Well, let's see. First he missed hearing the "59" of 5912. He missed the word "emergency". When he asked for clarification of the flight number, he again missed the "59" of 5912, although it was even more clearly said by the pilot. Then he assumed that there was no such flight, without looking to see if there were any flights ending in "12", and concluded that it was a bogus call. Then he tells the pilot of 5912 to exit the runway expeditiously. Then after the admittedly pretty excited pilot said that they were evacuating the aircraft on 34, he asked "5912, confirm that wasn't you?"

The controller didn't have the pieces of the puzzle because he chose to disregard the pieces he did have.

Not wrong? Hmmmmm.

Cary

Lawleraero wrote:Sorry, I have to strongly disagree that this controller did anything wrong! He was trying to do his job and solve a puzzle without having all of the pieces. So what that he made the wrong initial determination and thought there was a spoofer on freq. Spoofers are not uncommon in places like DEN or LAX. He didn't have enough pieces of the puzzle initially, to be able to solve it. Later when more information was available, the picture got alot clearer, he solved the puzzle, and emergency services were on the way. What's the big deal? What pilot hasn't totally botched both making and hearing a radio call??

The big deal is that this controller reached an erroneous conclusion without "all the pieces" as you put it. He decided to gamble with people’s lives. IMHO if you are going to do that, best to err on the side of caution and reason.

It's easy on Monday morning, after watching all the replays in slow motion to know what the quaterback should have done with the ball. This controller didn't have that luxury. He was in the real world, in a real tower, with many many real distractions. Maybe the guys headset wasn't working properly! Non of us know. The tape only records what the recorder hears, not what the controller heard.

Maybe the controller didn't get it right at first, but I seriously doubt he intentionally tried to get it wrong. I hear no evidence of "gambling with peoples lives", just a guy trying to do his job and sort out an abnormal situation.

Lawleraero wrote:It's easy on Monday morning, after watching all the replays in slow motion to know what the quaterback should have done with the ball. This controller didn't have that luxury. He was in the real world, in a real tower, with many many real distractions. Maybe the guys headset wasn't working properly! Non of us know. The tape only records what the recorder hears, not what the controller heard.

Maybe the controller didn't get it right at first, but I seriously doubt he intentionally tried to get it wrong. I hear no evidence of "gambling with peoples lives", just a guy trying to do his job and sort out an abnormal situation.

I generally consider myself to be the last of the world's truly great human beings. Unfortunately I still make mistakes, run off on tangents, piss people off, and generally spend a lot of time apologizing for hurt feelings and wounded pride. Funny how that is. I think the pilot did an excellent job of being PIC in a dangerous situation. The controller's job is not to save the passengers and the equipment but to operate a SERVICE. I would bet he and the pilot had a debrief over beer and pretzels at some point. Move along.

EB