No Aircraft
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Communication Breakdown
ATC Issue All Types
Procedure; Human Factors; ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings
Event occurred during a fairly busy mid-morning traffic period; with over 20 aircraft in various stages of ground movement. A Technical Operations person turned off the ASDE-X equipment without any warning to any personnel in the Tower. Both Ground controllers; as well as myself were surprised to look up and see all both the ASDE-X scopes blank. When I asked the FLM what was going on; he replied that he was unaware that the ASDE-X system was about to be turned off. When the Technician who turned the system off was asked about it; his reply was 'the outage was scheduled.' Whether the outage is scheduled or not; controllers need to be notified before equipment they're using is disabled.
Tower Controller described an equipment concern when a Maintenance Technician arrived in the Tower; turned off the ASDE-X equipment with no verbal coordination; claiming the outage was 'scheduled.'