Airline Pilot Said She Could "See Heads" In The GA
Aircraft
An audio recording of transmissions between a Southwest Airlines
pilot and air traffic controllers in Florida on March 27th
indicates the Southwest 737 pilot flew her plane close enough to
a Cirrus SR-22 which had been NORDO for about 90 minutes to
see the occupants of the GA aircraft. The pilot did so at the
request of Orlando air traffic control.
File Photo
In the audio transcripts, released October 4th by the FAA, the
initial request comes from Arrival Radar B, which points out the
traffic to the pilot of Southwest flight 821 on the
TCAS and asks her to go take a look. The flight is then
handed off to Arrival Radar L, which vectors the 737 to the
proximity of the NORDO GA airplane. The Cirrus was flying on
autopilot at 11,000 feet "solid."
The controller asks the Southwest pilot to descend to 10,000 and
"we'll bring you up underneath of the so we don't have a separation
problem."
After the Southwest pilot reports that the aircraft is in sight,
she is told by the controller to "navigate on your own as close as
you can do safely and take a look-see and see if you can give us
any information on what you do see." The Cirrus was flying
about 60 knots slower than the 737 at that point.
The Cirrus entered a left turn as was prescribed by its flight
plan, with the autopilot still flying the airplane, according to
the controller. As the 737 pilot reports "passing him right now,"
she said "we see heads in there, we don't see any movement,
though." The controller then thanks the pilot, instructs her
to take up a new heading "when you're able" and gives her vectors
to land in Orlando.
File Photo
Later in the transcript, a controller said to the pilot
"Apparently we woke him up, he's on our frequency now." To which
the pilot replied "Wonderful."
The Tampa Tribune reports that following the incident, a
controller at the Central Florida TRACON was suspended. In a March
29th news release, FAA administrator Randy Babbitt said, "By
placing this passenger aircraft in close proximity to another
plane, the air traffic controller compromised the safety of
everyone involved.
"This incident was totally inappropriate. We are reviewing the
air traffic procedures used here and making sure everyone
understands the protocols for contacting unresponsive
aircraft."
The Cirrus landed without incident at Kissimmee. In an audio
transcript of a telephone conversation between the TRACON watch
supervisor and the Cirrus pilot, the supervisor says "I'm going to
assume you saw the airplane we had fly by you to see if you were
OK." The Cirrus pilot says "The jet?" and says that he did see the
Southwest Airlines plane. The pilot tells the supervisor that he
was not aware that he was NORDO for over an hour. "That wasn't my
plan," he said. The watch supervisor filed an incident report with
the Flight Safety office. An NTSB investigation of the incident is
ongoing.