PPR and overdue actions

[camlobe]

Yesterday, a beautiful day in a large section of the country. All around, pilots craned their heads skyward and decided the day was too good to waste. Aircraft in their natural enviornment, with superb visability everywhere. Cafe's throughout doing brisk £100 bacon sarnies. What could go wrong.

What indeed. Ask a Jodel 120 owner based in the west midlands. Flew into our field no PPR. Stayed a while, enjoyed the fresh clean air, and then departed with his friend on board back to ??? Didn't fill in the arrivals log with departure or destination.

Such a nice evening, I am up with a friend. Nearby ATC unit repetitivly calls the Jodel. No response. Asks if I can assist, knowing I am based at the field the Jodel has just departed from. Contact the ground via box 2. Only person on the ground knows Jodel departing via local highpoint. We divert to carry out brief search in the area but no sign or call on the radio. Inform ATC and advise that we will try and locate destination airfield when back on ground.

Contact made by ATC to Jodel owners wife. She states that he is late home and he is late for an evening appointment. D&D involvement and two police sent around to owners address.

This must have been a terible situation for the owners wife. I would not wish this on anybody.

Owner turns up late safe and sound.

Not standing on any moral highground myself. Just glad of a safe outcome. After all, none of us would find ourselves in this position. Would we???

[funfly]

Lack of respect for wife as well as others!
Where was he?

[dublinpilot]

Hang on....what am I missing here?

Why was overdue action taken? (And I use the term overdue lightly, because he wasn't due anywhere at anytime) Because the guy went out of range of ATC and didn't make contact with another unit?

Surely this happens all the time without overdue action being taken?

dp

[QDMQDMQDM]

This is stupid. I quite agree, why was overdue action taken?

I have been in contact with a FIS, still able to hear their messages, told to report XYZ place, to which I agree, but unable to eventually do so because I am too far away and too low with a crappy radio. So what do I do? Switch over frequencies to wherever I am going next or indeed switch to nothing.

I don't expect them to presume I have crashed and launch the SAR helicopter! FIS is just an FIS.

Some people need to chill out.

QDM

[bar shaker]

Good grief.

The Nanny State has set up camp in private flying.

Radio is not compulsory and he may have turned his off and listened to his iPod, on a glorious day's flying.

His wife was rung and probably scared senseless, for what? Because he decided to take the long way home on such a good day?

D&D involved? Had someone picked up a Mayday and relayed it?

Assuming he wasn't in controlled airspace without permission, the ATC unit need to get a grip and stop reading tabloid stories of pilots plummeting to their deaths.

[FlyingForFun]

Hmm, I can see both sides of the story. For example:Radio is not compulsory and he may have turned his off and listened to his iPod, on a glorious day's flyingTrue - but if he is receiving a FIS service, he really ought to inform the ATC unit that he is cancelling the service before switching his radio off.I have been in contact with a FIS, still able to hear their messages, told to report XYZ place, to which I agree, but unable to eventually do so because I am too far away and too low with a crappy radioHas happened to me once or twice, but I always pass a message to the ATC unit involved (via the next unit I speak to) to let them know. Likewise, I have heard other aircraft used to relay messages successfully - and I've been that other aircraft several times.

Also, if it is normal to sign in and out at his destination airport, surely that's what he should have done?

No one is insisting on constant use of the radio, or going in a straight line rather than taking the scenic route. No one is trying to impede our flying by imposing added layers of beaurocracy. But from the (one-sided) version of events described by camlobe, it sounds to me as if the pilot was guilty of nothing more than a pretty minor breach of etiquette - but this in turn resulted in a controller becoming concerned about his safety, and taking the action which controllers are trained to take if they are concerned about the safety of an aircraft.

Glad it all turned out ok!

FFF
---------------

[Spitoon]

I was hoping to give a simple and clear answer from the controllers' bible (Manual of Air traffic Services Part 1)......but when I go and look for the relevant page it's not very clear! I'm sure it used to be much better but I guess that's progress for you.

Anyway, enough proof that I'm turning into a grupy old man, the rules can be read as saying that an aircraft is 'overdue' if RTF contact does not take place when expected. Technically we are then in the UNCERTAINTY phase. If, during the uncertainty phase, further attempts to establish communication during the have failed we enter the ALERT phase. I won't go any further because even during UNCERTAINTY D & D and the Rescue Co-ordination Centre are informed. These are rules irrespective of whether the aircraft is VFR, IFR or whatever. (Before anyone says anything I will point out that this a UK-orientated answer and that there are some differences in the way that the UK works, particulary where FPLs are concered, when compared to other countries and the international rules.)

