Originally Posted by
Bbtengineer
What I am left with is an overriding impression of just how inefficient, or at least how unscalable this current process has become.
We need human controllers to perform extortionate mental gymnastics to keep everything safe and then assuming they can do that then efficient as well, and communicate it all over VHF.
Maybe instead of pointing at the controller or pointing at the company or pointing at the flight crew, we should instead be pointing at a process that is already seeing its best days.
I strongly suspect this isn’t down to an individual controller, and is - as always - down to a combination of several things. High on the list would be the volume of traffic each controller is being asked to work, and a system that has been squeezed as tight as possible for maximum efficiency in standard conditions…which then doesn’t always adapt if something doesn’t quite fit.
I ask about go arounds because the reasons being given for why the DLH couldn’t be fitted in would also either make it impossible to fit a go around in (which I find unlikely) or would result in huge delays if there is a go around because the system as described has no flexibility to fit them in without consequence (again, unlikely). I wouldn’t expect the DLH to be given the priority of a go around, but equally I wouldn’t expect it to be vectored around for an hour before giving it an approach. “First come, first served” is the order of operational priority in the .65.
I have more questions about bigger picture elements on the ATC side of this event around staffing, fatigue and training. I know nothing specific about KSFO, but the interview transcripts from the FDX/SWA at Austin are illuminating. The facrep describe the amount of radar positions they have relative to the number of planes worked as “actually insane. It’s beyond insane” and that they’ve told the FAA of their staffing and capacity issues and “no one seems to care”. Neither the controller involved nor his immediate supervisor in the tower knew what a CAT III approach was!
I read enough on the .65 forums and the ATC Reddit to know these issues are nationwide and definitely not limited to a single unit. Sure, you can’t believe every word you read, but it’s very consistent themes backed up entirely by the docket that just came out for Austin.