Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT
General None Reported / Taken
Procedure; Human Factors
I was the CIC at ZZZ Tower and Approach Control. I was working the East RADAR position. ZZZ normally closes at midnight but on this evening; two arrivals were inbound due at midnight and the Center requested that I work the aircraft past normal closing hours which I did. This is fairly common as ZZZ has better RADAR; equipment and experience to handle multiple arrivals. I worked the 2 regional jets in and coordinated with the Center Controller that ILS 15 was the approach in use and that the two arrivals did pick up the visual approach. I also told the Center that the ILS Runway 33 was still 'NOTAMED OUT OF SERVICE' as it has been for some time. I did the closing broadcast and proceeded to finish the facility log and close the facility. Moments later; the Tower Controller called me on the phone and told me that he was having trouble getting the pilot controlled lighting to work. We switch our lighting panel over to pilot controlled when we close every night. I looked on the RADAR and saw Air Carrier X was about 20 miles south so I went immediately up to the Tower to try and help the Controller fix the lighting or at least set it on for the night for late arrivals knowing I had time to do it before the aircraft arrived. I got up to the Tower just as Air Carrier X was calling on the CTAF frequency; so I instructed the Tower Controller to answer and advise the pilot that we were having trouble with the pilot controlled lighting and we could set it to Step (3) or whatever the pilot wanted. The pilot said put it on high step (5) which we did. At this time; I noticed that the flight track of the DH8D was turning to the Southeast (away from the ILS 15 course) and level at 4;000 FT. Since the pilot was turning away from the airport and above the clouds (weather was rain and ceiling about 2;800 at the time); I attempted to reset the lighting panel and try to restore the pilot operated lighting. I was successful at this and pilot controlled lighting was restored. Air Carrier X was continuing to track Southeast and I was very concerned as the highest mountains are just 15 miles East/Southeast of the airport with some peaks above 4;000 FT. We tried to call the pilot on CTAF but got no response. When the DH8D continued through ZZZ's 3;700 MVA; I grabbed the ATIS handset and plugged into the Ground Control position and called the Center on the shout line. The Controller answered and I told him to climb the aircraft immediately as it was in high terrain and well below any MVA or safe IFR altitude. The Controller didn't react much so I told him twice more to climb the DH8D as it was previously close to terrain. About 10 seconds later the aircraft started to climb and got above the mountains. The MVA there was 5;400 FT and I think the Center's MVA is 6;400 FT. The DH8D had no idea how close a call they had last night. I reviewed the flight path today and it was frightening. I reviewed the voice tapes to confirm in my mind what happened. It was as I remembered. Some co-workers went on LiveATC and listened to the Center Controller and they said he approved Air Carrier X to do the unusable ILS 33 approach and never changed the altitude. If the pilot controlled lighting had not had a problem; who knows if we all would be seeing what happened last night on the news. Unfortunately safety issues at ZZZ and other facilities are increasing. With some controllers it is a frequent occurrence. What happened to personal responsibility and accountability?
Tower Controller described a below MVA event claiming controller personal responsibility is on the decline as well as accountability.