Controllers urged to speak up on safety concerns

A controller describes working local control on a sunny spring afternoon, with a mix of VFR pattern traffic and IFR arrivals. After clearing the previous arrival off the runway, the controller clears a Cherokee for the option.

The approach gets a close watch. On short final, the pilot, who sounds fairly inexperienced on the radio, begins a slow roundout from about 40 feet, levels at roughly 20 feet and lets the airspeed bleed off. At around 15 feet the nose is up, the aircraft stalls and drops onto the runway, pancaking onto the asphalt.

The controller reaches for the crash phone. Low airspeed and a mostly downward trajectory mean the aircraft touches down in a level attitude, bounces a few feet back into the air, hits again, then loses directional control. It skitters off the runway, crosses the grass and stops on an intersecting taxiway, according to the account, missing runway and taxiway lights on the way.

The account argues that controllers have a duty to report what they observe rather than stay silent, and that speaking up about such events is part of the job.