Travel advice you should heed: Skip the red-eye into Reagan National
posted at 2:15 pm on March 24, 2011 by Ed Morrissey
In my earlier career, I ran call centers for alarm companies that provided 24/7 response to burglary and fire alarm systems and their customers. In order to compete in that market, we had to gain certifications from Underwriters Laboratories, a fine private-sector response to the need for quality control that is a subject for another day. One of the basic UL requirements was to make sure that at least two people were in the call center at all times, in order to make sure that anyone falling asleep or losing consciousness would not disable the response center entirely. Centers got annual inspections, and I had to provide proof that our staffing never fell below that two-person minimum.
And that was to ensure proper response to alarms. Imagine my surprise to find out that Reagan National’s airport tower in Washington DC provides only one person in the tower for the graveyard shift. I wasn’t the only one surprised, either:
The control tower at Reagan National Airport went silent early Wednesday, forcing the pilots of two airliners carrying a total of 165 passengers and crew members to land on their own.
he tower, which normally is staffed by one air-traffic controller from midnight to 6 a.m., did not respond to pilot requests for landing assistance or to phone calls from controllers elsewhere in the region, who also used a “shout line,” which pipes into a loudspeaker in the tower, internal records show.
An American Airlines Boeing 737 flying in from Miami with 97 people on board circled the airport after receiving no response from the tower at midnight. Minutes later, a United Airlines Airbus 320 flying in from Chicago with 68 people on board also got no answer from the tower.
Both planes landed safely after their pilots took matters into their own hands, broadcasting their progress as they approached and landed. They also were communicating with controllers at a separate facility in the region that does not handle landings.
This isn’t some dusty airstrip out in the boonies used by crop dusters and hobby pilots. This is the airport that sits on the outskirts of the Pentagon, in our nation’s capital, adjacent a booming business district and no small amount of residential homes. I usually fly in and out of Reagan when visiting DC, although I normally fly during normal business and evening hours. In the future, I’ll make that a requirement, as you might imagine.
Is it too much to ask that an airport tower adhere to the same requirements as a professional alarm center in terms of staffing? Maybe we should put UL in charge of inspecting airport towers instead of the FAA.
Blowback
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What is it with Reagan and Air Traffic Controllers?
portlandon on March 24, 2011 at 2:17 PM
Flying into Reagan is bad enough. I look through the window and keep seeing only river until the plane is at the top of the masts of the sailboats. Normally I’m indifferent to flying, but coming down where there’s only water is a bit unnerving.
rbj on March 24, 2011 at 2:19 PM
So, there were three critical events going on, and the guy in charge was taking a relaxation break? Sounds familiar.
RBMN on March 24, 2011 at 2:20 PM
The public sector should not suffer the inspection of some feeble private sector quality control company.
WashJeff on March 24, 2011 at 2:21 PM
So I wonder what the deal was. Did the lone guy ni charge have to take an emergency crap?
You can hardly blame him if that is so.
Badger40 on March 24, 2011 at 2:22 PM
I assume unemployment numbers may nudge upward,..unexpectedly.
a capella on March 24, 2011 at 2:22 PM
heh…”All by myself…” …
even them Indians staff those 7-11′s 24/7
/Biden
ted c on March 24, 2011 at 2:22 PM
Awww this guy will claim a medical problem…like narcilepsy. He’ll keep his job, get paid leave, and probably a bonus for all the pain and suffering he’ll recieve.
capejasmine on March 24, 2011 at 2:23 PM
He’s probably union, so I expect a suspension and then move to another position.
amerpundit on March 24, 2011 at 2:24 PM
I think he took the night off and went to RIO!
odannyboy on March 24, 2011 at 2:24 PM
There should never be just one guy in the tower. Thats nuts.
sharrukin on March 24, 2011 at 2:24 PM
Route a display signal fromt he TSA body scanners to the control tower to keep them alert.
WashJeff on March 24, 2011 at 2:24 PM
That isn’t that late. Are there that few planes going in and out of there that they can get away with only 1 controller?
