Quote:
Originally Posted by 000jesus
So I've been reading up on an emergency declaration at JFK in '10.
Lots of people have rather strong opinions about it. Questions about whether or not the emergency was justified. Whether or not it was clearly stated. Whether or not the pilot should have been in a situation where he couldn't have waited for a different approach. The attitude of the controller has been called into question. Lot's of things to ponder. I'm guessing you're familiar with the incident. Care to add any thoughts?
I remember hearing the audio on this (someone posted it earlier itt) and my reaction was that the American pilot on the radio was a complete jackass. I just googled this and found the audio again (
here) and listened to it and it just reaffirms my initial reaction.
Here's a summary:
• AA2 is cleared to land on Runway 22L. Tower calls the winds "320 at 23 gusting to 35."
• AA2 quite correctly states that they will be unable to land on 22L but then inexplicably states "we're going to break off the approach and if you don't give us 31R we're going to declare an emergency."
I find this statement to be really strange. It's fine to say you can't accept a certain runway, but to then couch it in such a thinly veiled threat is unprofessional to say the least. The need for another runway certainly doesn't rise to the level of an emergency, unless there was something that American is not stating (e.g. emergency fuel state or an engine on fire).
• Tower tries to get AA2 to fly runway heading, which is consistent with standard procedure and safety. It kind of throws a wrench in the works to have planes just turning to whatever heading they decide on their own.
• AA2 now declares an emergency and advises that they are going to fly left traffic for 31R. Any pilot can declare an emergency at any time and do whatever they want in the interest of the safety of their flight. The catch is that they must then be able to defend this action at a later date (i.e. emergency action really was required).
• Tower seems to miss the emergency declaration and attempts to have AA2 continue runway heading for vectors, but then asks "you say you're declaring an emergency?"
• AA2 responds that they have declared an emergency "three times" though I can only find the one time they actually declared it (the first time they simply threatened to do it, but didn't actually declare).
• ATC clears the airspace, sending at least one other flight around. After AA2 lands, they are issued taxi instructions with no further discussion of the "emergency."
Usually when an emergency is declared, ATC will ask some questions, foremost among those: "Do you require assistance after landing?" None of the typical questions were asked of an emergency aircraft (they like to know number of souls on board and fuel remaining).
I'd love to know what happened afterwards. Did the pilots have to answer to anyone about this? It seems to be a flagrant abuse of emergency authority, unless there is something else to the story that isn't apparent from this audio. In my opinion, the controller acted properly and professionally throughout this situation. Can't say the same for the pilot.
Quote:
My bigger issue, though, is that it seems like this sort of drama happens quite a bit at JFK. Not necessarily pilots declaring emergencies, but just a lot of tension due to the amount of traffic in the region. I've read seemingly countless threads on various forums about disagreements between controllers and pilots there. I recall one very long thread at PPRUN about an English chap who thought they were trying to kill him. From what I gather, ATC in that area seems to operate under their own set of rules, and when combined with your typical NY curtness and lots of trans-Atlantic flights keen to get on the ground in a big hurry, it just doesn't seem like a real friendly environment. Thoughts?
I've always found the New York controllers to be excellent in both their professionalism and their ability to smoothly move traffic. I don't find it tense
or filled with drama. I'm not trying to be a defender of NY ATC, but I honestly don't agree with any of the things you allude to. What one person calls curtness, another might call a professional economy of words. I've never observed any special set of rules in NY airspace and the point about trans-Atlantic flights being in a hurry to land is an exaggeration (we carry plenty of fuel for diversion and contingencies).