Originally Posted by
elitetraveler
What's the basis for saying ATC wasn't listening to him.
The pilot said "We can't land on that runway. If you don't clear us for the other runway, we will declare an emergency."
I couldn't quite understand what the ATC said next: "All right <garbled> Fly runway heading for now."
Then the pilot declared an emergency and said he was going left, and the ATC responded that he should "just fly runway heading".
My interpretation of this is that the pilot declared an emergency and the ATC did not respond as if an emergency had been declared, at which point the pilot became irritated.
Originally Posted by
justageek
I think the air traffic controller was momentarily stunned by the pilot's unmitigated arrogance and combativeness. It wasn't an issue of "ATC wasn't listening to him," it was an issue of "ATC couldn't believe what it was hearing." Listen to the recording again.
On a second hearing, the pilot does sound more angry rather than stressed out by an emergency. But I still don't know if the ATC responded correctly. My analogy is that when someone sets off a fire alarm, you evacuate the building, even though you think it's probably a drill. If it's an intentional false alarm, that can be investigated/dealt with later.
Since this is the first ATC tape I have listened to, I will defer to the opinion of more experienced people who say that this was an arrogant and combative tantrum by ATC standards. I just spent the weekend with a 3-year old, so my concept of tantrum is a bit skewed at the moment.
I will be interested to hear the details of the investigation. After all, if the pilot declared emergency in a fit of pique rather than a true emergency, he should be fired for potentially endangering others.