SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- Air traffic controllers in a major East Bay control center Wednesday were forced to use personal mobile phones to guide dozens of airplanes when the communications system crashed for several minutes.
Controller Scott Conde told KCBS he was in front of a radar screen at the Oakland Center in Fremont last week when half the facility lost landline and radio communications.
"I was working all of the aircraft over the central valley of California 23,000 feet or below and I couldn't talk to any of them, nor could I talk to any of the other facilities," said Conde.
KCBS’ Mark Seelig Reports
He and his co-workers quickly reached for cell phones and started communicating with other controller stations to make sure the plans were where they were supposed to be.
"We now have airplanes spinning in circles because they can't come into our airspace. they don't see the other airplanes that are that far out and they have no idea what's wrong with us," said Conde.
Controllers at the center are responsible for guiding airplanes over nearly 19 million square miles before handing them off to other controllers for landing approaches in the region.
FAA Spokesman Mike Fergus said these controllers did what they were trained to do and used emergency lines to communicate while the radios were down.
"That causes an extra workload for other traffic controllers but you don't give them any more than what can reasonably be handled within the safety envelope. So we had a big inconvenience for our controllers there may have been some delays in there but safety was not on the table," said Fergus.
He says talks with AT&T are ongoing to make sure this doesn't happen again.
E-Mail Story
Print Story
DW.pageParams = {
siteId: '255'
};
DW.clear();
DW.trackClicks();
