Factor
Woodstock, VA
Male, 65
My life in ATC began with 4 years Air Force then another 30 years with the Federal Aviation Admin. working tower & radar at some big international airports. I fought in the 1981 war with PATCO, survived the strike and kept a job that was just too exhilarating to walk away from. While there was nothing better than working airplanes, I did move on through several air traffic supervisory and management positions. It was a long, crazy career but I wouldn't trade a moment of it for love or lucre!
Thanks for your questions! I was still onboard when Uberlingen happened. As you can imagine, controllers are always fascinated by aviation accidents – especially those involving air traffic control. That’s why you’d find copies of the latest National Transportation Safety Board accident reports in many controller break rooms. We’d talk about each accident; attempting to reconstruct the events and decisions leading up to it in a way that might change the outcome. Sometimes 15 or 20 minutes of second guessing and saying things like “I sure wouldn’t have done anything that stupid!” or “Why didn’t they do (whatever)?” had the effect of distancing us from the reality that it could have happened here.
Midair collisions, or “aluminum showers” as we called them, are a controller’s worst nightmare. Uberlingen was the embodiment of that nightmare. Sure, there were contributing factors such as how the flight crews should have reacted to their TCAS (collision avoidance) alerts, contrary instructions from the controller, etc. To us though, the real issue was having two aircraft on converging courses, at the same altitude. That’s a bad setup and one that should be avoided whenever possible. If unavoidable, it must be monitored continuously to ensure that one plane either passes well ahead of, or behind the other. And if the controller becomes distracted by other duties? That’s how the nightmare begins.
The fact that there were two controllers on duty but one was sleeping made us squirm in our seats. The practice of allowing one controller to sleep for the first half of a midnight shift then swap with whoever worked that half was common practice at many facilities.
As to lessons learned? Not much. I already mentioned the bad setup of two converging flights at the same altitude. In converging situations, the best controllers always try to build in some altitude separation. It’ll save the day if they become distracted. The fact there were two controllers on duty but one was absent from the control room reminded me of my early years in ATC. It seemed safe after midnight, when there was very little air traffic but there’s no doubt an extra set of eyes can prevent a catastrophe.
I doubt there were any new training or procedural initiatives taken because of this accident. For controllers, there were existing directives and good operating practices already in place that would have covered a Uberlingen type situation.
Thanks for the interesting questions!
Factor
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Hi Kayla. I’m glad you are enjoying my Jobstr Q&A. How interesting this forum is depends largely on the quality of questions received. I’ve been lucky so far and your question is another great one! While I can’t speak for all controllers, I can tell you that work habits and attitudes followed me and many of my coworkers out the door after each shift (usually to our favorite watering hole, then home).
The hyper-vigilance you mention is an essential on-the-job skill that controllers must master if they are to succeed. We refer to it as “scanning” or “situational awareness.” Without it; we can make a mess of things pretty quickly! Controllers must be able to focus on several immediate situations simultaneously and resolve them safely. At the same time, they must anticipate what will need to be done within the next few minutes and come up with a plan. The best controllers not only handler their own traffic but are able to keep an eye and ear on the other controllers working around them. You can even learn to read changes in the pace and pitch of a coworker’s voice that indicate trouble. ATC is a ‘team sport’ and the ability to recognize when a teammate needs or will need help is the first step in providing assistance. This is a great skill to bring along into those “other aspects” of life!
Controllers are generally an impatient bunch. Impatience is another survival skill at work and you draw from it so often that it eventually starts seeping into your personal life. If you were already the impatient type going in, ATC work will amplify the trait over time. Controllers rely on near instant compliance with their instructions to make the overall traffic picture work. A time lag in pilot compliance or from a need to repeat instructions can have a ripple effect; especially when the controller is very busy and has already accounted for every second of the next few minutes. We get impatient knowing that a beautiful plan is fragile and can fall apart with one, seemingly insignificant delay or distraction. However, the rest of life is rarely so urgent.
Although impatience and a constant sense of urgency keep things moving at work, they are not necessarily good things at home. Fortunately, the further I got from ATC after retiring, the more patience I was able to regain. On the other hand, heightened vigilance and situational awareness are always useful. They were post-ATC keepers and I would recommend them to anyone; both on and off the job.
Thanks for writing!
Factor
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Good question. The vote is still officially out on that but, from what is known so far, it appears doubtful. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) may have imposed the ban because they weren’t sure what impacts cell phone technology would have on aircraft. From what I’ve read, evidence is inconclusive. So if you are the FCC, you err on the side of safety.
The ban may actually be supported by some airlines. Rather than a concern for disrupting anything radar or communication-wise, the real concern might be for disrupting passengers. Airlines may not want to deal with complaints of having spent hours on an airplane, seated near the cell phone user who wouldn’t shut up!
Cheers,
Factor
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Blair, I am so glad to finally hear from you! Your first question gives me the chance to tell Jobstr readers all over the world just how badly I suck at math. It’s true. It took me months to learn that milk plus cereal equals breakfast! Learning algebra, like learning to play a musical instrument, may be useful in your future and you should learn both. However, neither will do you much good as an air traffic controller.
