ATC Handling of Low-Fuel American Flight

On 2/23/2007 9:01 AM, Robert Chambers wrote the following:
I gotta wonder if the approach
controller told the local controller that there was an emergency
declared, it didn't appear on the video but my have been edited out.


and what was AA squawking? A 7700 should have made sure everyone knew.

Mitty wrote:

On 2/23/2007 9:01 AM, Robert Chambers wrote the following:

I gotta wonder if the approach controller told the local controller
that there was an emergency declared, it didn't appear on the video
but my have been edited out.


and what was AA squawking? A 7700 should have made sure everyone knew.

That would have gotten their attention, too.

Doesn't matter what he was squawking.. he was on a discrete squawk
anyway so they knew who he was. He declared an emergency, that's all it
takes to get anything you need to meet your situation.

Mitty wrote:
On 2/23/2007 9:01 AM, Robert Chambers wrote the following:

I gotta wonder if the approach controller told the local controller
that there was an emergency declared, it didn't appear on the video
but my have been edited out.


and what was AA squawking? A 7700 should have made sure everyone knew.

"Robert Chambers" wrote in message
. ..

Doesn't matter what he was squawking.. he was on a discrete squawk anyway
so they knew who he was. He declared an emergency, that's all it takes to
get anything you need to meet your situation.


Well, that's all it SHOULD have taken.

"Mitty" wrote in message
...

and what was AA squawking? A 7700 should have made sure everyone knew.


No more so than declaring it via the radio.

Steven P. McNicoll writes:

No more so than declaring it via the radio.

Actually, a radio declaration would make it more obvious, as only ATC sees
squawk codes, whereas everyone in the area hears radio transmissions.

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

In article , Mitty
wrote:

On 2/23/2007 9:01 AM, Robert Chambers wrote the following:
I gotta wonder if the approach
controller told the local controller that there was an emergency
declared, it didn't appear on the video but my have been edited out.


and what was AA squawking? A 7700 should have made sure everyone knew.

If you've already told the controller you have an emergency, squawking 7700
doesn't add anything to the situation. The 7700 stuff is for when you're
out of radio contact.

On 2/23/2007 6:21 PM, Roy Smith wrote the following:

If you've already told the controller you have an emergency, squawking 7700
doesn't add anything to the situation. The 7700 stuff is for when you're
out of radio contact.

Au contraire. With a 7700 squawk then if the emergency situation wasn't
mentioned in the handoff (which it possibly wasn't) then the next controller
would still have known something was seriously wrong.

(Now possibly if AA had squawked 7700 he would have been asked to switch off
that code at some point, but we don't even know from the video whether he tried it.)

He declared an emergency, but somewhere along the line the ball got
dropped. The pilot shouldn't have to plead his case and hope for the
best, he's got an emergent condition to deal with and the life of his
crew and passengers to worry about.

When he got stick from the local controller he should have repeated his
emergency declaration and done whatever he needed to do to meet that
situation. A tower controller can clear the airspace of aircraft fairly
expediently if they want to.

If he had flamed out on a wide downwind and not made it back to the
runway he'd have been crucified for "not doing everything in his power
to deal with the emergency"

If I were the pilot, and AA, I'd be plenty ****ed at the controller, and
from what else is coming out, the FAA supervisor who makes the decisions
that the local controller is not allowed to.

Hopefully this won't happen again eh?



Mitty wrote:
On 2/23/2007 6:21 PM, Roy Smith wrote the following:

If you've already told the controller you have an emergency, squawking
7700 doesn't add anything to the situation. The 7700 stuff is for
when you're out of radio contact.


Au contraire. With a 7700 squawk then if the emergency situation wasn't
mentioned in the handoff (which it possibly wasn't) then the next
controller would still have known something was seriously wrong.

(Now possibly if AA had squawked 7700 he would have been asked to switch
off that code at some point, but we don't even know from the video
whether he tried it.)

All true. BTW, the handoff on the video is between Center and Approach. Center
told the pilot that he was going to request 17C from Approach and that's what he
did. Apparently without mentioning the emergency.

On 2/23/2007 7:25 PM, Robert Chambers wrote the following:
He declared an emergency, but somewhere along the line the ball got
dropped. The pilot shouldn't have to plead his case and hope for the
best, he's got an emergent condition to deal with and the life of his
crew and passengers to worry about.

When he got stick from the local controller he should have repeated his
emergency declaration and done whatever he needed to do to meet that
situation. A tower controller can clear the airspace of aircraft fairly
expediently if they want to.

If he had flamed out on a wide downwind and not made it back to the
runway he'd have been crucified for "not doing everything in his power
to deal with the emergency"

If I were the pilot, and AA, I'd be plenty ****ed at the controller, and
from what else is coming out, the FAA supervisor who makes the decisions
that the local controller is not allowed to.

Hopefully this won't happen again eh?



Mitty wrote:
On 2/23/2007 6:21 PM, Roy Smith wrote the following:

If you've already told the controller you have an emergency,
squawking 7700 doesn't add anything to the situation. The 7700 stuff
is for when you're out of radio contact.


Au contraire. With a 7700 squawk then if the emergency situation
wasn't mentioned in the handoff (which it possibly wasn't) then the
next controller would still have known something was seriously wrong.

(Now possibly if AA had squawked 7700 he would have been asked to
switch off that code at some point, but we don't even know from the
video whether he tried it.)