FAA Says DFW Controllers Retrained Following August 30
Incident
It's understood when a pilot declares an emergency, they are
often permitted to take extraordinary measures to ensure their safe
arrival back on terra firma. That apparently wasn't the case when
an American Airlines crew declared an emergency last year, and
controllers denied the pilot's request to land against traffic at
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports on August 30, 2006 the
pilot of Flight 489 declared an emergency after gauges indicated
the plane was running low on fuel, and requested permission to land
on the nearest runway it could reach at DFW. That runway was
17-Center; airport traffic was taking off and landing to the
north.
The FAA agrees what happened next, shouldn't have happened. An
air traffic controller was ordered not to disrupt traffic flow at
DFW, and told the emergency pilot to land on Runway 31-right. The
757 had to fly further south to enter the pattern.
"We know that we did something that we should have done
differently," FAA spokesman Roland Herwig said. "We should have
given the aircraft the closest runway as opposed to routing him
in."
The plane landed safely... and maintenance crews later found the
low-fuel reading was caused by a faulty sending unit. That meant
the plane had plenty of fuel -- but a spokesman for American says
that does nothing to downplay the significance of the blunder.
"Our pilots have to feel comfortable that they'll receive
appropriate help if they ever encounter an emergency such as this
one," said John Hotard. "It is a serious matter because the pilots
didn't know what the situation was at the time when they declared
the fuel emergency."
Herwig adds the FAA held a training session for area controllers
and supervisors February 1, in response to the incident. That
training has already paid dividends, he added... as controllers
later had to deal with another emergency. That plane was allowed to
land against traffic flow, which temporarily suspended operations
at the airport.
Mike Conely, president of the local chapter of the National Air
Traffic Controllers Association, laid blame for the August 30
incident squarely on the FAA supervisor who denied the emergency
landing request.
"A controller doesn't have at his capability the power to
completely shut everything," he said. "It would have been up to the
supervisor to do that."
Conely also questioned the amount of training that actually took
place in response to the incident.
"They don't put a lot of emphasis on it," Conely said. "They
don't put a lot of emphasis on people attending, simply because of
the shortage of controllers."
Herwig maintained the FAA placed proper emphasis on the
situation, "and we discussed the different things that needed to be
going on."