<story><title>‘Confirming we are cleared to land?’ Who said what at Austin</title><url>https://fallows.substack.com/p/as-bad-as-it-gets-without-body-bags</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>zackbloom</author><text>Just to give a little context as a pilot: It is the job of the tower controller to decide who uses the runway when. There are often multiple planes waiting to take off, and multiple planes nearing the airport to land. It&amp;#x27;s not uncommon for a tower controller to allow a plane to takeoff while another is approaching the runway. The theory is, of course, that the flight will depart in plenty of time.&lt;p&gt;In this case, the controller failed to tell the departing flight to hurry (the references to &amp;#x27;no delay&amp;#x27; or &amp;#x27;immediate&amp;#x27; in the blog post), AND frankly timed things pretty close given the weather. Without the ability to actually see the approaching plane, or perhaps even the plane on the ground, it will probably be found that timing a departure that close at all was reckless. That said, I feel for these tower controllers, it&amp;#x27;s not common for many planes to get stacked up waiting to depart, and it is their job to get them out. What may have worked just fine on a clear-weather day simply became too dangerous on that day.&lt;p&gt;The official manual for air traffic controllers in the US is the FAA Order JO 7110.65W [1], if anyone cares to review it.&lt;p&gt;1 - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.faa.gov&amp;#x2F;documentlibrary&amp;#x2F;media&amp;#x2F;order&amp;#x2F;atc.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.faa.gov&amp;#x2F;documentlibrary&amp;#x2F;media&amp;#x2F;order&amp;#x2F;atc.pdf&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rationalist</author><text>&amp;gt; I feel for these tower controllers&lt;p&gt;I would feel for this tower controller if there wasn&amp;#x27;t a bunch of comments in r&amp;#x2F;ATC saying how this particular controller has transferred between facilities because he keeps messing up and makes workplace complaints instead of owning up to his mistakes.&lt;p&gt;Edit to add source:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; 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&amp;#x27;t fire him because he files EEO complaints habitually.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;old.reddit.com&amp;#x2F;r&amp;#x2F;ATC&amp;#x2F;comments&amp;#x2F;10uub5x&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;old.reddit.com&amp;#x2F;r&amp;#x2F;ATC&amp;#x2F;comments&amp;#x2F;10uub5x&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;More discussion:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;old.reddit.com&amp;#x2F;r&amp;#x2F;ATC&amp;#x2F;comments&amp;#x2F;10u0zvl&amp;#x2F;disaster_averted_at_austin_airport_after_fedex&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;old.reddit.com&amp;#x2F;r&amp;#x2F;ATC&amp;#x2F;comments&amp;#x2F;10u0zvl&amp;#x2F;disaster_avert...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>‘Confirming we are cleared to land?’ Who said what at Austin</title><url>https://fallows.substack.com/p/as-bad-as-it-gets-without-body-bags</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>zackbloom</author><text>Just to give a little context as a pilot: It is the job of the tower controller to decide who uses the runway when. There are often multiple planes waiting to take off, and multiple planes nearing the airport to land. It&amp;#x27;s not uncommon for a tower controller to allow a plane to takeoff while another is approaching the runway. The theory is, of course, that the flight will depart in plenty of time.&lt;p&gt;In this case, the controller failed to tell the departing flight to hurry (the references to &amp;#x27;no delay&amp;#x27; or &amp;#x27;immediate&amp;#x27; in the blog post), AND frankly timed things pretty close given the weather. Without the ability to actually see the approaching plane, or perhaps even the plane on the ground, it will probably be found that timing a departure that close at all was reckless. That said, I feel for these tower controllers, it&amp;#x27;s not common for many planes to get stacked up waiting to depart, and it is their job to get them out. What may have worked just fine on a clear-weather day simply became too dangerous on that day.&lt;p&gt;The official manual for air traffic controllers in the US is the FAA Order JO 7110.65W [1], if anyone cares to review it.&lt;p&gt;1 - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.faa.gov&amp;#x2F;documentlibrary&amp;#x2F;media&amp;#x2F;order&amp;#x2F;atc.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.faa.gov&amp;#x2F;documentlibrary&amp;#x2F;media&amp;#x2F;order&amp;#x2F;atc.pdf&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rlpb</author><text>&amp;gt; It&amp;#x27;s not uncommon for a tower controller to allow a plane to takeoff while another is approaching the runway.&lt;p&gt;Only in the US is it permitted for the controller to clear an aircraft to land while another is using the runway. The rest of of the world does not allow &amp;quot;anticipated clearance&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;(Apart from a &amp;quot;land after&amp;quot; clearance where the landing aircraft must accept responsibility for separation.)&lt;p&gt;Edited to add: how it works everywhere else in the world: the controller is not permitted to clear an aircraft to land unless and until the previous one is confirmed clear. That&amp;#x27;s why the term is &amp;quot;cleared&amp;quot;.</text></comment>