THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 9, 1997 TAG: 9702090094
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST
LENGTH: 82 lines
Two F-16 fighter jets were advised of other aircraft traffic in a restricted military area as they began maneuvers off the New Jersey coast Wednesday, but were not told specifically that a civilian airliner had been given permission to transit the zone, air-traffic-control voice tapes show.
A Navy air-traffic controller, from the Navy Fleet Area Control Surveillance Facility at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach, authorized the two military planes to begin their training exercise before the Nations Air Express flight had cleared the restricted zone. That led a civilian controller to demand that the F-16s stay away from the civilian airliner.
``You're supposed to keep . . . your guy away from mine, and it's not looking like it's working that way,'' a controller at the Federal Aviation Administration's New York air-traffic-control center told his Navy counterpart at the Virginia Beach control center, nicknamed ``Giantkiller.''
The transcript of radio communications between control centers and with the F-16s indicates growing confusion as one of the F-16s eased up behind the Nations Air charter. The Nations Air pilot, warned of the approaching plane by an electronic alert system, took unusually sharp evasive action, throwing two flight attendants and a passenger to the floor.
Part of the confusion was over whether the military pilots - one an instructor, the other a student - were fully informed of the presence of the civilian plane. The transcript shows they were told of ``working traffic'' but were not told about the Nations Air jet, where it was located or where it was going until after the F-16 instructor had begun closing in on it.
The Air Force suspended flight operations in coastal warning areas after a second reported incident Friday when an American Eagle commuter pilot told controllers that four F-16s passed near him off the Maryland coast.
It appeared that no aircraft were in danger in either incident, but the National Transportation Safety Board has begun an investigation. The agency will interview pilots and controllers and will review radar and voice tapes as well as the 727's flight data recorder.
The air-traffic-control transcript, which does not contain communications with the Nations Air plane, suggests an element of miscommunication that is likely to be a primary area of concern.
Civilian aircraft are free to fly through large zones of airspace reserved for military training - known as warning areas - until the military informs the FAA that the zones are needed for maneuvers.
According to the transcript, the Navy controller informed civilian controllers at 1:34 p.m. that he was activating the warning area.
A controller at the FAA's Washington Center in Leesburg, which was controlling the Nations Air plane and a United Parcel Service jet in the area, informed the Navy controller that the commercial planes were approaching the military zone.
Two minutes later, the Navy controller and the FAA's New York center, which had assumed control of the two commercial planes, worked out an arrangement to have them pass through the area before it was closed to all but military planes.
At 1:38 p.m. came a transmission from the Navy controller to the F-16s that will be a key focus of the investigation: ``Smash one-one (the F-16 instructor's call sign), in the area, radar services are terminated, maneuver at pilot's discretion, altimeter above 5,000 two niner niner two, working traffic, monitor Giantkiller on guard, common area frequency three three seven decimal two two, Giantkiller requires five minute note prior to RTB (return to base).''
With those words, the controller authorized the F-16s to begin maneuvers and, with the phrase ``working traffic,'' gave them their first hint that other planes might be nearby. He did not identify the commercial planes or give their positions.
Only 5 1/2 minutes later, after a civilian air traffic controller complained that the military jets were too close to the Nations Air flight, did the Navy specifically tell the F-16 pilots that a Boeing 727 was in the area. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by ASSOCIATED PRESS
Crews work on an Air National Guard F-16 fighter jet Saturday.
Friday, the Air Force suspended all flights in restricted training
areas on the East Coast after two close calls between military jets
and commercial planes this past week.
KEYWORDS: F-16 U.S. NAVY