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Any of our members in the Aviation field have similar experiences with unmanned/non-responding Control Towers?

I cannot believe there are not at least two controllers at all times, 24/7....especially the midnight shift......anyone that has worked a midnight shift knows the kinda shit that goes on......

Story from the AP/WaPo wires


Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has ordered a second air traffic controller to be on duty overnight at Reagan National Airport, after the lone controller was unavailable early Wednesday as two passenger planes were trying to land.


LaHood also instructed the Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating the incident, to examine staffing levels at other airports around the country.

The two D.C. airliners, carrying a total of 165 passengers and crew members, landed on their own shortly after midnight after attempting to contact the control tower and receiving no response.

The tower normally is staffed by one air-traffic controller from midnight to 6 a.m. The on-duty controller did not respond to pilot requests for landing assistance or to phone calls from controllers elsewhere in the region, who also used a “shout line,” which pipes into a loudspeaker in the tower, internal records show.

Both planes--an American Airlines Boeing 737 flying in from Miami with 97 people onboard, and a United Airlines Airbus 320 flying in from Chicago with 68 people onboard--landed safely, within minutes of each other.

The planes’ pilots took matters into their own hands, broadcasting their progress as they approached and landed. They also were communicating with controllers at a separate facility in the region that does not handle landings.

“Today I directed the FAA to place two air traffic controllers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport’s control tower on the midnight shift,” LaHood said in a statement issued late Wednesday.

“It is not acceptable to have just one controller in the tower managing air traffic in this critical airspace. I have also asked FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt to study staffing levels at other airports around the country.”

The incident, which the National Transportation Safety Board also is reviewing, is the second time in as many years that the tower at National has gone silent, said a source familiar with tower operations who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak for the FAA.

The previous time, the lone controller on duty left his swipe-card pass key behind when he stepped outside the tower’s secure door and was unable to get back in, the source said. A controller at another facility mentioned that incident as the pilots were trying to land Wednesday morning.


The nation’s air traffic control system has many layers, with a network of en-route controllers directing planes when they are at or near cruising altitude. The airspace beneath that is controlled by Terminal Radar Approach Control facilities known as TRACONs. Takeoffs and the final miles of runway approach are handled by controllers in airport towers.

After midnight, when traffic eases, one person is on duty at the National Airport tower, a shift reserved for a supervisor rather than a regular controller. The planes that landed without tower help were two of the last three inbound commercial flights until 5 a.m., the source said.

A few minutes after midnight on Wednesday, radio recordings show, the TRACON controller handling the flight from Miami made a routine verbal handoff, telling the pilot to contact the tower.

Unable to reach anyone at National, the pilot aborted the approach, circled the airport and radioed the Potomac TRACON controller for help in aligning the plane for landing. A few minutes later, when the United plane approached for landing, the TRACON controller told him that the tower was unmanned.

The TRACON controller had a similar conversation with a second American plane.

“So you’re aware,” the controller said, “the tower is apparently not manned. We’ve made a few phone calls. Two airplanes went in the past 10 to 15 minutes, so you can expect to go into an uncontrolled airport.”

“Is there a reason it’s not manned?” the American pilot asked.

“Well, I’m going to take a guess,” the controller replied, “and say that the controller got locked out. I’ve heard of it happening before.”

“That’s the first time I’ve heard of it,” the pilot said.

“Fortunately, it’s not very often,” the controller said. “It happened about a year ago. I’m not sure that’s what happened now, but there’s nobody in the tower.”


The first two planes landed and used information from their airlines to find the correct gates. By the time the third plane touched down, after about half an hour of silence, communication from the tower had been restored.

The greatest risk posed by silence from the tower was on the ground rather than in the air. Planes routinely land in smaller airports without guidance from a tower.

In a circumstance like the one that occurred at National, pilots get on the control tower radio frequency and relay their position, speed and distance to other pilots as they approach and land.

“So, other airplanes would know, ‘Okay, he’s clear of the runway, so I’m good to go,’ ” said the source familiar with tower operations.

On the ground, however, the slow nighttime hours are when maintenance crews crisscross the runway — sometimes towing planes — as they prepare for the next morning.

“There are people in the control tower for a reason,” the source said. “There’s a whole lot of activity going on during the night.”