Rocks on March 24, 2011 at 2:25 PM
Consider this a “kinetic landing action”
Roy Rogers on March 24, 2011 at 2:25 PM
Probably on the internet watching porn, couldn’t be disturbed.
vcferlita on March 24, 2011 at 2:26 PM
Government supervisors are supposed to sleep. Whatever happens… Eric Holder can overlook. It’s clearly outlined in the gummint contract. (also see: public school administrators)
viking01 on March 24, 2011 at 2:27 PM
He was getting regular updates via dreamscape.
fossten on March 24, 2011 at 2:27 PM
This is another reason why those people who want to replace pilots with “computers” need their heads examined. A trained pilot in the pointy end of the tube is always going to be able to react to the” unknown unknowns”. There is also an email that a major airline pilot has written that is being passed around that speaks to this same subject as he approached Narita in Tokoyo during the latest disaster there. His alternates kept shutting down/became unavailable and the three pilots up front had their hands full working the problem. A computer operator on the ground in Atlanta does not have his ass in a sling, The guys landing in Reagan did a great job,,professional as hell. The story I first read said the problem was in Dulles[Way to go MSM,,on the ball again]
retiredeagle on March 24, 2011 at 2:29 PM
It wasn’t an AWOL air traffic controller. I think that Col. Stuart took control of the tower until John McClane was able to defeat him.
Doughboy on March 24, 2011 at 2:30 PM
So they handled it like a normal landing at an uncontrolled airport.
DarkCurrent on March 24, 2011 at 2:30 PM
My knowledge of control towers from Hollywood, would suggest that there is more than one controller. What’s wrong with this picture?
Cindy Munford on March 24, 2011 at 2:30 PM
My first thought about having just one controller is what happens if that controller has a medical emergency such as a heart attack or stroke? He’s basically going to be there to die till the next shift arrives. There really isn’t any safety issues I believe with the planes however. Most commercial air traffic control towers typically shut down at 10pm or 11pm, so it’s not manned at all. This the case at Rogue Valley Int’l Airport in Medford, Oregon, and all commercial airports in Oregon I believe. Portland might be open longer, but I can’t say for sure. I heard one FAA spokesman says this is true with well over 100 commercial airports across the country.
McBaine on March 24, 2011 at 2:33 PM
Republicans draconian budget cuts did this!
/
wait for it???
El_Terrible on March 24, 2011 at 2:33 PM
We had to pay for Obamacare somehow, and here it is.
unclesmrgol on March 24, 2011 at 2:35 PM
simple payback for those pilots that “fell asleep” over detroit (I think) a year or two ago…
gee wiz, can’t a guy doze off or step out to the restroom for a few minutes without the world all in his business? Cut him some slack, maybe he had Taco Bell just before his shift… just sayin’
gatorboy on March 24, 2011 at 2:35 PM
I’m waiting for the inevitable political cartoon on this incident, showing the Congressional leadership trying to land a plane (with the words “US Budget” large on the side), frantically calling the tower for guidance, while the president is sleeeping in the control room.
Chuckles3 on March 24, 2011 at 2:36 PM
I just checked my Flight Guide and PDX’s tower is 24 hrs, but MFR and EUG are only operating from 6:00am-10:00pm and 6:00am-11:30pm
McBaine on March 24, 2011 at 2:38 PM
We are Robert Stack and Leslie Nielson when we need them? j/k.
vcferlita on March 24, 2011 at 2:38 PM
“Who do you want to take that 3 AM call?”
Somebody. Anybody, just answer!
Seriously, something as critical as an air flight controller, and they have only one guy on duty? What if he does need a bio-break? What if he’s hypoglycemic, doesn’t eat and goes all loopy? Back-up, man back-up! They should at least provide some Depends and copious quantities of 5-Hour Energy.
iurockhead on March 24, 2011 at 2:40 PM
“I picked a helluva night to try to quit sniffing glue.”
iurockhead on March 24, 2011 at 2:40 PM
DCA is one of the scariest airports in the world, but I wouldn’t worry about landing over the water as much as the shorter runways and heavy air traffic. One has to do that at some of the other major airports, too. Boston is one of the worst, and many landings at San Francisco and Oakland take place with final approaches over SF Bay.
