Service Terminates

[SirToppamHat]

It is not unusual to see on these boards the suggestion that an ATS can be terminated by the controller irrespective of the wishes of the aircrew. Examples might be where aircrew are abusive, refuse to comply with or acknowledge instructions.

Obviously there is the opportunity to take formal action when such incidents occur, but I have never actually, as a controller or supervisor, heard of a controller independently terminating an ATS.

I would welcome a debate on whether such an action is appropriate, but I am more interested in examples of actual incidents, and what the fallout was. I suspect that in most cases the controller is likely to get into more trouble than the crew.

This is purely for my own education and interest - though certain crews of one of our regular customers have come pretty close to hearing the words recently ...

STH

[WorkingHard]

Perhaps not the response you were anticipating but some while ago a LARS service (I was in receipt of RIS) was terminated with "All stations, all stations, XXXX is now closing" No further response was available to anyone.

[Chilli Monster]

That to me is not particularly impressive. The least I would have expected would have been a correct "Radar service terminates position.............., xyz now closing, suggest you freecall..................". And that should be done individually - not just a blanket "we're closing" call.

[WorkingHard]

Well it may be different for service/civilian but that is what happened from RAF Waddington last year. I later telephoned to question why and was told there was only a single person on duty and he needed a break!!!!
Where were the rest of RAF Waddington one wonders.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Chilli. I used to work at a very busy training airfield. On Sundays we used to provide a kind of AFISO service, still with licenced controllers, with just one of duty. On a number of occasions I had to broadcast that I was closing otherwise I'd never have got home. There is a limit as to how much one allows one's profession to intrude on one's private life... for me it has always been about 2 nanoseconds!!