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Jet circles Zamboanga airport waiting for missing air traffic controllers
Unlike our very own Kent Wien, I never trained to be a pilot, but even without those years of training, I can't imagine it is very comforting to get close to your destination airport and find an unstaffed air traffic control tower.This is exactly what happened when a jet carrying 156 passengers arrived in the airspace of Zamboanga airport in the Philippines, after a flight from the nation's capital.
Instead of hearing the familiar commands from the tower telling them they were cleared to land, the Philippine Airlines flight crew heard nothing. It took 30 minutes of circling around the airport for someone to finally make their way to the tower and permit the jet to land.
Of the 5 controllers who were supposed to be on duty that morning, 2 were missing, 2 were late and one was on an approved day off, but their approval note did not make it to the airport administrator. Talk about a total breakdown of communications.
The excuse the remaining 4 controllers presented was that public transport was hard to find the day after Christmas, but officials say the controllers may still have been a little too much in "party mode". I'm sure that is comforting to hear if you were in the air around Zamboanga that morning.
The newspaper article claims the controllers were fired, but Philippine officials merely say the 5 are currently suspended pending an investigation.
(Via: Sydney Morning Herald)
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Filed under: Philippines, Airlines, Airports
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
Hippie Dec 31st 2008 11:28AM
Air traffic controllers are paid about 19,000 pecos in PI. And for the assinine comment about TSA just how many flights have been taken over since 911 idiot?
ljsmith Dec 31st 2008 2:07PM
No controller ever landed an airplane.
Dorothy Dec 31st 2008 11:38AM
Pilots do not always communicate with each other!!! There are collisions and near misses all the time even WITH controllers. It's like driving a car, you never know what someone is gonna do.
Sharon Dec 31st 2008 11:44AM
It's not fair that the one with the approved time off was suspended. I hope that person is immediately cleared and no permanent marks are on his/her record. The 2 late ones should be seveerely reprimanded, and the 2 missing ones should be fired immediately. It sucks going back to work the day after Christmas (trust me, I know), but when you have a job as important as air traffic control there are certain sacrifices you must make. They knew it when they took the job; if they can't do it there are plenty who can. Take your jobs seriously, people!
Walt Bates, UAL Captain Dec 31st 2008 11:42AM
98% of the airports in the US don't even have a "control" tower installed. And we land passenger filled airliners at them every day. Any pilot who would delay landing or takeoff simply because the tower was unmanned shouldn't be in the left seat in the first place.
Paul Dec 31st 2008 11:58AM
The one controller had the day off & approved. The lack of communication is managements fault - not his, so why punish him, take it out on the ones that were supposed to be there.
Joao Dec 31st 2008 12:48PM
This story is stupid. We land on uncontrolled airports all the time. A lot of towers usually close at midnight anyway and some don't even have towers. All you have to do is use the tower frequency as the CTAF (Common Traffic Advisory Frequency) and announce your position. Well, that's how we're trained in America. If they were circling with one engine on fire, low fuel, with partial control malfuntion in fog then that might make for an ok story. Otherwise it's just another day at work making 21k a year in America as a pilot. Our low wages are the real story the public doesn't know about.
Mike Dec 31st 2008 1:06PM
This headline news indicates a slow news day.
truknduck Dec 31st 2008 4:50PM
In the years I spent as an Aircrew Member, we were nearly killed twice by Controllers managing the airspace over a field. Once was in the pattern - very low visibility. The Pilot cannot relax and let his guard down even though he is assisted by a Controller; The key word being,"assist".
Are some of you suggesting Government Employed Controllers (regardless of Country) are more or less prone to slack off than Contractors?
In this instance, it looks like Murphy's Law was in full effect...unfortunately it happens. Fortunately no one got hurt, nothing got bent, only delayed. I'm sure if the Pilot had started approaching minimums on his fuel he would have made the proper decision.
Richard Dec 31st 2008 1:51PM
What a story about nothing, as stated above all airports do not operats a tower 24 hours a day, or not at all. Pilots are trained to land and take off from uncontrolled airports all the time. The only problem can result from not having as clearence for an IFR takeoff into weather, where the pilot has no visibility. But these are not gotten from the tower, but rather another facility, but sometimes is co-located with the tower. However an IFR clearence can be obtained by telephone. Without controllers the pilots talk to each other, duh, The real story is that the pilot did not seem to know the procedure. And as far as the TSA goes, well now for millions of dollars more we have another federal agency that give us as bad service as the private agencies. Boy when they went to hire, the were interested in minorities first rather than finding the best people for the jobs they had to "give away" and they hired the leaders first, duh, more of the best of the best. And I have not seen anything in the TSA that has impressed me, sorry to hurt feelings but as a pilot in the army, we often flew places on official business, with military vouchers, we were identified as members of the military. Seems like were were looked at harder than others in the security lines, now were are so trusted, yeah right.