One of the scariest landing approaches I ever experienced was at Philadelphia a few years ago-was flying in on US Airways from New Hampshire and conditions were awful-only a 700 foot ceiling. All we saw was the Delaware River until just before we landed.
Del Dolemonte on March 24, 2011 at 2:42 PM
At the same tower I think they had a problem with a lone worker who locked himself out of the tower during a bathroom break.
lexhamfox on March 24, 2011 at 2:45 PM
Hey, Del,,thats why I always closed my eyes on every landing I made and never pulled back the throttles and flared until I heard everyone screaming. That is a joke in the pilot community. We have a very interesting sense of humor about our profession and abilities,,at least most of us do.
retiredeagle on March 24, 2011 at 2:50 PM
It’s time to buzz the tower, Goose.
Kristamatic on March 24, 2011 at 2:53 PM
Somebody is so fired…
Khun Joe on March 24, 2011 at 2:55 PM
The controller apparently is trying to reinstitute those Reagan National flights to the 14th Street Bridge that were last tried out in 1982.
jon1979 on March 24, 2011 at 2:57 PM
Obowma voter…
Seven Percent Solution on March 24, 2011 at 3:00 PM
If they have planes landing, don’t they have to have a controller? Perhaps those airports don’t have any flights at that time of night, or a nearby control tower takes over? So long as they are in radar range, it seems that would work. Just wondering, I thought for a commercial airport, there had to be a controller.
mbs on March 24, 2011 at 3:00 PM
Precisely.
rslancer14 on March 24, 2011 at 3:14 PM
As a private pilot I used to occasionally fly into Port Angeles, Washington. There were commuter airliners flying into the airport even though it’s uncontrolled.
DarkCurrent on March 24, 2011 at 3:17 PM
mbs on March 24, 2011 at 3:00 PM
There are numerous”uncontrolled airports” in the country that handle commercial flights. There are standard operating procedures for take-offs and landings in all of them and have been used for years.
retiredeagle on March 24, 2011 at 3:18 PM
Having lived in the DC area during the 1982 crash into the 14th St. bridge, I would have thought that DCA Reagan National would be at manning their ATC tower. Also, as @Del says (and @retiredeagle amusingly notes) Reagan National is notorious for difficult/scary takeoffs and landings. Only the BEST skilled pilots fly into/out of there because of the difficulty involved. Similar to La Guardia in NYC, and the others @Del notes. These 2 pilots flying the jets into DCA could probably have landed their planes on a dime without tower control, so the people on board were safe, even with tower personnel absent. Unacceptable, dangerous – but the pilots were superb in handling the situation, along with the TAS or enroute controller’s input.
During hi-traffic times, this would have caused a crash similar to the one years ago when the tower controller went into shock and just walked out after causing a major crash of planes on the runway. The details escape me, when and where, but the tower controller ok’d a landing onto a waiting plane. Horrible crash and tragedy.
The FAA is notorious for requiring redundancy in EVERYTHING, including personnel in the tower, to avoid dangerous situations like this. However, as someone else noted, these are public employees who are in a union. No doubt the unions are involved in this somehow. Having 2 people in the tower with low traffic might have been an expense that either the FAA cut, or that the union determined somehow was detrimental to their workers’ shifts and overtime, etc. The enroute centers, TASs and towers are usually well staffed, unless some dumb @ss gets into the mix, i.e. management or union higher-ups.
DINORight on March 24, 2011 at 3:37 PM
This seems like more of a story if you aren’t familiar with how many airports (including airports with jet traffic coming in) are uncontrolled.
They’d still be on the radar for the region guys that handle traffic, right (I forgot what they’re called)? So anyone transiting through would be aware of their positions. The only issue here would be making sure that they announced where they were and what they were doing so any other planes coming in for a landing would know to watch for them.
