that crashes or vanishes, it might never get reported to any authority.

Go read up on the UAL-TWA midair over the Grand Canyon in 1956 caused because in the 50's there was no real ATC away from the airport area and each airliner reported it's location to the company radio who then may or may not have passed it along to one of the few centers then in existance. In this business people die in large numbers in a field or yards past the end of a runway because of teeny mistakes that compound themselves. I'm in favor of every tower having enough folks around the clock to play Bridge between flights, can't have enough eyes on the subject. Hold a headon drawing of a 747 with about a 3 inch wing span at arms length and move it towards your nose while you atare @ it and nothing else, @ about 18 inches away it will disappear from you vision, that's 3 miles or about 7 seconds from BANG @ jet speeds.