9/11

[GotTheTshirt]

As part of 9/11 week USA TV has been airing various movie/documentaries about the disaster.
Most of them which have been shown several times before relate to the actual hi-jackings on the various aircraft and the personal aspects.

Last night Discovery aired a program which I saw for the first time ( but may have been aired before!) relating to the events by ATC after the initial impact. It was "The day the FAA grounded all aircraft"
I was a fascination program with all the ATC problems that I am sure most people were not aware of.
Required viewing for HD and his mates !

After the first Twin towers impacts the FAA issued an "ATC ground zero decree" command initially for New York area and then for the whole of the USA. This is basically to get all aircraft out of their airspace or on the ground asap.
The point was made that there was no manuals for thi, so no procedures, which of course was the first time one had ever been issued.:eek:

There were points that, for example Canada was totally unprepared and under manned for this operation. But they had developed an emergency procedure for the Y2K senario and decide that would work which it did.
We all saw the photos of the ground in Gander and Halifax but I did not appreciate that many of these aircraft were overweight for landing in Canada ( Having planned for US West Coast) so they were having but be vectored to a dumping area before landing etc etc !

They also highlighted the fact that inbounds on Oceanic control were only on HF and that commands could take 10-15 minutes to relay to an aircraft ( and there were dozens of them:hmm:)

Even in the US which didn't get the coverage that Canada had, provincial airports that normally had 3-4 GA flights a day took dozens of airliners full of passengers in.
The statistics are amazing.

But the final point was also interesting !
The FAA had a committe to look into formulating a written procedure in case this ever happened again.
Their verdict was that it was only the individual controllers using their discrection and knowledge that sorted it all out and that a written procedure would only get in the way:ok:

Worth a watch IMHO

[6000PIC]

There`s a lot of unrecognized heroes who on that day saved the lives of thousands , the men and women on both sides of the Atlantic working ATC in Gander , Halifax , Shanwick. A truly remarkable feat.

[brain fade]

6000
That's the first I've heard of that but it sure rings true.
Well done to those concerned. Proper ATC.:ok:

[ILS27LEFT]

Sometimes written procedures can just represent an obstacle to the professionals, this was an example.
This is true especially in those parts of the world where a procedure is strictly followed even when common sense and experience would suggest different solutions. These procedures sometimes lead to disasters, especially when the event is completely unexpected and maximum flexibility is needed, like 9.11 was.

On the other side, when the AA Cabin Crew on 9.11 called the AA Emergency Line there was not procedure again for that type of call thus they wasted precious minutes wondering around on what to do, simply because there was no procedure for it and they were not trained to use their common sense and being flexible: it would be nice to remind all that we are clever individuals and sometimes the best solutions are not written anywhere except in our brains, and a written procedure for an unexpected event could just confuse us.

The worst scenario is to have somebody which does not know what to do simply because there is no procedure for it and does nothing about it.
ATC gave a lesson. AA did not.

Katrina: no comment.

[rugmuncher]

Google these then:::

Bojinka,

Operation Northwood,

Missing 727 N844AA

C'mon you pilot type people in here, what is meant to happen if you don't respond on radio or switch off your transponder?????

[PaperTiger]

After the first Twin towers impacts the FAA issued an "ATC ground zero decree" command initially for New York area and then for the whole of the USA. This is basically to get all aircraft out of their airspace or on the ground asap.
The point was made that there was no manuals for thi, so no procedures, which of course was the first time one had ever been issued.Journalistic inexactitude or, if you prefer, rubbish !

The US had a such plan and procedure dating back to the cold war, and it had occasionally been simulated as an exercise.
The salient terms are SCATANA and ESCAT which you can google or start here: http://www.faa.gov/atpubs/MIL/Apdices/milapd17.html

The fact that this plan was not initially followed on Sept 11 was due to the much-documented communications and command chain failures, and possibly that the FAA head (Mineta) did not know it existed !