Hi fellow Aviators. Jap, about this subject :
It would be a few years ago, when Mbandaka tower suddenly went silent while 3 aircraft where departing/approaching. All the planes desperately called the guy, getting no answer and *sigh* finally reverted to auto-information. A few minutes later the Congolese controller came back on, and explained he was sorry but he was alone and urgently had to go take a sh$t .......
ATC's at smaller stations...no Co-ATC to take control!! Makes me think a few years ago when I was stationed in Kimberley. A very quit station in those days with only Uncle Sid keeping us busy with some cct's and landings outside our 3 SAA busy spells for the day.
But unfortunately, when mother nature calls, she
CALLS
Situation:... One Joburg SAA flight in on a visual, and landed. One Cape Town SAA flight in and landed... pressure starting to build...you can handle it. Has happened many times before(15yrs of experience)...won't mention the time I was caught at Eros (Namibia) sitting on the throne and controlling cct's and landings......yeh...we had one in the tower and we had a portable!. OK, back to Kimberley, JNB flight departs for Bloem, Bloem flight inbound, Cape Town flight departing for Joburg...pressure now even higher.
Bloem flight landed, me standing and controlling...eish
As he parked I told him..."tower will be unmanned for a few minutes" Only received a burst of laughter....they knew!!
Three storeys down....hell I am not going to make it.
2nd storey..fire can in the corner.....no no no...everey body on the airport will know...
Ground floor... through the security gate into the Airports Departure lounge which in those days was not very big!! All the passengers in the lounge saw this guy with a blue face/pannic in his eyes/frightened face
and with an understanding attitiude a path opened to the toilets which was at the back of this lounge. Till today, I still don't know how I made it...but I did!
When I arrived back in the tower, my friendly SAA friends (who held the fort in the mean time) gave me a quick briefing of who else joined the TMA. Shows you, some pilots can be called on to hold the fort!!
So guys, show some understanding. When a man has got to go, a man has got to go....just tell them!!
See Ya
