xshuttlefa
D'oh
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2005
- Posts
- 72
Maybe this accident will put the ATC Controllers battle for appropriate staffing in the public light. Cutting manpower and losing controller to retirement plus cutting the training classes back means a major shortage of veteran controllers with less eyes in towers and ears on frequency.
I'm not saying another controller would have prevented this from happening, the whole "link in a chain" thing again, but it very well might have. Even if one guy or both guys were looking down, doing paperwork,etc. after clearing 5191 to take-off, one of them might have looked up in time to see the plane was lined-up with the wrong runway.
Even if the controller(s) caught the mistake while the plane was rolling, just yelling "STOP!!" on frequency may have caused this to be an aborted take-off with a slide off the runway.
Anybody with ATC experience or just being up in the tower knows the controllers watch out for each other. Not out of friendship but out of safety and CYA, because they don't want someone elses mistake. They don't want the ground guy to taxi someone across their active runway,etc. You could almost be sure if there were two guys in the tower, even if one were busy and one was just kind of watching out, the guy watching out would have possibly said:
" Where's Comair 5191 going? Didn't you clear him for 22? ( or 26, I can't remember which is the "wrong" runway)"
Not all controllers are pilots and if they are, they have a GA background ( or military), but usually no 121 or 135 experience. They may not know that a CRJ cannot take-off in 3500 ft,especially loaded.
But all of this is speculation on my part. I just hope that the FAA realizes that cutting manpower too much, even on an off-shift, can be bad news. But I guess belt-tightening in aviation knows no boundary.
As for stand-ups, CDO, whatever you call it, blah. No rest ( or, adequate "on-paper" rest and a drastic sked change) and an early morning make for a bad combination, especially for nocturnal folks like me. I'd rather be awake until 2am then get up at 4:30 am for a 5am van.
As for the "expert" talking about engine failure in the early hours after the crash,( I'm sure we all thought about it briefly at some point) they were the ones with a camera in their face being asked "Why?" by the stupid media, who must jump on a story when they don't have any details. "We're live at the scene of something. We'll keep showing you the same 5 shots without end for the next few hours until we know something and even then, we'll speculate endlessly"
Done ranting. Sorry.
I'm not saying another controller would have prevented this from happening, the whole "link in a chain" thing again, but it very well might have. Even if one guy or both guys were looking down, doing paperwork,etc. after clearing 5191 to take-off, one of them might have looked up in time to see the plane was lined-up with the wrong runway.
Even if the controller(s) caught the mistake while the plane was rolling, just yelling "STOP!!" on frequency may have caused this to be an aborted take-off with a slide off the runway.
Anybody with ATC experience or just being up in the tower knows the controllers watch out for each other. Not out of friendship but out of safety and CYA, because they don't want someone elses mistake. They don't want the ground guy to taxi someone across their active runway,etc. You could almost be sure if there were two guys in the tower, even if one were busy and one was just kind of watching out, the guy watching out would have possibly said:
" Where's Comair 5191 going? Didn't you clear him for 22? ( or 26, I can't remember which is the "wrong" runway)"
Not all controllers are pilots and if they are, they have a GA background ( or military), but usually no 121 or 135 experience. They may not know that a CRJ cannot take-off in 3500 ft,especially loaded.
But all of this is speculation on my part. I just hope that the FAA realizes that cutting manpower too much, even on an off-shift, can be bad news. But I guess belt-tightening in aviation knows no boundary.
As for stand-ups, CDO, whatever you call it, blah. No rest ( or, adequate "on-paper" rest and a drastic sked change) and an early morning make for a bad combination, especially for nocturnal folks like me. I'd rather be awake until 2am then get up at 4:30 am for a 5am van.
As for the "expert" talking about engine failure in the early hours after the crash,( I'm sure we all thought about it briefly at some point) they were the ones with a camera in their face being asked "Why?" by the stupid media, who must jump on a story when they don't have any details. "We're live at the scene of something. We'll keep showing you the same 5 shots without end for the next few hours until we know something and even then, we'll speculate endlessly"
Done ranting. Sorry.
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