Narrative:

I was training a developmental on the local control position at the time of the incident. We were working on speed adjustments for final to keep standard separation on final approach. During this session we pretty much had to issue speed adjustments to everyone on final because of compression at the outer marker. The final controller was frequency switching the aircraft 25 NM away from the airport. Each aircraft on final were slowing down differently; B737 was on final behind a B767. We told the B767 to keep his speed up as long as he could and we began to slow the B737. Unfortunately the B767 slowed too quickly and B737 did not slow quick enough so we had to send around the B737 because of wake turbulence separation behind the heavy. Since newark ATC is mandated to review all go arounds when wake turbulence is a factor; the supervisor reviewed the tapes. I was told on break that a review of this go around indicated that separation had been lost before we had sent the aircraft around. We listened to the tapes and video replay of the incident and the supervisor determined that we were 5 seconds too late on the go around call to the B737 which caused the aircraft to be with in 4.9 NM behind the heavy when 5 NM is required. As we listened to the tapes; 10 seconds before separation lost; an aircraft had called us on the 25 NM final and was preventing us from transmitting the go around instructions to the B737. We communicated as soon as this aircraft unkeyed his mic. Compression on final created a heavy workload on local controllers. The final controller was switching aircraft too far out and causing frequency congestion. Aircraft calling on 25 NM final was blocking us from telling the B737 to go around.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: EWR local controller experienced loss of separation event when go around instructions to a B737 following a B767 were late because of reported frequency congestion and procedural issues.

Narrative: I was training a developmental on the local control position at the time of the incident. We were working on speed adjustments for final to keep standard separation on final approach. During this session we pretty much had to issue speed adjustments to everyone on final because of compression at the outer marker. The final Controller was frequency switching the aircraft 25 NM away from the airport. Each aircraft on final were slowing down differently; B737 was on final behind a B767. We told the B767 to keep his speed up as long as he could and we began to slow the B737. Unfortunately the B767 slowed too quickly and B737 did not slow quick enough so we had to send around the B737 because of wake turbulence separation behind the heavy. Since Newark ATC is mandated to review all go arounds when wake turbulence is a factor; the supervisor reviewed the tapes. I was told on break that a review of this go around indicated that separation had been lost before we had sent the aircraft around. We listened to the tapes and video replay of the incident and the supervisor determined that we were 5 seconds too late on the go around call to the B737 which caused the aircraft to be with in 4.9 NM behind the heavy when 5 NM is required. As we listened to the tapes; 10 seconds before separation lost; an aircraft had called us on the 25 NM final and was preventing us from transmitting the go around instructions to the B737. We communicated as soon as this aircraft unkeyed his mic. Compression on final created a heavy workload on local controllers. The Final Controller was switching aircraft too far out and causing frequency congestion. Aircraft calling on 25 NM final was blocking us from telling the B737 to go around.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.