A320
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 18
Situational Awareness; Confusion; Communication Breakdown
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance
Weather; Procedure; Human Factors
MSP Tower was operating a 30's/35 Converging Runway Operations (CRO)/ Arrival Departure Window (ADW) operation with strong wind and gusts. Aircraft X notified local control west of a loss/gain (a phrase universally used by flight crews when encountering windshear) of airspeed of 15kts on Runway 35. Local Controller West (LCW) notified the Controller in Charge (CIC) with the tower operations manager and a supervisor present. Aircraft Y notified Local Control West of a loss/gain of 15kts at 400 AGL. Sustained winds had been average around 290 at 20 gusting to 26. LCW notified the CC of a second report of loss/gain of airspeed on Runway 35. The Cab Coordinator (CC); CIC nor Operation Manager (OM) or Sup asked LCW if the aircraft would categorize this as 'windshear' which is required by MSP SOP. CRO ops were allowed to continue at MSP even though a direct violation of MSP SOP's happened in front of the observing OM; CIC and CC.I would stop allowing MSP SOP's to require the controllers and flight crews to be over burdened with semantics (16-13(b) during a critical phrase of flight by questioning the pilots about windshear. Second if this requirement remains I would expect the OM; CIC; SUP and or CC to assure it's compliance by controllers during the safety sensitive operations of CRO/ADW] at MSP.
MSP Controller reported of windshear at the airport and management not changing the runway configuration.