Behind The Airplane

When everything in the IFR system works as it should, it can be a beautiful thing: Pilots coordinating with controllers to ensure safe, orderly flow of traffic to and from an airport, controllers anticipating a pilot’s needs and granting their every request. Everyone knows their role, and they take pride in doing their jobs with precision and professionalism. But when things aren’t working as they should, it can get ugly.

Editorial Staff

Tuesday, September 16, 2014 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Pilots must maintain skepticism and be prepared to question or refuse ATC clearances that could compromise safety, as controllers can make errors or be distracted.
A fatal accident involving a Cirrus SR22 demonstrated the consequences of accepting a late and high approach clearance, leading to the pilot's spatial disorientation and loss of control.
The NTSB determined the probable causes included the pilot's loss of control and spatial disorientation, contributed to by deficient approach control services and the pilot's loss of positional awareness, underscoring the shared responsibility of pilots and controllers to maintain situational awareness and act prudently.

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The ugliness can result from many factors: Thunderstorms sitting over an approach gate; an emergency; a runway closure; too much traffic; too few controllers. Sometimes, though, there’s just too much stress, or a bad attitude, on one side of the transaction. That’s when the other person has to step up and pay extra-close attention to what’s going on. It may be someone has to refuse a request or clearance, or otherwise interrupt the transaction to ensure safety is maintained.