A380
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Confusion; Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Inflight Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance
Procedure; Human Factors; Aircraft; Weather
The area was combined to one operating position; which is normal. This also involves limited CIC duties until the supervisor arrives. The TMU Supervisor approached me and advised that we would probably be West traffic unless the surface wind started gusting strongly from the East. One of the first decisions made was when to transition from LAX over-ocean operation (landing East and departing West) to a straight West operation. I made the decision and advised the Tower of the last over-ocean arrivals; and the Tower concurred. I had just turned the last over-ocean arrival to base leg about 10 miles from the airport and had two aircraft approaching from the East to land West. Several more aircraft were in hand off status on the West arrival STARs (Standard Terminal Arrival Routes). At this point; the supervisor who had arrived a few minutes earlier advised that we would be going to East traffic. Several land line calls were received and made by me regarding the direction that LAX was landing. I had to make numerous point-outs to other areas/sectors because LAX airspace is quite different during East traffic than when it is West traffic. Also; some of the ARTCC sectors had begun using different frequencies for aircraft handed off to me. I made several transmissions similar to 'if you hear my voice; change to frequency 124.9 immediately'. LAX does have an issue with at least one frequency losing contact with aircraft at low altitude West of LAX. Several aircraft were issued West traffic STARs by the ARTCC; so all aircraft under my control during this period were on vectors; rather than on the STARs. The Tower advised that although we were East traffic; they had a few West departures remaining and we would need to delay-vector the arrivals until they could get the departures airborne. At some point two other controllers arrived for their shifts. I told them to just take the frequencies and tell the ARTCC and other areas that their sectors were open. As other controllers arrived; we transitioned to simultaneous independent ILS approaches (simuls) as visibility was marginal. An A380 arrived from the West. There is a restriction on these aircraft that require that they land on the side of the airport where they will be parking; so Runway 6L/R were the mandatory arrival runways. The aircraft arrived straight-in from the West; which was unfortunate; as the wind was out of the West at most altitudes was as fast as 70 KTS. The A380 did not arrive on my frequency until he had almost entered my airspace. I had already turned an E120 to base leg; and instructed the A380 on initial contact to reduce speed to 210 KTS. The A380 never appeared to slow noticeably more than 20 KTS or so; I continued to issue speed reductions until I finally instructed the aircraft to reduce to final approach speed. Under normal circumstances I would probably have re-sequenced the aircraft. However; I already had several aircraft on vectors; positions in the process of decombining; parallel ILS monitor positions opening; etc. I evaluated the situation; and decided that there was a reasonable possibility that in-trail separation behind the E120 would be maintained; and at the very least; there was no safety hazard. There would definitely have been a safety issue had I vectored the A380 off the localizer; as there was one aircraft north of the A380 eastbound on a 'double-downwind' vector; with high MVAs in that area. Also; the increased workload of working the A380 in the pattern again; with the increased separation required for the A380; was unacceptable to me. I switched the A380 to the Tower frequency. Subsequently; the A380 went around. I am not sure if the go-around was initiated by the aircraft; Tower; or Parallel Monitor. It was just an unfortunate situation compounded by many factors that all occurred within a short period of time. Probably the only way to ensure that the situation does not occur again is to hold all aircraft outside of LAX arrival airspace until everything has been coordinated.
SCT Controller described a go around event by an A380 during a very complex early morning traffic situation when the traffic flow was being changed to the rarely used East operation.