Irish Air Traffic Controller Texts A Plane Through Landing
August 12, 2008 (3 Responses)
AS INSANE as this might sound, it emerged today that an Irish air traffic controller managed to talk down text down a plane in distress into a safe landing at Cork airport when all computer systems onboard the plane had failed.
The incident in question happened last November (2007). The twin-engined Piper plane lost all onboard electrical power, communications and weather radar soon after take-off from Kerry airport on November 7th last and was in distress. The pilot, thinking quickly it has to be said, started phoning airports from his cell phone looking for someone to take him seriously and talk him down.
The only problem with this approach is that the reception on his cell phone was intermittent, and so when he eventually got put through to an air traffic controller in Cork the signal kept dropping and his call consequently kept crashing.
Still, that pilot’s karma must have been with him because the quick thinking controller in the tower in Cork airport realised what was happening and reverted to using SMS text messages to the pilot instead to talk him through approach and landing, using a direct radar fix on the plane and a visual confirmation of the ‘wheels down’ on a fly-by before finally giving the pilot the ‘go’ order to land.
Pretty impressive isn’t it? 
To quote directly from the air accident investigator, John Hughes:
“In this incident the positive and proactive initiative of the ATC controller, who, on realising that mobile audio communication from the pilot was intermittent, quickly switched to texting his instructions instead. This contributed to the safe resolution of the incident and, for such, the controller should be commended for his actions.”
Fair play to the pilot for using his cell phone in the first place, but serious props to the air traffic controller in Cork for thinking on his feet and using SMS messages to get the pilot and his passengers down in one piece. I reckon that controller will be living on free pints for a few years on the back of this story!
My Dad was a controller years ago. It’s a good thing they didn’t have to depend on him to text. He can barely figure out how to use the email and the Google.
This is a great story. It’s good to know there are people who think so quickly on their feet in a time of emergency. I wonder how it happened that all the plane’s electrical systems went offline though.
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