This is just another in a stream of ridiculous comments or actions from senior management in NATS.These people are not fit to stack shelves at Tesco never mind be involved in Air Traffic Control.I know we have had our differences on this forum and we have our own ideas on the way forward or what is wrong with NATS but we are all being treated like children with mummy and daddy (Kenny and co) thinking they know whats best for their little lambs!

Obviously had the wrong sound bite. Is UK airspace as obtuse and hard to navigate as the BBC web sites?

After listening to the real one appears that NATS senior management maybe doesn't really understand aircraft operations all that well. Then again, you never want the high level management messing about too close to the action anyway because they feel obligated to make decisions, any decisions, even if they are not needed.

Procedure in the US if one becomes NORDO is to fly the last clearance because that is what ATC will expect you to do and they will take care of talking to the other aircraft and keeping them out of your way. In any case the priority forthe pilot (and the pilot's responsibility) is Aviate, Navigate, Communicate, right?

As HD observes unless the aircraft radios have packed up you will generally switch to the last previous frequency and try it anyway. If the problem is on the ground side it usually neeeds a switch to the backup or the backup to the backup. There are generally several radios with independent power and connectivity to the ATC facility for busy airspace.

Problem with com being so reliable is everyone assumes it will always be there, baring the occasional mistuned radio or some places where coverage is a little weak. If lots of vectoring is provided it can many times improve capacity and efficiency but it does make situational awareness a little more difficult and when the nice controller says "Radar service terminated, have a good day" or the radio goes west there can be a momentary gnashing of gears in the head while one reorients.

Don't know about the UK, but in US transmitting from a cell phone in flight is verboten because it floods too many cell sites and wipes out a fair size area of service.

What ever you do Please keep your management busy there, we have enough managers here and can't take any more.

I would like to make two points.

1.
If you look at the Jepp Plates for Brisbane Australia, it has a simple Loss of RT proceedure. It actually gives a phone number to ring on your mobile. You get straight through to the SATCO and the problem is resolved.

2. I was flying a VC8 (Viscount) from Southend to Manchester a few years back and had a total loss of R/T after being handed over from Southend Tower to London. We couldn't raise anyone. Not even the previous (Twr) frequency. So after trying every frequency in the book and then some,we just sqwarked 7600 and continued all the way to Manchester, went around the hold once and did a full procedure ILS and landed. Afterwards we landed and phoned the Tower at EGCC. They said there was no problem at all. They figured our R/T had failed and watched us on radar do exactly what they expected us to do. Everyone was warned and room was made for us.

The point I'm trying to make is that if you have a genuine R/T failure, ATC can handle it and ensure that you safely conclude your flight.

But if Mr Darling thinks that it is possible for EGLL or any other major airport to operate without R/T, then perhaps he should try to explain why it is mandatory to have radios in aircraft operating into these airports in the first place.