No Aircraft
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 9
Communication Breakdown
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Airport; Company Policy; Human Factors
During the morning Air National Guard F16 recovery; the overall Tucson airspace becomes significantly busier than most times of the day. You have multiple F16s returning to base; air carriers arriving and departing at a heavier pace; the adjacent Air Force base is full flow and the Air National Guard is beginning its second departure push of the day. This particular morning 5 different vehicles wanted to proceed on the main landing runway within minutes of each other; for a variety of task. There had been lulls in the morning; but now was the time all the vehicles felt was when they needed to get on the runway.There has been so many airport distractions on the movement area with the constant vehicle request and changes to changes to changes with a massive construction project on the airport I truly felt it was an unsafe time to put any vehicles on the runway; besides the obvious there was no way I could anyway with the steady flow of inbound traffic. For those not familiar with Tucson; the F16s and carriers would rather take runway 11L with a 20kt crosswind most times; then land the shorter runway21. Runway 11R is too narrow; 11L was the best option and the aircraft trying to land were priority. I told all the vehicles individually that it was a bad time and it was would be a few mins or a little while before I could get them out there. I cannot remember the exact wording. Within a 5 min period or less [9 different vehicles] all wanted to get on runway 11L for different task. [The maintenance vehicle] had gotten my attention for two reasons. One; he said he needed to inspect the runway. Maintenance vehicles don't do the runway inspections; the Ops vehicles do and we just did a runway inspection that took all morning. The second reason was the tone of frustration that I noticed when he had to wait. The FLM (Front Line Manager) on duty asked me to have him call the tower so that he could explain to him how busy we were and why it would take a few mins. Well above and beyond I thought. During the phone call I could hear the FLM having to explain why the F16s could not land runway 11R; that he could try to find out when the last one was coming in and it shouldn't take that long because were coming down to the end of the recovery. [The maintenance vehicle] told the FLM on the recorded phone line that 'he guesses he will just have to shut the runway down to get out there' or something to that effect. The FLM surprised by such a statement ended the courtesy phone call and referred [the maintenance vehicle] to operations. A few minutes later we did not receive any verbal coordination via landline or radio; but a fax happened to be noticed on the back printer. On it; the fax stated runway 11L would be closing in 1 minute and 35 seconds. I had a CRJ7 on a two mile final; and approach had a stream of aircraft inbound. The taxiways were flowing towards runway 11L and in less than two mins an outrageous amount of scrambling had to be done for just coordination. I was left with a choice of let the CRJ7 land and race the clock or send him around during a critical phase of flight for such a petty power play move of a maintenance vehicle. I chose to let him land. He beat the closure.It blows my mind that we went out of our way and have been bending over backwards accommodating the airport with their unorganized cluster of a construction project; all while working 6 day 10 hour work weeks with a severe staffing shortage and the first time they hear the answer no; or they have to wait; they put people's lives at risk with a power play move. And the fact it was allowed to happen on the airport operations side of the airport astounds me as well.[The maintenance worker] was able to do his inspection. They NOTAM closed the runway for 30 minutes. I was told on frequency if I didn't let them on the runway during the closure they would close the runway for an hour. They finished their inspection. The ironic part is less than an hourafter his inspection; a pilot reported a big piece of asphalt; roughly the size of a piece of SOD about 500 FT from where the maintenance vehicle was stationed during the closure. [The maintenance worker] needs to be held accountable for his irresponsible use of power. He endangered many people; and put multiple controllers in multiple facilities in very stressful complex workload situations with no notice.The airport has to care about the operation. I truly feel they do not care about how difficult they make our job as controller with their lengthy inspections and numerous calls a day leading into the late morning. Runway 11L especially is like a highway. There is non-stop fast moving traffic. I know TUS is a level 7; but during that time of the day; it is a fully functioning training air force base; mixed with air carriers and GA aircraft training. Working at TUS as an air traffic controller is like watching a sporting event where the referee is constantly involved and now instead of watching what should be a great thing; you have a third party just constantly distracting what should be the focus and getting in the way. That is what our airport authority is. That terrible referee. During any dayshift; I am willing to bet at LEAST 30% of radio calls are to an ops vehicle requesting access to a movement area for an extended period of time. I have gotten used to the distraction. What I worry about is landing an aircraft on them one day. I almost did less than a month ago around the same time of the day I am saying now. Every all day. Vehicles on runways at TUS. If you say no; check the fax machine.
TUS controller reported of a maintenance worker who abused his authority by closing an active runway during a period of high density traffic and complex operations.