ZTL

Feel the Intensity of Air Traffic Control!

Makes A Great Gift!

ATLANTA AIR ROUTE TRAFFIC CONTROL CENTER – 10:15 A.M. / 1415Z

Several lights were flashing on the Systems Engineer’s console. A warning tone that coincided with the flashing of one series of lights beeped loudly, quickly catching the attention of Systems Technician Darrell White. The other flashing lights didn’t bother Darrell as much as the ones with the warning tone. By the time Darrell had risen from his chair and made it over to the display console, one of the telephones on the wall panel had started to ring, indicating a call from outside the facility. The other technician on duty, Wade Griffin, grabbed the telephone from its cradle and answered the call as he walked over to where Darrell was standing.
“Atlanta Center Systems Engineer, Griffin speaking.”
“Hi Wade. This is Ben Harrison at Southern Power. We’ve got an awful mess over here with these power spikes and outages. Did you guys receive any power interruptions?”
“Funny you should call, Ben. We just now are getting several warnings on the computer.”
Wade nodded as Darrell pointed to the display screen, both acknowledging what the display was saying.
“Is there any way that you can switch over to back-up power until we get this thing straightened out?” Ben asked. “You know I can’t ask you to unless it’s an emergency. I can only advise you about…about switching over,” Ben added with a hint of nervousness in his voice.
“Actually, Ben,” Wade said with a smile, knowing where this conversation was headed. “Darrell and I were discussing that earlier today when the first power failure hit parts of the Hampton area.”
“Well, I would suggest that you guys consider coming off of commercial power until we get this thing straightened out,” Ben firmly said. “From the looks of things and from what the weather forecast is saying, if you guys do switch over to back-up power, you may be on it until sometime late this evening. It is so hot that every air conditioner from here to Chattanooga is running, so electricity demand is off the charts. I haven’t seen anything like this in a few years.”
“OK, Ben. Consider us switching over to back-up battery and generator power sometime in the next hour. From the warnings we are getting, it looks like the power supply is unstable anyway. Since a part of Hampton has already gone down, it looks like the best course of action.”
“OK…OK, thanks Wade. I’ll be in touch if something else happens or the situation changes for the better.”
Wade and Ben finished the call. After hanging up the telephone, Wade walked back to Darrell.
“We never should have told Ben those telephone calls were recorded,” Wade said laughing. “Man, he gets so nervous when he wants us to switch over to back-up.”
Darrell looked over at Wade, a serious look on his face. “You had better let the Area Manager know that we’re going to have to switch over. From what these readings are saying, we’re very close to losing commercial power. In fact, I’m not too sure we can get the generators going in time.”
Even though there were several railroad car size batteries to take over in case of total electrical failure, sudden power interruptions or power spikes occasionally caused the main air traffic computer to trip off line. Though the back-up computer would still work, the processors for the main computer sometimes took several minutes to fully come back on line. Because of this, controllers and traffic management specialists would occasionally put in restrictions that would cause slowdowns or disruptions in the movement of air traffic until normal computer operations were restored.
Whenever one of the systems that they were responsible for went down, the Systems Technicians would have to fill out several forms and action reports to account for the air traffic delays, many of the forms having questions asking why pre-emptive action wasn’t taken. Darrell and Wade’s supervisors were never happy when their people or their systems were responsible for air traffic delays. They too, would have to fill out additional reports and respond to telephone conferences when Washington called, grumbling about the complaints they received from the airlines and other users of the air traffic system.
Hopefully, by deciding and acting quickly, Darrell and Wade would stop any chance of that happening.

ZTL – 10:25 A.M. / 1425Z

Harrison Rusk quickly went up the stairs to the main level. Walking outside, the stifling heat and humidity hit him when he opened the door. On the walkway that led to where the unit was located, Harrison could tell there was a big problem when he spotted the blue smoke that hung over the area.
Lee Thayer was standing near the exhaust screens by one of the big cooling fans, smoking a cigarette, the look on his face showing disgust.
“What happened, Lee?” Harrison asked as he walked up to where Lee was standing.
“Do you remember when I sent in the requisition request for the new electrical transfer switches for this thing three months ago?”
Harrison brought his hand up and rubbed his forehead.
“Don’t tell me…” he said, his voice trailing off.
“Yep…you guessed it. The one for fan number three is fried…totally fried. That last power spike sent a surge through the wiring and just melted the switch. When it tripped, it knocked all three fans off line.”
Harrison Rusk looked at the giant twenty by twenty, fifteen foot high, cube shaped industrial capacity air conditioning unit. It’s three; eight foot high cooling fans were silent, one mechanically frozen in place.
A number of thoughts quickly went though Harrison’s mind as he tried to find a quick solution. It was bad enough that the area was having power problems brought on by the tremendous demand for power on this hot day. But the loss of the air conditioning unit, the loss of the humidity control was going to lead to different problems altogether.
“This afternoon is going to be a real bear…a real bear,” Harrison repeated several times.