JadeNYU on March 24, 2011 at 3:42 PM
Flying in between the skyscrapers and looking into the office windows on approach to San Diego (Lindburgh Field?) gets my vote for kinda scary..
kringeesmom on March 24, 2011 at 3:44 PM
Why would you continue on and say ‘oh well, I tried’ and land with no controller. Would it not have been safer to divert to Dulles or Baltimore? Just askin. With no answer from the tower could this not have meant that maybe there was a big disaster at the airport? Fire in the tower? Crash?
reddevil on March 24, 2011 at 3:44 PM
Knowing the sobriety of at least one controller of my acquaint, landing uncontrolled at a low volume time doesn’t concern me in the least. Just use the tower frequency as a CTAF and land. Hopefully the ground pounders listen in, and at most airports near me, anybody wanting to cross a runway (even maintenance) have to monitor the tower freq anyway. And as stated, the plane is talking to Approach Control who knows what’s in the air (they were the people calling the tower on the phone to see if the controller was asleep or locked out), so a flock of birds was probably the biggest hazard.
Doc56 on March 24, 2011 at 3:49 PM
They did the right thing and did a flyby, and then came back around. Once they landed, they probably called Approach and told them everything was OkieDokie, so Approach handled it as a closed tower and let the next guys land. Not really a big deal if you know how the whole thing works in most places. And as stated, there are places all over where commercial traffic lands at places where the tower is closed or unmanned.
Doc56 on March 24, 2011 at 3:51 PM
Washington Center (Air Route Traffic Control Center). They handle traffic till turned over to either Dulles or Reagan approach. That time at night there ain’t much going on. I’ve been to plenty of towered airports at night where I couldn’t raise anyone in the tower. Just tune in to common traffic frequency and land, it’s not a big deal.
lowandslow on March 24, 2011 at 3:54 PM
Whisky. Tango. Foxtrot.
nukemhill on March 24, 2011 at 3:59 PM
Does anybody know what the status of ground control was or was one guy[the sleeper], handling both positions. I assume he was doing both since there physically was only one guy in the tower. I hate assuming stuff but the press so often is ignorant or uncaring about facts/reality that one must assume at times and it can get you into trouble[ass u me]
retiredeagle on March 24, 2011 at 4:02 PM
Confirmed: George Costanza is an air traffic controller.
batter on March 24, 2011 at 4:04 PM
Does anybody know what the status of ground control was or
It was single controller, so one guy was doing watch sup, ground, local, and flight data. Usually not a big deal late at night, unless you fall asleep with traffic coming in.
WarEagle01 on March 24, 2011 at 4:19 PM
Maybe some commercial airports are “uncontrolled” in the middle of the night when no (or few) flights are landing, but pilots flying into those airports know this, and act accordingly. My son is in college training to be a commercial pilot, and already has his IFR rating, and he tells me that the FAA puts out detailed books showing instrument-landing approaches to all airports in a region, including the control status, which are updated every three months, so a pilot trying to land at night would consult such a book and know whether the airport is controlled!
It’s clearly inexcusable that the airport closest to the U.S. Capitol, the White House, and the Pentagon would be “uncontrolled” at any time. We have already seen an airliner crash (deliberately) into the Pentagon on 9/11–what if that happened again (accidentally) and NOBODY warned the occupants of what was coming?
This airport is named after the President who fired air-traffic controllers in 1981. Wonder what he would do to the sleeper?
Steve Z on March 24, 2011 at 4:21 PM
WarEagle01 on March 24, 2011 at 4:19 PM Thanks War Eagle,,now I no longer need to assume, I feel much better.
retiredeagle on March 24, 2011 at 4:22 PM
Steve Z, I wonder if the airport being named after Reagan is the reason they leave it short of controllers? Someone’s bad idea of labor law payback, perhaps?
njcommuter on March 24, 2011 at 4:29 PM
An “uncontrolled airport” is not much different from a street intersection with no police officer to direct traffic. There are rules to obey to avoid collisions.
