Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Communication Breakdown
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Returned To Gate
Aircraft; Human Factors; Procedure
I was working Ground Control when an air carrier called on 121.9 [and] reported smoke in the cockpit. He was located on [Taxiway] Juliet abeam Concourse D so he was on a non-movement area and had not yet called for taxi. I told my Supervisor who then alerted the Fire Department. There was some confusion between the Supervisor and the Fire Department because they called back to the Tower to ask about the situation; but I do not have exact details on what was said. The Fire Department's response was inefficient and seemed to lack a sense of urgency. To my knowledge they were informed that the air carrier was positioned at Spot 10; but the emergency vehicles passed by continued down the ramp area past Spot 10 towards Spot 13. The crew then advised me that he thought the vehicles had passed him so I tried contacting Vehicle X to advise him that they passed the emergency air carrier. It took a few transmissions to finally get a hold of Vehicle X and I directed him back to the emergency air carrier. The crew requested a discrete frequency to speak with Vehicle X; but we do not have one so I gave up 121.9 for their communication. Again; I had a hard time getting a hold of Vehicle X to inform him that the air carrier wanted to communicate to him directly on 121.9. When I did get a hold of Vehicle X; I let him and the air carrier talk and I switched to 121.65 for normal ground operations. The crew had requested us to contact his Operations to provide buses and a tow ASAP because he did not want to deploy the shutes. I relayed this information to my Supervisor who informed me that Operations wanted the air carrier to contact them directly and that we can't do anything from our end to accommodate his request. The air carrier said that he only had a single frequency and he wanted to remain on 121.9 and stay in contact with Vehicle X. I told my Supervisor that he did not want to leave the frequency to call his operations. The air carrier was then able to get their alternate radio working so they were able to contact their operations. The situation was resolved and the air carrier was eventually towed back to his gate. Recommend better training and more frequent emergency exercises for Fire Department in order to shorten response time and become more familiar with the airport layout.Highly recommend the implementation of a discrete frequency that can be used for communication between emergency air carrier and lead emergency response vehicle. This will allow the two to converse without interruption and also free up the Ground Control frequency. Tower would still be able to monitor the discrete frequency from our back-up. Not exactly sure why Vehicle X failed to answer me numerous times when I called; but communication definitely needs to improve. Unfortunately unless I know why he failed to respond; I can't really recommend anything specific.After we relayed the emergency aircraft's request for buses and a tow to Operations; they said that they wanted to speak directly to the pilot of the aircraft. The air carrier only had single frequency capability at the time and was unable to contact their operations. I'm not sure if this delayed the process of getting the buses to the plane; but I recommend the airlines develop procedure in case this situation occurs again. For example; maybe they can establish a liaison to communicate between the pilot and operations; or even have the pilots use their cell phones to call them directly.
PHL Ground Controller describes a rather uncoordinated response by CFR to an air carrier crew with reported smoke in the cockpit and how improvements could be made.