2 Jets collide at HOU. What happened?

[32andBelow]

Would you honestly scold a pilot on frequency who has an emergency? Would you even scold them on frequency if it wasn’t an emergency? Or would you have a little seed of doubt in the back of your brain going “oh fuck did I clear him?!”

I didn’t say anything about scolding him but a natural reaction would be some dismay that he departed I would think obviously some of the beginning of the tape was cut. I wonder if anything was said on the roll

 

[DankVectorz]

I didn’t say anything about scolding him but a natural reaction would be some dismay that he departed I would think obviously some of the beginning of the tape was cut. I wonder if anything was said on the roll

Well they’re clearly a better controller than you then because their natural reaction was to get him back on the ground asap and not worry about quibbling

 

[KiloZulu]

I didn’t say anything about scolding him but a natural reaction would be some dismay that he departed I would think obviously some of the beginning of the tape was cut. I wonder if anything was said on the roll

Why would you ever play the blame game on frequency though, let alone right after a midair

 

[ajmezz]

Would you honestly scold a pilot on frequency who has an emergency? Would you even scold them on frequency if it wasn’t an emergency? Or would you have a little seed of doubt in the back of your brain going “oh fuck did I clear him?!”

It’s 32, of course he would scold the pilot and probably everyone around him right after.

 

[rhombus]

Unless it was broken the ASDE lady would have been screaming at them. I wonder if there was any attempt to stop the departure or send the arrival around

 

[32andBelow]

Why would you ever play the blame game on frequency though, let alone right after a midair

It’s just a fucking observation. Relax. Normally controllers say something when a pilot starts doing something unexpected. I didn’t blame anyone.

 

[eltors0]

Unless it was broken the ASDE lady would have been screaming at them. I wonder if there was any attempt to stop the departure or send the arrival around

I’m not familiar with the operation there, but if AUS doesn’t have an ASDE/ASSC then I would doubt HOU would have one. Again, just trying to make sense of how this happened but am in the dark here.

Edit: Nevermind. According to a wiki article, they do. Airport surveillance and broadcast systems - Wikipedia
Only time will tell if there was an outage or something.

 

[sillyatc]

You guys are still listening to 32?

The guy works at ZAN, a flight service specialist talks to more planes a day than he does.

 

[twn]

You guys are still listening to 32?

The guy works at ZAN, a flight service specialist talks to more planes a day than he does.

He doesn't work at Anchorage, but I like the diss anyways

 

[Bandit117]

It's up...

This is the live ATC audio, which doesn’t do anything explain how it happened, only what happened after

 

[CaptainObvious]

He doesn't work at Anchorage, but I like the diss anyways

His Z isn’t much higher than ZAN though 😂

 

[eltors0]

You guys are still listening to 32?

The guy works at ZAN, a flight service specialist talks to more planes a day than he does.

 

[D-Dub]

You guys are still listening to 32?

The guy works at ZAN, a flight service specialist talks to more planes a day than he does.

Wait, ZAN is real? All this time, I thought it was made up.

 

[rhombus]

I’m not familiar with the operation there, but if AUS doesn’t have an ASDE/ASSC then I would doubt HOU would have one. Again, just trying to make sense of how this happened but am in the dark here.

Edit: Nevermind. According to a wiki article, they do. Airport surveillance and broadcast systems - Wikipedia
Only time will tell if there was an outage or something.

I was surprised to hear they had one too. Appears to be working fine at the moment

 

[boots]

I’m not familiar with the operation there, but if AUS doesn’t have an ASDE/ASSC then I would doubt HOU would have one. Again, just trying to make sense of how this happened but am in the dark here.

Edit: Nevermind. According to a wiki article, they do. Airport surveillance and broadcast systems - Wikipedia
Only time will tell if there was an outage or something.

You can look at HOU airnav and clearly see it too.

 

[Top5fatcat]

The Ground Controller was in training, so that adds another set of eyes that "didnt see a thing". Apparently the Hawker was also told to Lineup & Wait on RWY 22.

The system is severely broken. There were no drug/alcohol tests. There was no investigation if all these controllers who didnt see a thing were playing on their phones. There is an extreme indifference in the NAS and in ATC right now. No one on ANY level is willing to address the elephants in the room. A junior workforce full of poor controllers post Covid. Short staffing. 0 accountability culture. Theyre all at work the next day like nothing happened. Controllers arent even embarassed that they didnt have the situational awareness to catch and save would could have been a catastrophe, instead they're indignant that the pilot sincerely thought he was in the right and expressed that on frequency.

Everyone knows that there are really bad near misses every week in the NAS. You know about the ones at your facility that never made the news. There have been so many of them. "Its going to get worse before it gets worse." 100% right on. Couldnt have said it better. Brace.

 

[HammerHead]

The LC clearly knew something was wrong because he sent the SWA around before 9AA mentioned midair. Just because he says "say what" doesn't mean he didn't see what happened, it means he didn't hear/understand what the pilot said.

I think the LC did a fine job after the fact. Emotions are already high, the pilot is flying a broken aircraft. There is no reason to do/say anything to increase those emotions. Get the guy on the ground, hopefully alive, then ask questions and point fingers if you want.

 

[Raise when?]

The Ground Controller was in training, so that adds another set of eyes that "didnt see a thing". Apparently the Hawker was also told to Lineup & Wait on RWY 22.

The system is severely broken. There were no drug/alcohol tests. There was no investigation if all these controllers who didnt see a thing were playing on their phones. There is an extreme indifference in the NAS and in ATC right now. No one on ANY level is willing to address the elephants in the room. A junior workforce full of poor controllers post Covid. Short staffing. 0 accountability culture. Theyre all at work the next day like nothing happened. Controllers arent even embarassed that they didnt have the situational awareness to catch and save would could have been a catastrophe, instead they're indignant that the pilot sincerely thought he was in the right and expressed that on frequency.

Everyone knows that there are really bad near misses every week in the NAS. You know about the ones at your facility that never made the news. There have been so many of them. "Its going to get worse before it gets worse." 100% right on. Couldnt have said it better. Brace.

Sad but true brotha. Fact of the matter is a lot of the really terrible controllers simply do. not. care. And there's no accountability. The feelings over safety FAA is not doing well, not doing well at all....

 

[Chody911]

Would you honestly scold a pilot on frequency who has an emergency? Would you even scold them on frequency if it wasn’t an emergency? Or would you have a little seed of doubt in the back of your brain going “oh fuck did I

Well they’re clearly a better controller than you then because their natural reaction was to get him back on the ground asap and not worry about quibbling

I agree. Once this controller realized the severity his only concern was safety. He took action. Asking questions about what happened while it's happening does nothing for anybody. In my opinion he handled his shit.

 

[CaptainObvious]

I agree. Once this controller realized the severity his only concern was safety. He took action. Asking questions about what happened while it's happening does nothing for anybody. In my opinion he handled his shit.

Yeah he sounded pretty professional and composed during the whole event