Medium Transport
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 8.0
Situational Awareness; Communication Breakdown; Time Pressure
ATC Issue All Types; Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Flight Crew Returned To Departure Airport; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem
Procedure; Manuals; Aircraft; Company Policy
Aircraft X departed. Immediately after departure they said they had an issue and to standby. I asked if they need assistance; they responded standby. They were traveling outside my airspace and we were coordinating with Approach. They said they wanted to return to land. I asked if they were still VFR and had the airport in sight. They said they were VFR; but needed vectors back. I then turned them northbound to stay closer to the airport and shipped them to Approach. They [requested priority handling] with Approach; 3.5 hours of fuel; and an electrical issue. There happened to be a local fire truck on the field that we could see so we tried through our extremely out of date procedures to get a hold of the fire department. We have a handheld radio that we were told to use to get a hold of the fire department. When we used it they told us we needed to call 911 and relay all of the information again.Finally a controller went out on our catwalk jumping up and down to get the attention of the fire truck to tell then to come to the Tower. The Fire Marshall went to the wrong door and luckily a controller saw him and let him in. As the plane was landing the Fire Marshall made it into the Tower Cab. Luckly aircraft did not need the fire rescue; but it was ridiculous how long it took us to get a hold of them; relay the info; and have a reaction when they were already at the airport. We talked with the Fire Marshall about the procedures and he had been told the wrong information on where to go and how to get into our building. He was shocked with what we had to go through to get him and was also unaware that we do not; and have not in years had any sort of LOA with the fire department.Had the fire department not already been in the field there is no way they could have made it in time. We have had situations like this happen before and by the time we get hold of the fire department and they arrive the aircraft has usually been on the ground for at least 15 minutes. Thankfully we have not had a casualty yet.We have been pushing for years for a LOA with the fire department and keep getting told that 'the lawyers' are reviewing it. I believe it is extremely unsafe for the fire department and us to be on two completely different pages on what to do in case of an emergency. I also feel that it is crazy that we don't have a good way besides calling 911 like the general public to get a fire truck here in an emergency especially when I have heard that Mack gave the fire department a truck specifically for our airport. Something needs to be done before something bad happens. This has gone on long enough.
A Tower Controller reported a Controller had to jump around on the catwalk to get the attention of a fire truck for an inbound emergency aircraft.