First Lady Michelle Obama was on a plane that had to abort landing at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington on Monday trying to avoid a cargo jet already on the runway. The plane did a go around, a standard procedure that happens even daily on airports all over the world and are not considered an incident, but made the front page only because the First Lady was on board.
No dangerous maneuvers were needed and nothing else happened except for a less than 10 minutes delay of the landing.
Each and every pilot has encountered such a situation and this one was definitely not posing any risks to the plane that was some 3 miles away the other aircraft, a distance kept to avoid air turbulence behind airplanes. Everybody is sure the pilot saw the cargo jet way before it got dangerous. At an average speed of an estimated 200 mph used by planes at that moment of the landing the pilot had enough time to avoid a collision. A slow down procedure that could have been the alternative was not an option for the pilot who preferred the much safer go around. Pilots do prefer a go around when spacing does not work, instead of slowing down.
Although this happens all the time, pilots are not happy to go around after they are cleared to land the runway and they notice planes on the tarmac that should have been seen by the controller. Also, Andrews Air Force Base is among the last where a controller is expected to fail. A more serious problem would have been if the landing continued and the plane touched down too close to the cargo jet.
Air traffic controllers are glad that the whole issue stirred discussions that have again surfaced the problems of the sector. Awful work schedules and severely understaffed personnel schemes with sometimes only one controller in the tower are only part of the issues that cause severe fatigue and stress and a shorter active period for them. Their retirement under the normal 56 years of age is more and more common as fewer and fewer of them can work all their 25 years to pension.
Most probable the media will spin the story way out of control and they may recall many other recent incidents involving air traffic controllers caught sleeping or watching videos at work. The go around is like measles: almost everybody gets it, but it is breaking news when it happens to a celebrity.
I remember that in 2002 a Danish air traffic controller caused a collision between a Russian plane and a cargo jet leading to the death of 88 persons, mainly children going to Spain for holiday. He was working two workstations at the same time in Switzerland. He was finally killed by a Russian architect who lost his whole family in the disaster. Sometimes traffic controllers' mistakes are deadly for them, too.
ReplyDeleteVeteran controllers are retiring and the FAA is losing specialised staff at a fast pace. Over the next eight years, the FAA will need to hire some 11,000 new air traffic controllers. Although conditions are quite tough, salary is decent and retiring age lower than average.
ReplyDeleteThe National Transportation Safety Board has issued preliminary report on this incident confirming that air traffic controllers told the pilot of the Boeing 737 carrying the first lady that he was 4 miles from a giant Air Force C-17 cargo when he was in fact 2.94 miles to the cargo plane. This means that the initially announced 3 miles distance was correctly evaluated and nothing special happened.
ReplyDeleteThe Federal Aviation Administration remains under pressure although scheduling practices aimed at reducing controllers’ fatigue have already been adjusted and staff was added on late shifts.
FAA oversees the 15,000 controllers of the country handling flights in and out of more than 400 airports.