Those maintenance workers contact the tower on a special frequency to get clearance before crossing a runway. Inbound pilots contact the tower on a different frequency.

At airports where the tower shuts down for the night, ground crews and incoming pilots are required to use the same radio frequency to coordinate their actions.

Air traffic controllers who direct more than 1.5 million flights annually in the Washington region made a record number of mistakes last year. Dozens of the errors triggered cockpit collision warning systems.

Nationwide, errors by air traffic controllers increased by 51 percent last year. The record number of errors — locally and nationally — reflects a majority of cases in which planes came too close and some in which a potentially fatal outcome was narrowly averted.

In January, an American Airlines plane carrying 259 people almost collided with a pair of 200-ton military cargo jets after departing New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. Official records show that a distracted controller did not respond to a warning from a colleague that the planes were on a converging course.

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The news said he was sleeping.

I thought the candle in the window was a nice touch. .... and the 'take a number' machine.

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The difference between a Sea Story and a Fairy Tale is that a Fairy Tale starts out 'Once Upon a Time..' and a Sea Story starts out 'This is no Shit...'

(export version only, some restrictions may apply, some assembly required, not valid where the sun don't shine...

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Do all commercial planes now have TCAS installed?

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Alex Levine

is that a yes?

It is.

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Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

flight back to LA in feb i saw a light aircraft pass just under the left wing of taca 604. it scared the shit out of me as it was the middle of the night and i was half conscious. the guy in front of me heard me gasp and turned around with a look like did you just see that? if it had been light i would have seen the pilots face.
is there any website or agency that keeps track of these near miss things that i can look it up?

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According to a news report this morning, the controller in question admitted he fell asleep. He was on his 4th straight overnight shift.

He seems to be using that "4th straight overnight shift" as an excuse for sleeping on the job. Countless thousand of workers work overnight shifts 5 days a week without falling asleep on the job. The key I believe is what did he do in the hours he was not working the overnight shift? Did he sleep or did he just take a quick nap and go about his normal daytime activities? If he knew he was scheduled to work overnight shifts and failed to get proper rest on his off time he was negligent.

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Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

Just because two aircraft are close together does not mean there was a "near miss". Visual separation is often applied between aircraft in good weather. Basically, one aircraft is required to have the other in sight and agree not to hit the other aircraft ("maintain visual separation from that aircraft").

ID - It has been brought to the FAA's attention on numerous occasions that it is an unsafe situation to require one controller to staff a tower facility alone. A sleeping controller is just one of the things that can happen: What about an emergency or on-airport incident? One person cannot possibly watch the airport, run the frequencies and coordinate the emergency equipment, not to mention the telephone!

The FAA has resisted staffing towers with two controllers on the mid-shift to save the cost of wages. This is just one example of what happens when the FAA's mission is displaced with "cost cutting" measures.

(FAA Mission Statement: To provide a safe, orderly and expeditious flow of air traffic.)

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I am not disputing that it is inherently dangerous to have only one controller in a commercial airport tower on any shift and is a practice that should be abolished.

My point was, and is, that the mere fact that an individual is scheduled to work "4th straight overnight shift" is not a sufficient reason to blame for falling asleep. If there are other unknown mitigating factors they should be taken into consideration but the 4 night schedule is not unto itself a sufficient reason IMO.

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Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

thats why i wanted to know it there was a website that tracked it to know if it qualifies. and i think maybe light aircraft would give wider berth to jumbo jets.

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im way deep into nothing special
riding the crest of a wave breaking just west of hollywood

thanks for all the comments/observations.....especially for those that work in the aviation field....very interesting reading

my experiences in shift work has been in power plants/engine rooms, marine or stationary....not aviation

I never liked the midnight to morning shifts....it usually took at least a few months in my case to adapt to the hours.

if one is busy, it helps to stay awake (hard to fall asleep while physically engaged)...but just sitting makes it too easy to nod off in my opinion

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The difference between a Sea Story and a Fairy Tale is that a Fairy Tale starts out 'Once Upon a Time..' and a Sea Story starts out 'This is no Shit...'

(export version only, some restrictions may apply, some assembly required, not valid where the sun don't shine...

if you live in the states of Poverty, Darkness or anywhere outside of The Blessings of Civilization Trust, Inc...other rules may apply)

Well Cali
You think Diacort can fix this