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2010_Archiebooklet

A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association

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Western Pacific Region For 22-year veteran Southern California air traffic controller Ron Chappell, who knows pretty much everything there is to know about the ultra complex and intricately cho- reographed airspace around LAX, nothing goes unnoticed. That is especially true for a tiny blip of a primary radar target on Chap- pell's scope at Southern California TRACON (SCT) that had errantly wandered unan- nounced and unmarked into the delicate dance of his perfectly crafted final approach lined up for Runway 25 Left. Crystal clear days in the Los Angeles Basin provide a recipe for a traffic mix that in- cludes general aviation aircraft flying with- out a transponder, along with high volume commercial aircraft. On this particular sunny day in June, Chappell was strapped into the Downey sector position (south finals into LAX). While working, Chappell observed a pri- mary-only target converging with SkyWest Airlines Flight 6522, a Bombardier Canadair regional jet, who was inbound on the 25-Left ILS. Rarely do general aviation aircraft penetrate the Los Angeles Class Bravo airspace. But on this day, the Class B was penetrated by an aircraft (it turned out to be a Navion) who was simply not squawking a discreet code which would make him visible to ATC. That's when Chappell, an experienced con- troller who knows how to pick up a small pri- mary target and identify it as an aircraft and not a vehicle, sprang into quick action. "SkyWest sixty-five twenty-two, traffic eleven o'clock and two miles westbound pri- mary target, altitude unknown." The following transcript shows just how close the two aircraft came and the level of great communications needed to ensure a safe outcome. SKW6522: He's in sight, sixty-five twenty- two … uh … I can't tell the type yet. I'll tell ya in a second. CHAPPELL: OK, is he, um, above you or below you? SKW6522: Alright, uh, yeah, he's, uh, pretty clueless. He's a one, well, no, it's a Navion and he was gonna run into us. We had to de- scend, sorry sir. CHAPPELL: SkyWest sixty-five twenty-two, glad I said something. I don't have an alti- tude readout on him. SKW6522: Well, um, we don't have him on TCAS at all, so I don't think he has a transponder. CHAPPELL: SkyWest sixty-five twenty-two, reduce speed to two-one-zero. SKW6522: Bring down on the speed now sir, sixty-five twenty-two. SKW6522: Just to verify the speed is two- ten, for sixty-five twenty-two. CHAPPELL: SkyWest sixty-five twenty-two affirmative. CHAPPELL: SkyWest sixty-five twenty-two, I just have to ask reference the paperwork, he was around eight thousand five hundred or so, somewhere about the time you had to descend? SKW6522: Yeah, eight thousand or eight thousand five hundred, and um, it was defi- nitely a Navion, um white. That's about all I can tell you. It looked like maybe a brown top and, yeah, we had to descend. He had no TCAS. We didn't get a resolution or any- thing but we had to descend to avoid him. CHAPPELL: SkyWest sixty-five twenty-two, we have a radar track on him and we will fol- low him as long as we can keep radar on 22

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