Worse experience?

[TowerDiamond]

Hey!
I've been watching "Air Crash Investigations" on National Geographic Channel, and I'm interested in how the ATC handle frightening situations like these. And what is the worse you have experienced as an ATCO?

[Talkdownman]

Nothing much worse than this for me as a tower controller.....

http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19690105-0

....and all I did was press the 'clear to land' button.

[Lon More]

Was very nearly there. It was about 50m from one of the NMU sites. Fortunately we were at the other end.**

Watched, from a distance, the BOAC B707 return to Heathrow with an engine fire when the fuel cut off didn't function due to having been excessively painted.

Watching the El Al disaster at Schiphol unfold and being totally unable to do anything.

Following a mate (GASHE) out of Old Warden and watching him go into the trees just ahead of me.

We all have our stories, fortunately for most of us the times when it went right far outnumber the times it goes wrong.


** you might remember me as the NMU ATCA who used to fall asleep and SNORE with his foot on the Tx switch whilst monitoring the APP freq.

[DirtyPierre]

Was on the console when I heard;

"Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, we've hit another aircraft and we're going into the sea.........."

Happened in G airspace off the coast of Brisbane in the 80s. I then had to communicate with the search aircraft and relay descriptions of what wreckage and bodies were found.

Will never forget the utter uselessness of just having a radio, imagine how the ATCs in USA felt when 9/11 situation developed.

[Tarq57]

If it gets too gritty (rare), overdramatised (common), or ridiculous (fairly common), for me, I just change channels. Remotes are gooood.
To tell the truth, though, the Nat Geo docu-tainments aren't as bad as a lot of the shows purporting to deal with air crashes that seem to screen. Some of 'em are actually quite informative! I do get sick to death of the endless repeated footage and camera-being-shaken special effects, though.

I think the worst situation for me was a film called "Blackout Effect". Total drivel.But overall, I think as a profession that we handle these made-in-America-for-the-masses shows reasonably well.
:E :E :E

(No disrespect intended to those who've witnessed real nasty stuff.)

[av8boy]

More than 20-some-odd years ago now...

I was working at KSMO... Santa Monica tower in southern California, as a pup controller. Lots and lots of primary students flying about. The departure end of the only runway, 21, is about a mile and a half from the ocean and pointing right at it.

One fine, sunny day, a student taxis out in a C152 for his first solo around the patch. I clear him for takeoff. He gets 3/4 of a mile or so upwind on departure, pointed out to sea, and calls me screaming, "Tower! The airplane won't turn left or right at all! What do I do?"

I think, "Crap. Next landfall is south of Melbourne. That's probably not going to work."

I'm at a loss, so I tell him, "Roger, make left traffic." Unbelievably, he says, "Roger" and promptly turns crosswind. :ugh: I sequence him and he lands safely. Not a thing wrong with the airframe either.


I've got other excellent stories, but thought I'd lead with that one...

Dave

PS I guess you asked for the "worst." That ain't it by a long shot.

[TowerDiamond]

I'm well aware of the overdramatising, and I agree with you, markjoy, about the shaking camera effects.. It almost make you motion sick sometimes. And in every episode the passengers scream "I'm going to die!" :rolleyes:
My boyfriend is a pilot and he use to explain what's important and real, and what's not so trustworthy. :D
Thank you for your replies, and I hope more of you want to share your story.

[BDiONU]

I hope more of you want to share your story.
I'm an ex military ATCO and one of the licenses I held was the emergency (D&D) controller for Scotland. Probably all military controllers have lots of war stories as military aircraft are more often in 'trouble' (and if you're a D&D controller you get civil aircraft as well). However its not something I'd post about in a public forum, its not an appropriate place IMHO.

BD

[ATCO Fred]

As a watch supervisor listening in to one of the unit frequencies:

"Mayday, Mayday, Mayday (C/S heli) Mid air collision we're going down, we're going down. Mayday, Mayday, Mayday (C/S) we're going down, brace, brace, brace, brace".......silence.

Luckily they survived - but that was probably the single most intense period of my life as I supervised the intitial SAR with Civ Pol.

[clicker]

As a ops controller for Transamerica at Gatwick taking a phone patch from an aircraft flying over Angola saying he could see one of our aircraft on the ground on fire.

Then after sending out SS prority AFTN signals watching the messages coming from the comms centres that always stopped short of the Angolian network showing the links were broken. In fact most never got further south of Algeria.

[Il Duce]

My "most interesting" experience as an ATCO was being caught in the crossfire of a firefight which was taking place outside the ground floor of the ATC tower. I didn't know who was shooting at whom. The last civil aircraft of the day was almost at the holding point and had requested departure clearance. How did I deal with the situation? Easy, head up for a quick look along the runway - nothing in the way, dive back under the desk with the mic and transmit the departure clearance (in a voice which may have been slightly higher than usual).

[welcome_stranger]

Doing Flight Data Duties at the old handrolic Brisbane Centre, heard a low gasp and looked up over the console at the Outback Procedural board to see the three whitest faces I have ever seen.

It appeared the going off and the coming on had, even after the handover, missed the two 737's at the same level nose to nose, they were only about 50nm apart when one plane decided to descend, and this was before TCAS.

Can still remember the colour of the faces and the large fearful eyes

[DirtyPierre]

Outback Procedural board to see the three whitest faces I have ever seen.

It was actually the old Sector 5 procedural board (now part of the Outback Group), and I owned one of those faces.

I won't go into all the details, but we actually realised we had a nose to nose after a position report by one of the aircraft. Separation instructions with traffic was passed immediately. The aircraft missed by about 20nm (we later calculated).

The other 2 faces still work in Brisbane. One is a regular on this forum.

[360BakTrak]

and I owned one of those faces

Have you since got rid of it?!:confused: :} :E ;)