Now in practice things rarely get far this for a light aircraft flying VFR without a FPL because enquiries soon reveal where the aircraft is or what it's doing, and no-one declares a phase of emegency with D & D etc. The first thing that happens is that ATC will speak to the next unit along the route that the flight would be expected to take. If that doesn't proved fruitful (i.e. the aircraft isn't talking to them), ATC will call the aerodrome of departure asking if they know any more of the aircraft's whereabouts, who the operator is and where it was bound for. THAT'S WHY YOU HAVE TO BOOK OUT. Further enquiries are then made with the operator or owner to try and locate the aircraft and check that all is well. If ATC cannot find any more information about the flight and cannot locate the aircraft then 'overdue' action will be taken because that's what the rules say. On a busy day when every man and his Cessna is airborne it's quite likely that the ATC unit will be busy and as soon as there's is more than a hint of doubt that the aircraft is OK it will just get passed to D & D and the RCC.

So that's a practical explanation of what should happen. In fact there are many occasions in my experience where, in the absence of an expected RTF call, a controller will just assume that the pilot has switched the radio off or changed to another frequency - relying on the law of averages that in the vast majority of cases there will be no problem.

Maybe this explanation of what goes on in ATC will help to remind pilots to book out and to tell ATC when they leave a frequency.

If nothing else, booking out is the law after all, and for good reason - to save other people going to the trouble of looking for an aircraft needlessly. And to save the pilot from some embarassment.

And if I sound a bit tetchy it's because if you end up in a pile of wreckage on a mountainside you'll want the controller to tell the nice rescue helicopter to come looking for you! And if I don't do overdue that day you'll complain. So stop whinging about how ridiculous it was for D & D to be involved and follow the rules. If you do that no-one will come looking for you when all is well and, with a bit of luck, that nice heli will appear over the horizon if you really need it!

Rant over! I think it's time for bed......

[chevvron]

So all those people asking why was overdue action taken; ever heard of the comedian Micheal Bentine? Heard what happened to his son after HE took off without booking out? I suggest you do a bit of research then. Any ATSU whatever its status (A/G, FIS or ATC) would tend to at least make 'enquiries' if an aircraft was expected and failed to arrive; the French are real sticklers for this especially with VFR traffic.

[IO540]

Given how often people disappear off an FIS frequency (especially if the FIS is being provided by an airfield rather than London Info) I would bet there is more to this story than meets the eye.

Possibly, just possibly, something else made someone sufficiently concerned. Like, for example, the pilot sounding very unsure of things on the radio. One hears this sort of thing almost ever time one flies; people being thoroughly confused about where they are.

Whereas if you call up London Info and you give them what is obviously an "IFR nav" route, and then disappear, they are (I guess) a lot less likely to be worried.

France is a funny one. Loss of contact there used to be really common, but I haven't had it for a couple of years. Their "FIS" is now a radar service in all but name. They aren't very busy either, given the near total lack of anybody flying (and using a radio) compared to the southern UK.

Back to the original post, the pilot could have sent a text message to his wife saying he would be late. They work pretty reliably around the UK and most of Europe, below a few thousand feet.

[dublinpilot]

My comment was not ment to be disparaging to the ATCer. Evertime I fly across the Irish Sea, I hope that if something goes wrong and my Mayday isn't heard, that some controller take overdue action.

I was genuinely wondering what I have missed.

I hadn't realised that booking out was a legal requirement in the UK. It's certainly not particularly common in Ireland, and I don't remember being asked to give details of my destination to the airport of departure, while in France either.

Given how often people disappear off an FIS frequency (especially if the FIS is being provided by an airfield rather than London Info) I would bet there is more to this story than meets the eye.


I can't help but agree with IO540 on this one. That is why I asked the question. It would seem to me that there is something more to this story, something that I am missing.

If the pilot was in receipt of a FIS, would they not have passed details of where their destination was, when agreeing the service?

dp

[chevvron]

Booking out was made a legal requirement because of the incident with MB's son. His remains were found over a year later still in the wreckage of the aircraft, only about 10 miles from his departure point.

[DubTrub]

...but where is this legal requirement defined?

[vintage ATCO]

Rule 20(2) for starters. I think there is something in the ANO as well but don't have time to look at the mo.

Bentine's son crash on 28 Aug 1971 but wasn't found until 31 Oct that year. The acft was in the tops of some tress near Petersfield, Hampshire, and by October the leaves had started to fall.

Going back to the subject, you occasionally get the feeling something isn't quite right, a 'feeling in the water'. An aircraft isn't 'officially' overdue but something doesn't feel right and so a few enquiries are made. I sure it isn't done often or lighly. We could just sit there are say 'Sod it, it's nothing to do with me' but some of us care.