Small Aircraft
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Time Pressure; Workload; Troubleshooting; Situational Awareness; Human-Machine Interface; Distraction; Confusion; Communication Breakdown
ATC Issue All Types; Airspace Violation All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Airspace Structure; Procedure
I was working local east when the TRACON handed me off Aircraft X. I took the hand off thinking he was another helicopter that would be northwest of the field. On my initial radio transmission to Aircraft X I told him to report on station where he would be working today. Aircraft X started his bug spraying in his location that he said (3 miles nw of the field). All was going well until I noticed he was moving further south than I had planned. I asked Aircraft X how much further south he was planning on flying and he said 'no further than here. Just over here by this landing area.' I just said 'roger'. I had no traffic for him. I wasn't too concerned. Then I noticed I lost radar contact with him. I keyed up and said 'Aircraft X radar contact lost' there was no reply. I kept trying to get a hold of him and I was getting concerned. I told my supervisor what was going on and we looked up the company who owned that aircraft and called them. The company did not answer the first time. We called our admin staff and no one knew about him; supposedly; even operating in bravo airspace. Our supervisor let 30 minutes go by before we were going to call search and rescue.We tried the aircrafts company again and got a hold of someone. She said she would have the pilot contact us immediately. The pilot of Aircraft X called the tower and he was fine; but it turned out he was a fixed wing aircraft and he landed on a dirt road in the bravo surface area. We; in the tower; had no idea this was going to happen. The pilot claims that our admin staff was notified 3 days prior to this happening; but no one put out a read and initial on this whole operation. So now we have a fixed wing aircraft departing into bravo airspace multiple times an hour with no official bravo clearance right next to a busy perpendicular runway and management is telling us it's not a big deal. No one was aware of any of this. I have worked at SLC for many years and have never seen this operation with a fixed wing aircraft or even heard of it happening in any other bravo airspace in the country. There has already been a discussion about it after the fact; but no one knows the rules and procedures on how to work this aircraft correctly. In the meantime this Aircraft X is just departing in bravo airspace on his own off some dirt road just west of the airport. Our management team and admin staff needs to pass important information on to the operation.
SLC Local Controller reported a fixed wing aircraft landed on a dirt road in the Bravo airspace surface area. The Controller had no prior information that the aircraft would be landing.