This is from African Pilot Newsletter 38 - 2006, 18 September 2006
Last week’s AP newsletter report on Phoebus Apollo and ATNS at FAJS
African Pilot received a complaint that the time period quoted of 45 minutes that the Phoebus Apollo DC-9 had to wait for take-off and return to Rand Airport was not accurate. The following report has been received from Mark Swarts – communications specialist at ATNS and is printed in full without corrections.
Reply from Mark Swarts - ATNS
Dear Athol,
As discussed telephonically, I was disheartened to see your report of the performance of our ATC at FAJS. Following on from reading the article titled “Phoebus Apollo photo shoot on Sunday”, I contacted the centre manager of the Johannesburg ATSU to obtain factual insight into what happened here.
From all records pertaining to the management of this flight by our ATC, the following could be drawn;
- Start of the aircraft was approved at 08h56Z
- Actual airborne time of the aircraft was at 09h18Z.
- This shows a total time of 22 minutes between start and airborne time, and provides no indication of a 45 minute hold at the holding point as reported. The published taxi time for ex FAJS is 15 minutes for this size aircraft, so a 22 min taxi time in peak periods without a slot is certainly not excessive.- A local rule stating that VFR positioning flights out of FAJS to airfields below the TMA are not required to book a slot, is in place; however the understanding is that these departures will be accommodated when possible. As you know, a system of slots is in use at FAJS to help manage the traffic flow, especially at peak periods such as this one. Should an aircraft wish to depart during such a time without a slot, our ATC will only be able to assist with its departure when a gap opens up for this purpose, and with due regard for all the operators who have booked slots and are thus afforded priority.
I am sure you can appreciate that the FAJS ATC crew are feeling a little “beat-up” by this report, which was a totally inaccurate report on the events as they occurred. On behalf of ATNS, I can assure you that our staff tries their very best at assisting clients in every way possible within the given parameters. I do believe that facts of this nature should be carefully verified before communicating on them - with such emotion. It is unfortunate that this seems to be a trend, which does not bode well for the building of a positive, supportive and understanding culture within aviation.
I wish to encourage you to publish a correction and apology for the article as published in your AP newsletter.
Best regards,
Mark.