airtraffic

Author Topic: Flint (FNT) Tower Fire - shortened audio clip  (Read 14437 times)

Offline StuSEL11

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Flint (FNT) Tower Fire - shortened audio clip
« on: March 26, 2010, 04:40:27 PM »
The following took place over the course of approximately 30 minutes between 9:30 and 10:00 A.M. local time at the Flint Bishop International Airport air traffic control tower. The evacuation's reasoning was referenced by a controller, who is heard in the following attachment, as "due to a fire alarm." The fire was legitimate, and there were no reported injuries according to Flint ABC affiliate WJRT (ABC 12).

The Flint Air Traffic Control Tower houses all controllers of the ATC positions beginning with Flint, including Flint Ground, Tower, and Departure/Approach. The radar room is located a floor beneath the tower cab, although I don't know which floors were affected by the fire.



Offline atcman23

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Re: Flint (FNT) Tower Fire - shortened audio clip
« Reply #1 on: March 26, 2010, 06:20:42 PM »
Very nicely done.  The Cessna at the end of the clip didn't get the idea that nobody is in the tower.

Offline StuSEL11

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Re: Flint (FNT) Tower Fire - shortened audio clip
« Reply #2 on: March 26, 2010, 06:44:58 PM »
The Cessna at the end of the clip didn't get the idea that nobody is in the tower.
Haha I felt bad listening to him. If I were in the situation, though, I probably also wouldn't know what to do. Looking over at the tower may have helped though; the controllers were filing out as the ARFF and Flint Fire crews came on scene  :-D.

Offline atcman23

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Re: Flint (FNT) Tower Fire - shortened audio clip
« Reply #3 on: March 27, 2010, 08:37:10 AM »
Well the clip was shortened, so we do not know how much time really passed between there.  However, since FNT has approach services, someone would have told him because the airspace was handed over to Cleveland Center and the airport essentially works like a non towered airport.  It sounds like he eventually started taxiing on his own.  Now whether or not he was being vectored by someone remains to be seen.

Offline StuSEL11

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Re: Flint (FNT) Tower Fire - unedited
« Reply #4 on: March 27, 2010, 12:54:33 PM »
Here's the full LiveATC archive recording. Everything in the shortened version was taken from this archived recording, which has a duration of about 32 minutes.
« Last Edit: March 27, 2010, 12:56:10 PM by StuSEL11 »

Offline VampyreGTX

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Re: Flint (FNT) Tower Fire - shortened audio clip
« Reply #5 on: March 29, 2010, 04:33:35 PM »
What happens to the airspace when the tower closes due to evac like this?  I heard them declare Class C services terminate was wondering what happens after that point?  It's never been something that I've run into or been taught in any of my prior training.

Offline aviator_06

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Re: Flint (FNT) Tower Fire - shortened audio clip
« Reply #6 on: March 31, 2010, 08:54:47 PM »
You would think they would have like an FBO or someone monitoring the tower/ground freq. letting inbound/outbound aircraft what was going on.

Offline StuSEL11

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Re: Flint (FNT) Tower Fire - shortened audio clip
« Reply #7 on: April 11, 2010, 10:27:28 PM »
What happens to the airspace when the tower closes due to evac like this?  I heard them declare Class C services terminate was wondering what happens after that point?  It's never been something that I've run into or been taught in any of my prior training.
The Class C services are terminated each evening at 11:30 PM and remains closed until 5:45 AM the next morning. Approach services are provided by a sector of Cleveland Center during that time period. This is essentially what happened the morning of the tower fire. Class C is still not in effect when Cleveland Center owns the airspace-- it becomes Class E at that point -- so it's up to pilots to exercise the ability to see and avoid and communicate on the CTAF frequency.

You would think they would have like an FBO or someone monitoring the tower/ground freq. letting inbound/outbound aircraft what was going on.
Yes, this does make a lot of sense. Quite frankly, they probably did hear the calls from the Cessna pilot holding short of what he thought was an active, controlled runway. I know they listen to LiveATC in the FBO, but they also have a transceiver. I know that one transceiver was made available for the controllers to use inside the temporary facility (which was at the time a parking lot bus that they stationed in the middle of the airport), and it may have been the transceiver from the FBO. If it wasn't in the emergency procedures for the tower, then the FBO really couldn't be held accountable, since it sounds as though all pilots on all Flint frequencies were notified of the emergency. This particular pilot missed the call, and seeing that he had called holding short of the active runway, he may have been doing a runup and was unable to hear the radio at the time.

According to the airport director, the administrative offices inside the tower have been reopened. Additionally, from the sounds of the Flint Approach frequency being active once again, it appears as though the radar room is back open. The airport director did say, however, that the controllers will not be able to use the tower cab for at least another 2-3 months.

The clearance delivery, ground control, and local (tower) control positions are being run out of a trailer very similar to what is used at Oshkosh during the EAA AirVenture Fly-In. The bus was replaced by that trailer after a few days. I do believe they're still running as an up-down facility, where controllers rotate shifts among what we consider the cab positions (DEL, GND, and TWR) and radar approach control. Maintenance vehicles are being used to shuttle the controllers back and forth.

For about a week after the fire, the controllers were only able to control Flint as a Class D facility because the radar room was, at the time, damaged, and Cleveland Center either can't or was unable to run Class C services. With the re-opening of the radar room, the field is now back to normal operations, although controllers are restricted to using the trailer for the DEL, GND, and TWR positions.