MGM CTLR DESCRIBED EVENT WHEN TWO ACR'S; AT ALT; UTILIZED 121.5 EMER FREQ TO COORD TRANSPORTATION TO THE HOTEL AT THEIR DESTINATION ARPT.

2008-08 · NASA ASRS report 798617

Date: 2008-08 · Aircraft: B737-500 · Phase: cruise

Anomalies: deviation-discrepancy-procedural-far|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-published-material-policy

Synopsis

MGM CTLR DESCRIBED EVENT WHEN TWO ACR'S; AT ALT; UTILIZED 121.5 EMER FREQ TO COORD TRANSPORTATION TO THE HOTEL AT THEIR DESTINATION ARPT.

Narrative

WHILE WORKING THE RADAR POS AT ABOUT XA15; I HEARD ACFT X CALL ACFT Y OVER THE 121.5 EMER FREQ. THIS IS NOT UNCOMMON; BUT ANNOYING BECAUSE IT COMES OUT THE SAME LOUDSPEAKER AS THE LANDLINE CALLS AND; THUS; MUST BE FAIRLY LOUD. THERE WAS NO RESPONSE TO ACFT X'S CALL. A FEW MINS LATER; ACFT X AGAIN CALLED ACFT Y. I ASSUMED AT THIS POINT THAT ACFT Y MUST HAVE GONE NORDO AND ACFT X WAS TRYING TO HELP LOCATE HIM. AGAIN; NO RESPONSE. AT ABOUT XA25; AFTER ACFT X HAD CALLED ACFT Y FOR THE THIRD OF FOURTH TIME ON THE EMER FREQ. ACFT Y RESPONDED WITH; 'ARE YOU CALLING ACFT Z OR ACFT Y?' ACFT X REPLIED; 'I'M CALLING ACFT Y ENRTE TO LAGUARDIA.' ACFT Y REPLIED; 'THIS IS ACFT Y.' AT THIS POINT; ACFT X SAID; 'WE'RE GOING TO BE ARRIVING JUST A FEW MINS BEHIND YOU; SO WOULD YOU HOLD THE VAN FOR US SO WE CAN GET TO THE HOTEL?' I KEYED UP AND SAID; 'THIS DOESN'T SOUND LIKE AN EMER.' BOTH PLTS THEN RESPONDED WITH COMMENTS ABOUT; 'WHERE'S THE GUARD POLICE WHEN YOU NEED THEM?' AND 'MUST NOT BE A VERY BUSY NIGHT.' APPARENTLY THESE PLTS WHO WERE AT FL350 AND FL390 DON'T REALIZE THAT; AT THOSE ALTS; THEIR RADIO RANGE IS SEVERAL HUNDRED MI. SINCE THIS EMER FREQ IS MONITORED AT EVERY ATC FACILITY; I SUSPECT THAT THEIR CONVERSATION CAME OUT OVER THE LOUDSPEAKERS IN AT LEAST 3 CTRS (ZTL; ZME AND ZJX); PROBABLY A DOZEN APCH CTLS (INCLUDING A80); DOZENS OF TWRS; MULTIPLE RCO OUTLETS AT AFSS PLUS IN HUNDREDS OF COMMERCIAL ACFT COCKPITS. I SUSPECT SOMEONE; AT ONE OF THESE LOCATIONS WAS BUSY AND WAS PROBABLY DISTR; AT LEAST MOMENTARILY; FROM THEIR PRIMARY SAFETY FUNCTION. I ALSO SUSPECT THAT THE AIRLINE HAS SOME OTHER METHOD FOR INTER-ACFT COMS. IT IS EVENTS LIKE THIS THAT MAKE CTLRS; AND PROBABLY PLTS; INSTINCTIVELY TURN DOWN A SPEAKER THAT IS MAKING NOISE IN THE BACKGND. A SUBSEQUENT ACTUAL EMER CALL COULD GO UNHEARD BECAUSE THESE GENTLEMEN CHOSE THE INAPPROPRIATE MEANS TO COMMUNICATE.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.

Loading the flight search…

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.

Where does the route data come from?

Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.