No Aircraft
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 6
Workload; Situational Awareness; Communication Breakdown
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Vehicle
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance
Manuals; Procedure; Airport
As the Tower Controller In Charge I was notified that there was an inbound emergency. I call the ARFF (our fire/rescue/emergency line) from the Tower and passed all emergency information.First fire truck calls ground for permission to set up staging and was given instructions during heavy ground complexity traffic. Then another firetruck calls for further permission to move and stage. The Ground Controller had to clarify who was calling due to them possibly using/saying the wrong call sign along with a lot of ground traffic. This caused a lot of confusion and the Ground Controller had to do a lot of deciphering to ascertain who was who. Then a fire truck asked to cross Runway 20R and the Ground Controller gives permission to cross and the vehicle never crosses the runway and we (the controllers in the Tower cab) don't know if the runway is clear or not! Then Airport Command calls and wants to get permission to stage and follow the emergency aircraft.Per our SOP and agreement with the Fire Station; Airport Command is the only person who is supposed to communicate with Ground Control and coordinate the movement of emergency response vehicles and personnel. The fire trucks got confused; call signs got tangled; while all along Ground Control was not even supposed to be talking to any of the fire trucks; only Airport Command.I talked to the Fire Chief in charge of the situation and he said; and I quote; since I wrote down his responses:'We are training dispatchers and they didn't do what they are suppose too''The trucks didn't know I was behind them; sorry''It was a complete flub job on our part''It was not our best effort'This issue has been addressed and addressed by supervisors up the command chain and supposedly to the Fire Department.Nothing has changed.I have personally witnessed the same fiasco multiple times and go to my management expecting results since this is a safety issue.This is completely unsafe and the Ground Controller had way too much on his 'plate' especially all along having to deal with an issue that should be very clean; cut; dry and simple. So here are my recommendations.-Enforce the procedures with disciplinary action. Not briefings after another incident.-Give the controllers the ability to enforce the rules. Controllers will not authorize a Fire Truck to do anything. Airport Command will only be communicated with.-Come up with a pass/fail written test on the procedures.-Come up with a pass/fail On the Job Training (OJT) performance evaluation on procedures.-Arrange tours for both controllers and fire truck operators so that we can see what they do; and they can see what we do.I am not saying I know exactly what to do. But the next time a Fire Truck calls and they start screwing up the Ground Frequency someone is going to hurt or even worse; killed. This needs to be solved ASAP.
The Tower Controller reported that rescue/fire vehicles did not follow proper communication procedures during an emergency.