Originally Posted by
MPN11
That is a question I posed way back. Does DCA Tower have a slaved radar display? Does a non-trained/qualified controller have the authority to use that data in extremis? Personally, as an ATCO, and presented with imminently co-altitude and virtually head-on conflicting traffic, I would have intervened. But then I was always an interventionist Tower controller!
My earlier questions remain unanswered … does DCA Tower have a slaved radar display?
And thus could Tower have used that data to direct PAT21 out of the way, regardless of qualification or licensing? Or did Tower have a Radar qualification anyway, but didn’t use it?
I can’t speak for DCA, but my local Class D airport (KELM) has had a radar repeater in the tower cab since the late 1980s, and all the local controllers use it. I would think DCA almost certainly has one. The radar repeater is not used to give vectors to aircraft, but as an aid to the controller’s situational awareness.