Plane with Michelle Obama had to abort landing because of mistake

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Washington Post

By Ashley Halsey III,

A White House plane carrying Michelle Obama came dangerously close to a 200-ton military cargo jet and had to abort its landing at Joint Base Andrews on Monday as the result of an air traffic controller’s mistake, according to federal officials familiar with the incident.

Ultimately controllers at Andrews feared the cargo jet would not clear the runway in time, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak for their agencies.

FAA officials confirmed that the first lady was aboard the plane but had no additional immediate comment. They expected to release a statement later Tuesday. The first lady’s office also had no immediate comment.

The Federal Aviation Administration, already dealing with a series of controversies involving controllers sleeping and watching a movie on the job, sent a team of investigators Tuesday to the Warrenton radar control center, where the mistake was made.


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/plane-with-michelle-obama-had-to-abort-landing-due-to-mistake/2011/04/19/AFsRLC7D_story.html?wpisrc=al_national

[virgogal]

1. Whew !

[Dennis Donovan]

2. It was a military tower personnel's mistake, not a civilian controller...

FWIW...:shrug:

[former9thward]

4. Where are you getting that from?

The mistake did not occur at Andrews.

[Dennis Donovan]

29. Yes it did - the plane was landing at Andrews...

Unless something has drastically changed, there's military personnel manning the control tower, and this was a clearance to land issue, made my the controlling tower at the airfield.

On edit - my bad - the incident was before the plane was handed off to Andrews tower, so you were correct...

[burrowowl]

37. I thought Andrews was Air Force Controllers

This seems SNAFU to me!

[burrowowl]

38. Looking up to see if it was a heavy jet if so

5 miles separation if not 3 mile. Look at 7110-165 Controller Manual

[Drunken Irishman]

3. Scary stuff! Glad everyone's safe.

[damntexdem]

5. Zzzzzz . . . Michelle who?

[liberal N proud]

6. A system that can't function properly thanks to cutting it to the bone

They have cut these positions to the bare minimum and now we are seeing the effect.

Thankfully there was no accident here.

[shanti]

7. somebody's ass on the line!

to be a fly on the wall :-O

[Corruption Winz]

8. Obviously, first things first.. thank goodness everyone is safe.

That being said, what is it with these people making mistakes lately? I mean, you'd think if you control and patrol these sorts of things, they'd make sure you had an attention for detail and the ability to stay up for the required hours.

If I was assigning people to these jobs, those two things might be the first thing I test for. Just me though. Call me crazy.

[jaysunb]

9. The hate never ends

check out this comment from a poster at the L.A. Times

So close..yet so far away..maybe next time we get lucky...

Posted by: Bolita | April 19, 2011 at 03:15 PM

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2011/04/michelle-obama-plane.html

[Plucketeer]

10. I could offer a pacifist remark, but...

I hope that poster (or someone close to him) has a "next time" event that scores. :grr:

[jaysunb]

13. Karma can be a bitch...

or so they say. :shrug:

BTW, as much as I disliked every aspect of GWB, I never felt any ill will for Mrs Bush or their children.

[TheDebbieDee]

22. I felt lots of ill will for ALL of the * family........I even hated the dog!

The * daughters were drunken sluts! Laura was an unrepentant murderer. The dogs shat all over the Whitehouse! I could go on but my blood pressure is going up just remembering those repuke rubes!

[jaysunb]

24. Easy Dee,easy...

:rofl:

[truthisfreedom]

12. Not that different from DU comments about laura bush.

Especially with regard to her car crash.

[jaysunb]

14. You're right

and I made a habit of upbraiding those that stooped that low.

see my post above.

[Drunken Irishman]

15. I've never had a problem with Laura Bush...

Well except her fashion sense and taste in men.

But other than that, I was indifferent to her. Certainly I would never wish death on her - or anyone for that matter.

[IamK]

20. similar to posts on DU.....

about GWB, Limbaugh, Cheney, Palin, Beck, Laura B etc. etc etc.... Nuts everywehere.... Everytime Cheney is in the hospital this place erupts with "Hope...." posts.... sad but very true...

