1992-03 · NASA ASRS report 204992
SMA X HAD A NMAC WITH SMA Y. SEE AND AVOID CONCEPT.
I WAS WORKING LCL CTL AND HAD SEVERAL ACFT IN MY PATTERN WHEN LUKE RAPCON (OUR APCH CTL FAC) CALLED ON THE LAND LINE AND SAID THAT MY ACFT IN THE W PATTERN WERE ABOUT 1 MI INSIDE LUKE'S AIRSPACE WHEN THEY TURNED R BASE. WHEN GIVEN THIS MESSAGE BY FLT DATA; I SAID ALL MY ACFT ARE FLYING NORMAL PATTERNS AND ACCORDING TO MY RADAR WERE WELL WITHIN MY AIRSPACE. WE'RE A LEVEL II VFR TWR BUT WE HAVE A D-BRITE DISPLAY IN THE CAB. DURING THIS EXCHANGE; SMA X CALLED INBOUND FROM THE W AND I INSTRUCTED HIM TO MAKE R TFC FOR RWY 21. LUKE RAPCON AGAIN CALLED SEVERAL MORE TIMES ABOUT MY ACFT AND; ALTHOUGH MY ACFT WERE ALL FLYING NORMAL PATTERNS; I DECIDED TO STOP ALL TOUCH-AND-GO OPS AND MAKE ALL ACFT TURN AN EARLY BASE UNTIL THE AIRSPACE DISCREPANCY WAS CLRED UP. (NOTE -- LUKE'S ATA WAS CLOSED DURING THIS TIME FOR A DEMONSTRATION BY THE BLUE ANGELS AEROBATIC TEAM). I WAS OCCUPIED WITH SEPARATING ALL MY ACFT ON THE RWY AND IN MY PATTERN WHEN SMA X AGAIN CALLED AND ASKED IF I WAS TALKING TO A SMA Y IN HIS AREA. I REPLIED THAT I WASN'T. I LOOKED AT THE D-BRITE AND SAW A TARGET MERGE WITH MY INBOUND ACFT. BOTHER WERE AT 2000 MSL. THE OTHER ACFT WAS SHOWING A CALL SIGN OF Y AND HAD A BLINKING SYMBOL NEXT TO IT INDICATING THIS ACFT WAS BEING HANDLED BY LUKE RAPCON. MY INBOUND SMA X RPTED A NEAR MISS WITH SMA Y OF ABOUT 300 FT. FLT DATA CALLED LUKE AND RPTED THIS BUT THE ONLY RESPONSE WAS 'OH; OKAY.' LUKE SWITCHED THE SMA Y TO MY FREQ AND I GAVE HIM LNDG INSTRUCTIONS AND CLRNC. THIS ALL HAPPENED OUTSIDE MY AIRSPACE AND I BELIEVE THE CONTRIBUTING FACTORS WERE THE APCH CTL'S LOSS OF SEPARATION WITH AN IFR/VFR ACFT AND THE VFR PLT'S LACK OF AWARENESS OF OTHER ACFT.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
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