The plane carrying the first lady, a military version of a Boeing 737, was three miles behind the C-17, but was to be five miles behind, because of the possibility to meet with the cargo aircraft wake turbulence. The aircraft were too close because of an error by a civilian air traffic controller at a control centre of low elevation in Virginia, according to a representative of the Government participated in response to the incident. But the official described the event as "routine".
The controller in Virginia, transmission the aircraft approaching the control of Andrews tower controllers, to provided first erroneous to justify the distance separating the two plans, saying they were four miles apart, when in fact the gap had closed three milesthe official said.
An attempt to spread the aircraft apart, controllers ordered the plane carrying Mrs. Obama of maneuver in turn wide as the letter S, as would a skier to avoid to come in another too quickly from behind.
But that wasn't enough, and Andrews tower controllers finally ordered the Boeing for "everyone" because they feared that the jet of the cargo would not have time to ask, to slow down and leave the runway on a traffic routebefore the passenger aircraft crossed the runway threshold. This problem occur tens of times a day with aircraft at civilian airports in the country, according to aviation experts.
The incident occurred shortly after 5 pm on Monday, the F.A.A. said in a statement, adding that "the plane was never in danger." The Agency said in its statement that the problem was controller error.
The incident was for the first time on the site Web of the Washington Post.
Airliners are sometimes running "handed over" because a pilot in the cockpit judges that the aircraft in front does not clear the runway earlier; in this case, it was controllers Andrews Tower ordered the plane carrying Mrs. Obama for everyone. Although Andrews is a military area, all the controllers involved in this incident were used F.A.A..
"Alternatives Go" follow statutory procedures that give the direction of turn and the altitude at which the plan should climb.
Following a large aircraft such as C-17 too closely is considered as particularly risky at low altitude when the upheaval would be more likely to lead to a crash. In this case, the altitude of the 737 was not immediately clear, but it is more than three miles from the runway threshold, because it is more than three miles behind the jettisoning of the cargo and the cargo plane had not yet reached the runway, according to the representative of the Government.
In this case the aerial choreography was not unusual, this is after several weeks of large-scale problems in the air traffic system, which began in the Washington area.
On 23 March, the single controller in the tower at the airport service National Ronald Reagan, in Virginia, the River Potomac Andrews, fell asleep at his post, and two aircraft arrivals were unable to communicate with him. The two landed in any way. The controller service International of Reno-Tahoe in Nevada airport also failed to respond to the calls of an incoming aircraft last week. And on Thursday, the official in charge of the air traffic control, Henry P. Krakowski, Chief of the Air Traffic Organization the Agency operations, has resigned.
At the time, the administrator of the F.A.A., j. Randolph Babbitt, said: "the last few weeks we have seen examples of non-professional conduct on the part of a few individuals that have rightly caused the travelling public to question our ability to ensure their safety." This conduct must cease immediately. ?
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