Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

FAA blames radio silence on series of problems

By JEAN HELLER
Published April 19, 2005

TAMPA - The problem that disrupted tower and aircraft communications Saturday at Tampa International Airport had three causes, the Federal Aviation Administration said Monday.

First came a service failure by the Tampa Electric Co., then a cable failure, then a leaking backup generator that didn't have enough propane to cover the first two problems.

Incoming radio communications went down for about half an hour, resulting in some minor flight delays. But, the FAA says, no plane was in any danger.

"It was definitely a string of circumstances," Jim Peters, an FAA spokesman, said Monday. "But there are procedures for these things, and procedures were followed, and there was no danger."

Saturday afternoon, a problem within Tampa Electric'sservice lines to the receiver side of the FAA's tower radio system caused the fuses to pop.

An emergency generator kicked in, but controllers did not know it because a light in the tower that would have alerted them to the fact they were on backup power never went on.

"A contractor cut some cables in February, and we thought they were all fixed, but obviously, somebody missed one," Peters said.

Compounding the first two problems, the generator had a leak no one knew about, and quickly ran out of fuel.

At that point, the receiver side of the radio system went down. Pilots could hear transmissions from controllers, but controllers couldn't hear pilots.

Controllers immediately went to a backup radio system and stopped all takeoffs from TIA.

They alerted the regional air traffic control center at Jacksonville to stop air traffic from entering Tampa's airspace.

Less than 30 minutes after service went out, controllers in the arrivals and departures radar room realized that several regular radio frequencies were still working and began using them. Only ground controllers remained on the backup system.

"At that point, all operations were normal except that controllers and pilots weren't using the radio frequencies they normally use," Peters said.

The problem that began at 1:35 p.m. with Tampa Electric was fixed at 8:17 p.m. The severed cable and the leaking generator were repaired Monday.

"All told, it looks at if the impact of the problem amounted to 17 arrival delays Saturday averaging no more than 15 minutes each," Peters said.

[Last modified April 19, 2005, 01:19:14]