 |
37000 Feet | Browse and search NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System |
|
Tower controller described an equipment concern when a maintenance technician arrived in the tower; turned off the asde-X equipment with no verbal coordination; claiming the outage was 'scheduled.'
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1084282 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201304 |
| Local Time Of Day | 1201-1800 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZZZ.Airport |
| State Reference | US |
| Environment | |
| Light | Daylight |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | No Aircraft |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Local |
| Qualification | Air Traffic Control Fully Certified |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | ATC Issue All Types |
Narrative:
Event occurred during a fairly busy mid-morning traffic period; with over 20 aircraft in various stages of ground movement. A technical operations person turned off the asde-X equipment without any warning to any personnel in the tower. Both ground controllers; as well as myself were surprised to look up and see all both the asde-X scopes blank. When I asked the flm what was going on; he replied that he was unaware that the asde-X system was about to be turned off. When the technician who turned the system off was asked about it; his reply was 'the outage was scheduled.' whether the outage is scheduled or not; controllers need to be notified before equipment they're using is disabled.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: Tower Controller described an equipment concern when a Maintenance Technician arrived in the Tower; turned off the ASDE-X equipment with no verbal coordination; claiming the outage was 'scheduled.'
Narrative: Event occurred during a fairly busy mid-morning traffic period; with over 20 aircraft in various stages of ground movement. A Technical Operations person turned off the ASDE-X equipment without any warning to any personnel in the Tower. Both Ground controllers; as well as myself were surprised to look up and see all both the ASDE-X scopes blank. When I asked the FLM what was going on; he replied that he was unaware that the ASDE-X system was about to be turned off. When the Technician who turned the system off was asked about it; his reply was 'the outage was scheduled.' Whether the outage is scheduled or not; controllers need to be notified before equipment they're using is disabled.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.