StickShaker Dec 31st 2008 1:57PM
There is a reason it states, "Pilot in Command" on an airman's certificate. In U.S. airspace, the final authority rests with the captain, not the controllers. A pilot in command can always declare an emergency when, in his or her professional judgment, following ATC instructions is unsafe. Of course, the pilot needs to be able to justify that declaration. In this case, since all airline operations are required to carry enough fuel to miss an approach at the destination, fly to an alternate airport and land, these pilots could have always just turned around and gone back to the originating airport, if in their professional judgment it was unsafe to land at a temporarily uncontrolled field. The worst thing would have been for them to run low on fuel and then have to make an emergency landing. That would exhibit poor judgment, and require a trip to the Chief Pilot's Office, and possibly a review action by the aviation regulatory authority that issued said airman's certificate.
Richard A. Dec 31st 2008 5:19PM
I was flying the pattern at a US Airport shortly before 1800 on Christmas eve.
Dusk, two parallel runways open, the helicopter school operating from 4 pads, four or five light planes doing touch and goes, and a fairly steady stream of incoming and outgoing flights, with traffic ranging from my 152 through Lears and Citation jets.
At 1800 the tower controller stopped his traffic controlling to say "XXX tower to all traffic. The time is now 1800 and the tower is closed. Have a Merry Christmas."
The result? Apart from several "Merry Christmases" back to him, a resounding "So what?" Airports all around the world operate with no towers every day of the year. The only reason the pilots circled instead of following uncontrolled airport landing procedures is that one worries, if a suposedly manned tower is silent, whether there's a major problem on the ground. Zamboanga is, after all, in the heart of Abu Sayef country.
Richard
DANA Jan 19th 2009 3:36PM
I am a commercial pilot and have landed thousands of times at airports without operating control towers. It's the way it used to be done before control towers were invented. Hard to believe they just didn't land.
John Dec 31st 2008 8:00PM
Not much of a Pilot if He / She can't land an airplane without a control tower. There is a procedure to follow if there is nobody manning the control tower. What a joke. Someone writing this stuff really does not know what they are talking about.
A Professional Pilot (45 years in the business)
Doug Jan 1st 2009 9:22AM
Actually, Vector, the TSA has done a remarkanly good job (unless there have been terrorist attacks at American airports that I'm not aware of). I can say that India, Spain, England, etc., etc., etc., have had terrosist attacks since we were attacked. Criticize their government programs and leaders, not ours. Also, air traffic control in other nations is NOT an American's job; however, the specs and standards are agreed upon internationally among participants. This plane could have legally and safely landed via the "VFR" non-controlled air space rule as soon as it was confirmed that the controlers were not in control. The thing that many forget is that pilots are still in control of their ship. Also, when no terrorist attacks are happening, it's easy to criticize the ones who are preventing them.
Kin Jan 5th 2009 3:18AM
I'm from Zamboanga and I landed a few hours after that incident. I heard from the porter that the five tower personnel got drunk from the previous Christmas night's party.
The airport in Zamboanga is just adjacent to the airbase (they share the same runway), and US forces stationed in the city occasionally land their C-17s there.
cruz1aviator Jan 7th 2009 3:42PM
Towered airport in America - 700+. Non-towered - 12,000+. How's it done? CTAF or Common Traffic Advisory Frequency. That's the proper term. Not UNICOM. Pilots around the airport talk to one another and coordinate traffic themselves, reporting every move, every turn. Every pilot knows this. Bush Intercontintental in Houston closes at night. In this bit, if the controllers were late, well, that's unusual but, it can be handled safely. And they did. This story isn't really that big of a deal.
Ray Jan 11th 2009 1:24PM
One thought that was never mentioned is the Airlines's rules. Each U.S. Airline has rules (approved by the FAA) to cover almost any situation and perhaps one covered what to do if a tower, scheduled to be open, failed to respond to radio calls. I'm sure the same applies to Airlines outside the U.S..
Ray...Retured Aur Traffic Controller.
b u y Jan 22nd 2009 7:05AM
those pilots should be grateful those air traffic controllers still reported for duty. the airport is not open 24 hours a day. operation commences at 6am and ends at 9pm. you are right, they could have proceeded to alternate aerodrome. the phil air traffic service has lapses too.
Diane Feb 20th 2009 3:45PM
cal10pilot - I'm hormonal? Wow what a sexist and downright chauvinistic thing to say. But then again I can't expect you to understand how difficult a job the TSO's really have. Every day I was forced to put up with people like you, thinking they have all the numbers and "facts" when really you don't have squat. You have your incorrect assumptions, and if you really think you know what the TSA is about... suit up and give it a try sport.
Until then, sit down and shut up. And leave your industrial-sized Rogaine at home.