On early Saturday morning, a Fedex 767 was coming into land at the airport in Austin through thick low clouds and fog. The controller cleared the plane to land and when it was three miles out from landing, they then told the Southwest flight to take off from the same runway. The two planes got within a few hundred feet of killing everyone onboard both planes. It was only the careful flying by the Fedex crew that saved everyone. Here's a video of the incident with the actual radio traffic between the tower and the two planes. Article. Second more detailed video.
Here's where it gets interesting. Apparently this particular controller is known to be incompetent but files EEO complaints and gets shuffled around instead of being fired. Over on the ATC subreddit, one controller had this to say:
This is the problem right here. You have a controller who, according to everyone who has worked with him from the last facility where he washed out and now AUS, say has no business being a controller and they can't fire him because he files EEO complaints habitually. And yet you have people trying to push another agenda entirely with the 6 day work weeks and fatigue, which this event has nothing to do with. Just call it what it is. A shitty controller who has no business being a controller just tried to kill a lot of people, and the FAA and NATCA will do NOTHING about it.
Source. For those who don't know, EEO complaints are a way for employees to complain that they are being discriminated against under federal law. So this guy, who sounds like he's black judging from his voice, uses the shield of federal discrimination laws to avoid being fired for incompetence. And true to form, the federal government just shuffles him off to a different airport to be some else's problem.
It's an inevitability of anti-meritocractic, communist thinking.
It happens reliably in every communist state. Be it collapsing bridges and buildings, exploding factories, etc. It gets more and more frequent the more incompetents are allowed to be at the helm. It all stems from someone being shit at their fucking job.
I believe Communism's one was called Chernobyl
We already have the cultural version, in the academic, government, healthcare, and corporate sectors.
Hey, if people die, "oh no that's terrible, let's expand the government, take more taxes, and remove rights from the people to fix this tragedy."
If I were to go with a bigot's opinion on this, I'd would have put money on Imp's opinion when he says "Definitely a woman".
It will be fun and games when people die as well, as long as it's the right people.
It's almost like that's the point. To make white people die off.
You don't usually keep things that you're replacing and they aren't calling it "replacement migration" by accident.
But that's the point. Whitey dies.
At least we're not leaving too many nuclear power plants for these people after the collapse.
That's nuts.
Hats off to the FedEx crew who had to take charge of the situation and direct the other plane when the controller dropped the ball ("Thank you for your professionalism", lol)
Controller: "Thank you for doing my job for me because I don't know how to do it."
That reminds me of one of my favorite moments in aviation: US Air 2998 refuses take-off clearance.
It's a simple problem. A United Boeing 757 (United 1448) gets lost on a foggy airport, and ends up on an active runway. A FedEx Boeing 727 takes off, and clears it by a few dozen feet. United 1448 tries to warn the ATC that they are on an active runway. ATC basically tells them they are wrong, and and clears US Air 2998 for take off on that runway.
Having listened to the conversation, and not wanting to replicate the Tenerife disaster that killed over 500 people, US Air declines clearance. Twice.
Sheeeit, FedEx wateva, you be clurred to land. Ain't be nothin thurr. giant explosion Dis wuz caused by the huwyte man and his waycis devls.
I don't even know what to say anymore. The problem is blindingly obvious but the solutions are illegal. Room temperature IQ niggers have no business in civilized society, much less operating anything that governs the safety of others.
Hotshots did it first back in 1991.
There are other ways of getting rid of this literal turd than firing his ass. The incompetent fuck has a home address, and it would be considered a public service if he never showed up to work ever again.
just DIE
:)
I wonder what their actual spacing parameters are in the ATC rulebook. He told the Southwest plane they had a 767 on 3mi final. I fly little small planes and I've been cleared plenty of times to take off in front of other little small slow planes at that distance and it's not even close to an issue. In front of a 767? No. If they'd have cleared that I would have considered telling them I'll wait or calling out unable. If that thing has any issue and has to go around it's going to be on top of me. Pilot always has the final say. The Fedex guy was paying attention, you could hear him confirm cleared to land after ATC told the Southwest plane to take off. If I were the Southwest pilot, I'd consider it a lesson on paying better attention as well. Maybe that's just the mindset I was trained with, but I've questioned ATC a number of times. Still, it's very much ATC's fault.
If they insist on coddling these bad controllers, at least send them to small airports. Not that I want to deal with them, but at the very least if they are directing Cessnas around some taxiways it's not nearly as likely to end up really bad. I really like ATC too, they can be masterful if they are good. I've seen situations where 5 planes all show up in their airspace wanting to land at the same time and they will get them all on the ground and to wherever they want to go without making anyone wait at all. Bad ones are dangerous though.
I'm not a pilot but from reading the other ATC comments, the minimum spacing is 2 mi. At the 767's closing speed, the 737 had about 30 seconds to begin its takeoff once the clearance was given. In ideal conditions, it would have been possible since the Southwest crew told the controller that they were ready for takeoff. But clearly this ATC should have accounted for less than idea conditions, especially since that morning the fog was thick enough that the tower couldn't even see the 737 on the ground. This stunt by the ATC was completely unnecessary since there was no traffic behind the Fedex and I've read nothing to indicate that the Southwest flight was in any sort of time crunch.
Yeah, they were the real heros in all this. They were clearly paying attention to the radio traffic and stayed cognizant of what was happening on the ground in front of them. People are also speculating that the cockpit FLIR that these Fedex freighters have gave the crew extra situational awareness that helped out in this case.
Yeah I saw another video about it and realized how much worse it was than I thought. That was really close to a huge fireball.
With just reading the headline, my guess is either woman or jogger.
They should never have lowered the entry requirements. Previously it was one of the hardest jobs n the world to get into due to the testing.
Well, that's not terrifying at all or anything.
And I look forward to the controller's eventual promotion. Honk honk.
The planes pronouns are he/him
pete buttstuff's faa
https://youtu.be/ZOfql4OWTng