Surface Incident Awareness Month

[atl pilot]

Since I know some of you never visit the ATC posts on this site, I will duplicate this thread here as well!

At ATL Tower we just had an internal memo put out that announced March as Surface Incident Awareness Month. In a nutshell, the facility managers at ATL, LAX, DET, ORD, EWR, LAS, and DFW, are trying to improve runway safety by improving the quality of hold short read backs. When an incorrect or incomplete readback is recieved, they have mandated that we will write down your call sign, date, time, and what was done incorrectly on a standardizaed form. When I asked what would happen to these forms, I was told that they will be turned over to your airlines, the airports, and other interested parties.
In order to keep you out of trouble in more than one manner, let's review what we (controllers) need to hear, so that your name does not appear on any of these lists, at any of these facilities:
A) Your call sign
B) The words HOLD SHORT
C) The entire runway name (no short cuts), example: "Runway 2-7-Right."
Also when given a taxi instruction to a runway, you must read back the runway assignment, and any hold short instructions attached to the clearance. Remember that if you get a simple "Taxi to Runway 27R" clearance that this in a sense is also a form of hold short clearance, because you may taxi to the runway but may not cross it.
Let's all try to keep these lists really short. Maybe it will keep you out of trouble and also help prevent you from having a runway incident! Please pass this on, I would love to not have to write any down this month!!!

And BTW, the controllers are not getting off scott-free either, they are doing random tape audits on us as well (1) making sure we are using correct phraesology, and (2) ensuring that we ensure that you've given us a correct read back - so if we let you slide then were at fault too!

Help us to keep you safe!!

 

[Stifler's Mom]

Is ASA Management aware of this? With the majority of the flights in ATL, and the majority of low time FOs (who are the ones you are directly speaking with on the radios) this could be an interesting audit.

Good luck. Must be nice to act as a flight instructor from the tower on how to properly read back a clearance. Maybe you guys can start logging some CFI time too.

 

[Voice Of Reason]

Maybe ATC should concentrate on better training

5 hrs ago news posted only in one small news site:

Officials: Planes avoid mid-air crash
The Associated Press
Article Launched: 03/06/2008 021:27 AM MST

OBERLIN, Ohio—Two airplanes carrying more than 120 passengers narrowly averted a mid-air collision east of Pittsburgh after an air traffic control trainee told a Delta Air Lines pilot to turn into the path of an oncoming plane, officials said. The Delta pilot made a nosedive and missed the plane by about 400 feet, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The other pilot also took evasive action, the FAA said.
A cockpit collision avoidance system alerted the pilots to the danger.
Delta Flight 1654 was en route from Cincinnati to LaGuardia International Airport in New York Tuesday morning and was carrying 57 passengers. The other plane, PSA Flight 2273, was flying from Wilkes-Barre, Pa., to Charlotte, N.C. It had 70 people on board.
PSA is a subsidiary of Tempe, Ariz.-based US Airways Group, Inc. Delta Air Lines Inc. is based in Atlanta.
The controller only had about a year on the job, said Melissa Ott, National Air Traffic Controllers spokeswoman at the Cleveland Air Route Traffic Control Center in Oberlin.
"We watched the recording of the incident three times and each time I said, 'Oh my God,'" Ott said. "It was the closest call I have ever seen in my 18 years of air traffic control."
FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory called the incident an operational error. She said a second controller was working with the trainee at the time.
"This ended with the aircraft taking the appropriate action," Cory said. "The controllers will be retrained." :erm:
A Delta spokeswoman said the passengers "were never in danger."

 

[Oakum_Boy]

I'm going to write down every bad vector, male or female voice, time and frequency- and send it to the local media explaining how I saved the day.

 

[shamrock]

It's not like the ground controllers in ATL have anything better to do than jot down notes on who doesn't know how to read back a clearance.

As Stifler said, this is gonna be interesting considering all the newbies we have in the right seat at ASA.

 

[Oakum_Boy]

I guess the next logical question is, can a Captain be held responsible for what an effen'-O says on the radio???? Anyone????

I think it's time to reevaluate my job here.

 

[shamrock]

I guess the next logical question is, can a Captain be held responsible for what an effen'-O says on the radio???? Anyone????

On taxi in, soon after landing with a 15 knot x-wind:

My FO: "Hey ground, how did that landing look?"

Ground: "Well I didn't see it but Tower said it looked kind of rough"

FO: "Yeah, I almost cr@pped my pants on that one!"

Me:

 

[atl pilot]

I am sure this is not intended to be retubutive. The memo we got had one addressed to users that said "We hope that you will place this letter where it is highly visible to pilots and vehicle drivers. Additionally, feel free to develop posters or write personalized letters to all your employees...."(To spread the word). How your airlines have shared this is up to them. This action is intended to try and enhance your safety.
And as someone said....I really do not have extra time to be writing all this stuff down, nor do I really want to.
Let's take this as a learning experince that can enhance safety and try to do it right the first time. This will help expedite the flow of aircraft and keep you safe.
The reason I posted this is because I belive that if we (pilots and controllers) work togther as a team, we really can make a difference here!

 

[atl pilot]

If one of the moderators here can PM me and give me a fax #, I will be happy to provide a copy of the User letter via fax for you to post. My scanner is inop and FI won't let me post attachments anyway.

 

[Stifler's Mom]

I guess the next logical question is, can a Captain be held responsible for what an effen'-O says on the radio???? Anyone????

I think it's time to reevaluate my job here.

Stop and think about what we are talking about here. In the case of ATL, we are talking about the WORLD'S BUSIEST AIRPORT and people not understanding how to use proper radio phraseology. It's embarrassing.