Local Air Traffic Control Union President Explains What Happened During Power Outage
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A power problem at the Miami Terminal Radar Approach Control created a virtual 'no fly' zone over South Florida.
Just before noon the FAA issued a ground stop at several airports including Miami International Airport and Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport due to the radar problem.
We are now hearing what happened inside the control tower when the lights went out.
A power outage shut down all the radars, effectively freezing dozens of flights in the air and on the ground.
ATC1: "Can you hear me?"
ATC2: "I just lost all the radar. That was American 1130 correct?"
In spite of outage in the tower, there was calm over the radio.
ATC1: "If you can go back to your previous frequency at the center, actually say your position first American."
PILOT: "1130 is about four and a half miles south."
ATC 2: "American 1130, thank you. We just lost everything maintain 8,000 for now and continue on the arrival. Report when you are 10SW of Miami international."
Bill Kisseadoo, the president of the National Air Traffic Control Association local union, says this is what the men and women who work in this tower are trained to do.
"It's not ideal, but it wasn't dangerous and everyone kept track of the airplanes that they had and kept the airplanes separated from other airplanes," he said.
Kisseadoo says they had to go to a backup communication system, which can create some difficulty in communicating depending on the distance and the altitude of the airplane. Top that with the fact that the backup generator didn't immediately go online and had to be manually put online.
"When they lost communication systems we have backup systems and also the radar systems that went down they were down temporarily but we were able to communicate with those planes and keep them safe during that outage," he said.
Just before 12:30 p.m. the FAA began allowing departures and arrives at a limited pace. By 1 p.m. all of the radar installations were up and running and operations returned to normal.
Six flights to Miami International Airport and eight flights to Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport diverted to other airports during the outage.
As for what caused the outage, that is still unknown.