ZTL AREA 6 – 10:30 A.M. / 1430Z

“Atlantic one oh seven, descend and maintain flight level two four zero. Maintain speed two eight zero knots,” Controller Ralph Block radioed.
Working the “Rocket” high altitude sector, Ralph worked on his sequence of aircraft that was headed in to the Atlanta area. Looking to the northwest, Ralph could see that Memphis Center was starting to vector several other aircraft in order to provide the extra spacing that was requested earlier.
“Transways fifteen twenty, Atlanta Center, good morning. Expect lower in two minutes.”
Looking toward the Birmingham area on his radarscope, Ralph noticed that, what was a short time ago just scattered thunderstorm cells, those cells now to appeared to be merging into a solid, north-south line. What concerned Ralph the most, was that they also appeared that they were becoming more intense.
“Atlantic ten, descend and maintain flight level two four zero…Atlantic thirty fourteen, reduce speed to two eight zero…Transways fifteen twenty, reduce speed to two eight zero, then descend and maintain …Universal sixty two, contact Atlanta Center on…”
Ralph alternated between looking at the radar scope and reaching over to write on the flight progress strips, also listening to each clearance read-back. As he leaned over toward the strips, he caught something out of the corner of his eye. Quickly returning his attention to the radarscope, Ralph stared at the display for several seconds. Not noticing anything unusual, Ralph continued.
“Universal three nineteen, Atlanta Center good morning…Transways forty seven, descend and maintain…”
As Ralph listened to the pilots respond, he noted their progress on the “Rome” Arrival into Atlanta. With a slight break in-between radio transmissions, Ralph reached up, took off his reading glasses and rubbed his left eye. Noticing that he was starting to feel a dull headache, Ralph figured that it was due to the eyestrain he had started to feel more often since changing over to a slightly stronger prescription.
There it was again.
Ralph put his glasses back on and stared at the radarscope.
“I swear my radarscope just flickered,” he said out loud.

ATLANTIC AIRLINES 801 – 10:40 A.M. / 1440Z

After responding to the controller’s call, Co-pilot Barry Riggs returned his attention to the hydraulic quantity gauge. Of the two hydraulic systems on board the aircraft, System-A was showing just over a full gallon less than it did when the B737-500 was on the ground in St. Louis.
“It seems to be holding steady,” Captain Ryan Garret said. “I’ve hit the quantity test button twice, and it returns right to three and a half gallons. I know for a fact that it was at four point seven gallons as we were taxiing out and doing the before take-off checklist.”
“Wouldn’t it show a difference once the gear was stowed?” Barry asked. “Maybe the pressure difference between being on the ground and in the air would show a difference.”
“Yeah, there would be a difference in pressure, but not quantity,” Ryan said, his voice sounding somewhat concerned. “We’re going to have to keep and eye on it.”
As the B737’s auto-pilot responded to the commands that Ryan had entered, the two pilots returned to their investigation of their possible problem with their hydraulic system, while the one hundred and three passengers and four flight attendants in the cabin settled in for the scheduled one hour and forty five minute flight to Atlanta.

ZTL AREA 6 – 11:33 A.M. / 1533Z

Traffic, as well as tensions were building rapidly in Area 6. The uncomfortable conditions were now being exacerbated by several isolated thunderstorms that were building in the Atlanta area. Though the main line of thunderstorms was still far enough to the west, the isolated cells that had formed around the area was causing most of the inbound aircraft on the Rome arrival to deviate. Jackie had wanted to send several of his controllers out on short breaks, but traffic condition had stopped him from being able to do so. Traffic in the “Rocket” and “Dalas” arrival sectors had increased as the noon arrival rush of Atlantic Airlines traffic had arrived.
Jackie looked at Alan as he spoke. His face color had changed from being flushed, to a near white paleness. Still though he did look uncomfortable and said that he was feeling OK, it didn’t appear that he was sweating or was nauseated like some of the others in the Area. Jackie turned and walked out of Area 6 and headed to the Watch Desk, making a mental note to relieve Alan from the sector as soon as he returned.
Suddenly, Jackie heard what sounded like a scream come from behind him. Turning to look up the aisle toward Area 6, Jackie saw one of the Area controllers coming out into the walkway, a shocked look on his face.
“JACKIE! COME HERE, QUICK!”
Jackie ran up the aisle.
“It’s Alan!” the controller said as they approached.
Turning the corner, a wave of shock went through Jackie when he spotted Alan Douglas lying on the floor.

ATLANTIC 801 – 11:34 A.M. / 1534Z

“So far, it looks like if we stay pretty much on the arrival, we’ll stay east of the weather,” Ryan said.
“Yeah…looks like there’s one building just about…just east of Rome that might cause some problems,” Barry added.
A few seconds of silence went by as each pilot made his own evaluation of the weather ahead.
“Atlantic eight oh one, descend and maintain flight level two four zero…maintain two seven zero knots for spacing.”
After responding to the instructions from Atlanta Center, Ryan reached back and pulled his shoulder harness over his chest and inserted the tabs into his lap belt.
“Approach checklist, please,” he said after Barry had done the same with his shoulder harness.
As both pilots went over the checklist, and planned ahead for their descent and landing in Atlanta, a rubber O-ring for the engine driven pump that pressurized Hydraulic System-A, broke away from its housing.