So. Was it IMC or VMC at arrival? Did the jetliner enter downwind on the 45, fly the pattern and land? or did me make straight in? What would the traffic pattern altitude be for a turbine aircraft? I assume that there probably weren't any other aircraft in the pattern due to a landing fee and the lateness of the hour.
I believe that's right on, but when the AA 737 driver adopted NORDO procedures and started circling the tower, that diverged from the IFR clearance and I think s/he became obligated to wait for light gun signals from the tower lol. On a side note I wonder how many ATPs still remember all the light gun signals
Light signals are for lost communications, not tower closed conditions.
I believe the Visual Flight Rules for visibility and clouds for Class B are 3 miles visibility and clear of clouds. I would look it up on the same sheet that has the light gun meanings.
To clarify, the tower controller is more or less in charge over planes that are imminently taking off or landing on his concrete strip of land. "Tower controller" sounds important in the news, but really he has nothing to do with national security or watching the skies over DC. There were probably dozens of controllers in an office building nearby that could see this plane on their radar screens and talk to him. If you listen to the audio, the approach controller even says he'll be monitoring the common frequency that the pilot used while actually landing in this situation. Just wanted to tamp down some of the "fear" aspect of this story.
The main difference between landing with/without a controller is that the pilot declares what he is doing over the radio instead of having a controller declare it over the radio. Since this is past midnight, the pilot is basically just speaking to dead air. In either case, the same regulations are followed to execute the landing. Controllers are one of many overlapping methods prevent planes from hitting each other in crowded airspace. DCA is not crowded at midnight.
The only factor I can see in this, is that the controller wouldn't have been there to read out the runway wind speed and direction, thus, if weather had been a significant factor, I could see a pilot choosing to divert to a nearby airport if low on fuel.
dranz knows what he's talking about, there is no secret code word.
Light signals are for lost communications, not tower closed conditions.
Completely agree, but I would maintain that this is a lost communications event. I'm too lazy to check my Jepps but verified with airnav.com that the tower is operated continuously so a 'tower closed condition' should never apply. They also do not show deprecation to class E or G airspace when the tower is not operating.
I guess this falls into the category of "why do they put door locks on Dennys."
these guys never fly visual. they may say visual, be told visual, but every one of them fly over the marker beacons.
the last plane to fly over the middle of the potomac was a dc3 in 1975.(i live under the oxonhill marker beacon) the only way these guys can find dca is to fly over that beacon.
> the tower is operated continuously so a 'tower closed condition' should never apply
Agree. But crap happens. Fires/lockouts/diarreha/etc. What happens next is a function
of the 121 Ops Spec for each airline. Different airlines, have different ops specs.
Some airlines do have ops specs that permit landing at airports that lack an operating
contol tower. I remember landing at FNT last fall after a fire took-out the tower.
Cleveland Center simply instructed everyone to self-announce on the tower freq. NOT
a big deal. Easy, peasy.
Frankly; I am astonished that FAA/ATO mgt at DCA allows single CTO operations
"just because." I am also astonished that USSS or FBI SWAT teams didn't storm the
tower. A couple of flash-bangs would wake even a NATCA member. <g>
I'm pretty sure the controller on duty was a supervisor. I'm curious what their regular shift rotation is there. Four consecutive mids, if that's not your regular schedule, would be far from ideal.
Controller at Reagan National Fell Asleep On Duty
By: Gregory Polek
March 24, 2011
Air Transport and Cargo Aircraft
The air traffic controller at the center of the controversy surrounding a pair of flights that had to land at Washington Ronald Reagan National Airport early Wednesday morning without ATC clearance from DCA told NTSB investigators that he had fallen asleep, the Safety Board reported this evening. The 20-year-veteran controller, who the FAA suspended today, had been working his fourth consecutive overnight shift (10 p.m. to 6 a.m.)
Except for the brief period when AA 1012 was handed off to DCA tower prior to its missed approach, both aircraft were in ATC contact at all times.
Potomac TRACON instructed each crew that it was unable to establish land-line communication with the tower and cleared them for the approach (not sure if it was the visual or instrument, but it doesn't really matter). At that point, the tower was essentially closed and it became a 191 operation at a non-towered airport, which happens every day (although probably not with 737's and A320's).
Obviously, it would be disconcerting if this happened frequently, but it seems to me like the system worked pretty well here.
There was a fatal regional jet crash a few years back in IIRC North Carolina. In that crash if 2 controllers had been working instead of 1, the crash likely would not have occurred. In that case, I thought the FAA budget cuts went too far. That may be the case here, although if there are only a few flights during the graveyard shift, 1 controller should be able to handle it as he makes time-and-a-half or whatever the graveyard rate is. Maybe he got too greedy going for 4 nights in a row when he isn't a nightowl. Or maybe he was down the seniority list and drew the short straw. His scheduler/manager should be in trouble also.
I find it very disturbing that any airport within 100 mile radius of our nations capitol is basically "unmanned".
You worried that a terrorist is going to crash a plane into a runway? And how would a tower controller prevent that anyway? How is not having having a tower controller a security threat? I can see issues with no one manning air traffic control over DC, but the tower...?
There was a fatal regional jet crash a few years back in IIRC North Carolina. In that crash if 2 controllers had been working instead of 1, the crash likely would not have occurred. In that case, I thought the FAA budget cuts went too far. That may be the case here, although if there are only a few flights during the graveyard shift, 1 controller should be able to handle it as he makes time-and-a-half or whatever the graveyard rate is. Maybe he got too greedy going for 4 nights in a row when he isn't a nightowl. Or maybe he was down the seniority list and drew the short straw. His scheduler/manager should be in trouble also.
The controller in question is management and at most facilities you do not get a choice of what you work. Most controllers work what is known as a rattler or double quick turn: Monday 2pm-10pm, Tuesday 2pm-10pm, Wednesday 6am-2pm, Thursday 6am-2pm, Thursday 11pm - 7am then back again at 2pm on Monday.