The Monster on March 24, 2011 at 4:36 PM
Steve Z,,relax,,,the airspace was not “uncontrolled”. Only the traffic pattern and airfield was essentially unwatched. Radar was up and running and if radar was down,trust me, no one would be flying in the area.In addition, if an aircraft did veer off course this close to destination and put the Pentagon or WH in jeopardy, there would be no warning that would make a difference[except for the WH defenses]
retiredeagle on March 24, 2011 at 4:40 PM
Well trained pilots. Standard operating procedure is just what they did. Announcing their positions in the traffic pattern (Example “Entering downwind left pattern for runway 18 (180 degrees). “Turning crosswind runway 18″ “Turning base for runway 18″ “Turning final approach runway 18″.
If there are any pilots on this forum you will know what I mean. I took the aviation ground school many years ago but couldn’t afford the private pilot training.
73
hamradio on March 24, 2011 at 4:40 PM
FIFY
Dopenstrange on March 24, 2011 at 4:45 PM
Much better info on HA than LSM
Comm. ASMEL Inst.
Caststeel on March 24, 2011 at 4:58 PM
The pilots in this situation probably used those procedures, but they usually defer to a tower controller if the “book” tells them one is there, and they “assume” that a tower controller will tell them if any traffic is in their way.
This was probably a nasty surprise, because both pilots suddenly realized that they had to find out from someone else whether there was a danger of collision, and the frequency on which the two pilots could contact each other to agree on how to stay out of each other’s way.
Steve Z on March 24, 2011 at 5:01 PM
Yes, much better here. FBN just covered it and “we” did a much better job. I notice FOX is jumping on the “hysterical” bandwagon lately,,especially the Japanese disaster. It is getting to the point where I only trust HA and Hillbuzz for straight, real, info.
retiredeagle on March 24, 2011 at 5:02 PM
The White House insists that this is all George W. Bush’s fault.
SPQR on March 24, 2011 at 6:07 PM
Its all
ReaganBooooooooosh’s fault………… /s off.I bet he’s promoted for it. it is inside the beltway afterall……..
RealMc on March 24, 2011 at 8:58 PM
He would fire him; probably out of a cannon. I hear the Iowa’s aren’t busy.
Slowburn on March 24, 2011 at 11:20 PM
Bueller… Bueller… Bueller
valianthunter on March 25, 2011 at 12:58 AM
Rather be being scared flying into DCA was always a joy, as a passanger.
The “follow the river” rules is always fun as the plane twists and turns.
What is even more enjoyable then flying in is to launch a boat at Gravely Point and have the jets fly in 30′ over your head.
If I were I pilot flying into DCA it would probably stress me, as a passenger however it is one of the most memorable landings you could ever make in an airline. (and it is even better on a boat at Gravely Point).
F15Mech on March 25, 2011 at 1:39 AM
be s/b then
F15Mech on March 25, 2011 at 1:42 AM
I blame it on Bush.
(hey Obama does it, why can’t I.)
jcw46 on March 25, 2011 at 6:27 AM
You should have copyrighted the idea, maybe make some money.
Anyways, I laughed – great imaging!
jackal40 on March 25, 2011 at 7:36 AM
The worst part of Reagan is flying out towards the north. The plane is climbing, turning, and throttling back all at the same time. Talk about a sinking feeling.
abcurtis on March 25, 2011 at 10:54 AM
ONe thing’s for sure – flying approach down the river gives one a great view of the city of DC.
abcurtis on March 25, 2011 at 10:55 AM
As a current controller and pilot, I can assure you that this event is not the huge “near disaster” that many people are describing it as. Obviously the ATC serviced should have been provided but there are many airports that don’t have operating towers that still accept traffic with no issues. Pilots have specific procedure to follow at uncontrolled airports. DCA is not that busy or complex but it still only take 2 planes to have an accident.
I’m not going to jump to any conclusions about the controller performance since the NTSB investigation hasn’t been completed yet. From past similar events, it will probably boil down to the fact that the controller didn’t get any rest during the day due to “family reasons” or some other excuse.
Falling asleep 2 hours into an 8-hour shift seems rather odd though. Normally when a person stays busy, they automatically stay alert but when the mind is no longer challenged, that’s when the body naturally tends to shut down.
JetBlast on March 25, 2011 at 8:02 PM