Controllers must employ several skills that are hard to teach in schools. They must be able to think on their feet, have excellent short term memory and the ability to concentrate in the middle of a dozen distractions. They need to be able to assess situations and know how they will evolve over time. Keep in mind; controllers are dealing with machines that travel at hundreds of miles per hour. Take a snapshot now but you can bet the picture will have changed dramatically in two or three minutes. Understanding how it will change helps controllers in their planning. It’s never enough to simply keep up with the traffic. You need to stay way ahead of it. Oh, and the ability to work well with others and keep calm under pressure are big assets!
There is also plenty of book learning involved. Making it through ATC school is similar to learning another Country’s language and the laws of their land. It was bewildering to me at first. Learning the language of aviation, its many rules and occasional exceptions took time and I spent a lot of that time memorizing things. By the time controllers actually begin to work with live traffic, their heads are packed with national ATC rules and regulations, aviation weather, aircraft flight characteristics, plus volumes of information specific to the site where they’re working.
It’s a complex career field that is constantly evolving and improving. Rarely boring, the job is different every day. To me, it is the best job there is! Here’s a bonus. Become a professional air traffic controller and you can still learn to fly airplanes on your own time. I did and was much better for it. Flying is almost as much fun as ATC and it broadens your understanding of the aviation community.
I wish you all the best Blair and hope you achieve your goals! Let me know how it works out.
Cheers,
Factor
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Wow. Now there’s a question more chilling than the beer coolers we kept in the tower! If the FAA had banned “Airplane” quotes, it would undoubtedly have lead to even more fistfights with those wimps in Management. Not that knocking a Supervisor down the tower steps would be a big problem – but it might have wakened the controllers trying to get some sleep downstairs! Then we’d have TWO problems; pissed off controllers and the indefinite loss of a Supervisor who kept us all supplied with amphetamines, beer and glue! Damn! Everybody would have to go back to rehab; where the meals are worse than airline food! Thinking about that is even scarier than “Airplane!” and all the other aviation documentaries!
What? You thought “Airplane!” was a comedy??? Jeezus!
Real life. “Thank God it’s only a motion picture!”
Factor :))
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That’s a tough one. There were several of each over the years. I remember seeing a large airliner make a hard landing during a severe thunderstorm. It went off the runway and broke in half in the grass. It was raining heavily when I saw the passengers come scurrying out of the wreckage. Fortunately, there was no fire and not a single fatality! I also recall watching a small, twin engine commuter aircraft take off. A couple hundred feet off the ground, the nose pitched up, the plane tilted sideways and fell. It made a large, smoking hole in the grass and no one survived. "I'll have these moments to remember."
Every November I recall a particular accident involving a small, privately owned, airplane. The pilot had flown into an airport we had control jurisdiction over. Another fellow and I were working the radar sector when he later took off with his young son. It was the Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving and they were headed home for the holiday. All was normal as the plane climbed to four thousand feet. It was then that we lost radio and radar contact with the flight. Local authorities quickly found the main wreckage site. One wing was missing and later located a mile or so away. No survivors. That one really bothered me.
The near misses I’ve seen weren’t as memorable – except for one. I was supervising the radar operation when one of my controllers issued a turn to one of the airliners he was working. To make a long story short, the pilot turned the wrong way. The turn took him directly into the path of another airliner flying at the same altitude. Both flights were operating in the clouds and couldn’t see each other. The two radar targets merged into one and my heart nearly stopped. In my head, I could see the two aircraft colliding, the fireball, the falling wreckage and the next day’s headlines. It was the most horrifying moment of my life. Just seconds later, when the radar antenna scanned that area again, I saw the two targets moving away from each other. I nearly fell over.
And they wonder why controllers drink.
Thanks for the question!
Factor
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That’s a fair question but I’ll have to give you a kind of unfair answer in response. I do hold a commercial pilot license so, if I absolutely had to, I’d give it my best shot! Of course success or failure would depend heavily on what kind of plane it was and the destination weather conditions! I’d be more likely to succeed in a smaller plane during clear weather conditions. But if I was sitting at the controls of a B-747 and the weather was horrible? Well . . .better hope everyone else on board had their affairs in order!
You never know what you’re capable of though! Several years ago, as a newly hired controller, I heard something that taught me a lot about hidden potential. I was working in the tower one afternoon, when we all heard an obviously panicked woman calling on the emergency frequency. She was the only passenger in a small, twin engine plane. The pilot had suddenly gone unconscious. Terrified, she didn’t know what to do. A controller who was also a licensed pilot began talking to her. He took her calmly, step by step, through all the things she’d need to know to land the airplane. Meanwhile, other controllers radar identified the plane. The guy talking to her explained how to turn the airplane and maintain altitude.
I’ll make a long story short. With the controller’s help, she flew the plane to the nearest airport and landed safely – having never piloted a plane before in her life. It wasn’t a pretty landing but as they say; "any landing you can walk away from is a good one!"
It was determined that the pilot had actually died during the flight.
Thanks for writing!
Factor
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