From IOL: Sleepy ATC keeps plane waiting in mid-air
“Sydney - A Qantas airliner carrying 68 passengers was forced to circle over the Australian capital Canberra for 20 minutes because an air traffic controller overslept, a report said on Thursday.”
The whole idea of a major commercial airport’s control tower being unmanned surprised me.
That said, living in a country where the aviation rules are little bit lax (JAT - Yugoslav Airlines - pilots went on strike because of poor aircraft maintenance) I have come to see some scary behaviour.
Few planes fly into Belgrade and all the pilots, crews, air traffic controllers and other airport staff know each other well. I know this because I have met several pilots and know some people who work at the airport.
This leads to a sort of gung-ho casualness (based on over familiarity) in the was JAT pilots operate over Belgrade - especially when landing.
It is not uncommon for the pilots to do low altitude passes of the city - especially when they have important people in first class who might want a nice viewing.
I have seen these from both the ground and been on board for several.
Recently our pilot did an extremely low altitude double circuits over of Ada Ciganlija (the lake outside of town where people go to swim and sunbathe).
The pilots routinely do tight turn onto the runway. I do not exaggerate when I say we bank to the left for 10 seconds, straighten up fast, count 5 seconds, wheels hit the runway.
Initially I thought it was because they were off-setting Kosava - the powerful north-easterly wind that blows a few days a month here. They are not. They do it for the same reason people drive fast or skid their bicycles to a halt - familiarity, boredom, showing off.
When you do land, the hit the brakes extremely hard. People who are unfamiliar with this sometimes panic a bit. Why the reverse thrusters and hard braking?
They pilots are trying to slow down enough to leave the runway at the first apron exit (less than half way down the runway) otherwise they have to taxi all the way to the end of the runway and schlep back to the terminal.
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