Posted on 08/30/2006 2:59:45 AM PDT by Clive
Lots of sense on display in your post. Thanks for your informed perspective. Good read.
I hope they don't crucify this guy for doing his job. This was a routine flight and he was the only guy there. He obviously had other responsibilities as well. If anything, its the FAAs fault for not manning the tower properly.
True enough !
I agree. All these articles and headlines are trying to imply it was the controller's fault or at least the FAA. How was the controller to know that two pilots would turn down an unlit runway without either checking their heading or the signs?
FWIW, if the controller had worked at the airport for 17 year, he probably had heard about the incident in '93 where a plane almost took off from the wrong runway. A controller caught the mistake before the pilot could take off.
They were flustered and in a hurry because of this previous error.
Safe flying, whether commercial, military or private, is the result of teamwork between the pilot(s) in the cockpit and the controller(s) in the tower. Taxpayers spend a lot of money buying those control towers with all the glass windows so that controllers have a clear view of what is going on at and around the airport. As a team, they need to work together to check and cross-check one another.
When the teamwork breaks down, people get hurt or killed. IMO, that's what happened here.
A old instructor of mine once told me...." Every time a aircraft leaves the ground. it's a mistake, that begins a series of errors. It's your job to correct all those errors not just to touchdown but to the chocks and shut down"
Obviously he didn't believe it was truly a mistake but it was his way to try and instill a sense of vigilance.
The simplicity of this accident has us all reevaluating ourselves and our "habits".
This guy will have to live with his error for the rest of his life, always seeing the plane crash in the back of his mind. That alone is punishment.
I would assign 99% of the blame to the pilots, 1% to the FAA for understaffing, and 0% to the controller.
I'll wait for the NTSB report. Pity it never occurred to the controller, though, just to double check. Whether that was part of his job description or not.
I would say it is part of his job description, but he had other responsibilities. I think crew fatigue will also be a factor. Like you say it will come out in the NTSB report. And I imagine the controller has been continually been second guessing himself ever since the accident.
I worked in a control tower for three years. When operations are normal, it feels normal. Once I was doing administrative duties and something one of the other controllers said just didn't "sound" right. I perked up and immediately told the second controller to double check the last clearance...something sounded wrong. It was wrong and the order was corrected.
The controller here believed everything was normal. He had no clues that anything was wrong and had had lots of things to do with nobody to double check flight operations. You NEED more than one person in a tower. Period.
In reading this story, it seems that the pilots were mainly responsible. Many things that "didn't seem right" went on unquestioned. Were they tired? Overworked?
what was lighting conditions,
at the time of the wreck?
The poor guy alone in the tower at 6:00 a.m., or whenever the FAA deems it economical to slash the staffing, is required to perform the Local control, Ground control, Clearance delivery and Contoller-in-charge (administrative) duties at the same time. Is he qualified to work these positions? Yes. Can he provide the same level of service that one or two additional controllers can at the same time? No way.
The FAA has already put out a memorandum to the controller workforce stating its position the a Local controller is not responsible for the departing aircraft when clearing it for takeoff. My 18 years of working in a tower environment tell me otherwise. Although I now work as a radar controller, I recall that my duties as a Local controller included scanning the runway that the aircraft was to depart and observing it depart the intended runway as part of the "clearing" process that is integral to the directive of "Cleared for takeoff." Compressing many functions and tasks, properly spread among more controllers, does not a safe operation make.
The FAA can blow its smoke up the wazoo of Congress and the public, easily done since air traffic control is a pretty arcane art woven with rules and guidelines; but, the Controllers know otherwise. The families of the forty-nine who perished in Lexington should know that their plight is due to bureaucratic bungling, will sadly be likely joined by others in the future, and is due a better explanation than "Oops, stuff happens."
24 years CPC.
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