[jwirr]

11. Who is overseeing the controllers. They need to speak out and

tell us what is happening that so many of them are suddenly having problems before someone gets killed. Thank God they did the right thing here. She would have been a terrible lose to her family and the nation.

[Corgigal]

16. It's called being given a "deal"

The controllers in the tower at Andrews recognized that the massive C-17 and the Obama flight, designated EXEC1F, a classification for a plane carrying members of the president’s family, were far too close when the Warrenton controller handed off responsibility for the two aircraft


This isn't the military controllers mistake, this is the center mistake who allowed these two aircraft too close to begin with. They tried to get spacing which is why Obama plane was given S turns. When it wasn't enough the Andrew controllers issued a "go around". They did the job well. Ten miles separation was needed and they had less.

[Aviation Pro]

28. I was an instructor at Riddle (KDAB)....

...when the pilot of AF1 had to do S turns to get the damn thing down to Vref for 7L. No problems with the landing (anyone who knows about the trucks of a 74 understands), but it was interesting to see that event.

The only bad part was seeing who emerged from the aircraft: 2Shoes McFuckstick.

[regnaD kciN]

17. Probably just a routine "go-around"...

In this case, "dangerously close" likely meant that the cargo plane hadn't cleared the runway while the Obama plane was a mile or so off. :boring:

ON EDIT: Obviously, I was wrong...it wasn't one mile, it was ten. :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring:

[itsrobert]

19. You're right. Routine

just the press being idiots and people believing everything they print.

[boppers]

23. Slow news day.

I heard four miles, but same difference.

[mt1000]

18. did an 'insider' call the Wash. Post??

Did this whole thing happen without fanfare and then someone in the tower or in the cockpit call the Washington Post to tip them off?
It seems like a whistleblower was at work here .... my opinion.

It will be interesting to see if the story of how the story got to the Post comes out.

[itsrobert]

21. Unrecommending. Routine, 10 miles a way is not dangerously close

let's get real.

[LuckyLib]

25. And go arounds are not that uncommon. The pilots knew what to do and did it.

[Dennis Donovan]

30. It was 3 miles, and in fast aircraft, 3 miles seperation can make all the difference in the world...

I rec'd to undo your unrec...

[mt1000]

31. 3 miles not 10

It was a dangerous situation. 10 miles was the correct separation but they missed that by 70% due to screw up. A potential disaster.

[PavePusher]

33. Concerning? Yes.

Imminent danger? Meh. Someone is attempting to make a teacup of tempest.

[eqfan592]

35. 10 miles?? Not even close!

The "correct" separation if the controller was providing it was 5 miles, but if the aircraft reported the C-17 in sight and was then cleared for a visual approach and instructed to follow the C-17 (which I'm willing to bet is EXACTLY what happened here) then the PILOT at that point is responsible for the separation, not the controller. All the controller would have to do after this is issue a cautionary wake turbulence advisory.

This entire thing is the result of a media that knows very little of what is involved in air traffic control speaking to a general public that knows even less. The media's assuming that it was clearly ATC error because they managed to figure out the 5 mile rule without bothering to go any further in depth into what is involved in clearing a plane for a visual approach.

This all does assume that they were vectoring for the visual, and judging by the weather that day for most of the day at Andrews, that is distinctly probable.

[lib2DaBone]

26. Bust the Unions... Reduce Traffic Controllers to Minimum wage...

and make them work 90 hours a week. I'm sure conditions will improve.

[Merlot]

27. I get the feeling that these ATC stories are gearing up for that very thing

raygun redux.

[BlueIris]

32. Way to *scare the crap* out of me.

((((( FLOTUS )))))

[alfredo]

34. Foix News Reported it as "Michelle Obama has an abortion."

[burrowowl]

36. Actually , this was NOT under the FAA

but Air Force Controller responsibility!!!!
Goes to show that neither thr press knows anything and that military controllers are better know for getting planes to meet, like in dog fights!