5 ms·

In the case of an emergency (which low fuel most definitely is) the captain has the ultimate authority and can tell ATC "I'm landing anyway".

langsoul-com 2y ago
That might be fine for a single or a few planes. But given the magnitude of the outage, what if a single airport had dozens of planes landing anyway. There's a very good reason airport traffic control exists.
- silisili 2y ago
  I'd be highly surprised if ATC systems were affected by this, but if anyone wants to correct me please do.
  - TeMPOraL 2y ago
    I wouldn't expect emergency rooms and 911 to stop working either, but here we are, so until someone says otherwise, I'm assuming some ATCs went down too.
    - swells34 2y ago
      I imagine the flight planning software they use was affected (so their ability to coordinate with other airport's ATC), but not their radio systems or aircraft radar (nearly all radar systems I've worked with are run on Linux, and are hardened to the Nth degree). Been out of the game for 12 years though, so things have likely changed.
- School-Cotton 2y ago
  The Tenerife disaster (second-deadliest aviation incident in history, after 9/11) was ultimately caused by chaotic conditions due to too many airplanes having to be diverted and land at an alternate airport that wasn't equipped to handle them comfortably.
  - Mavvie 2y ago
    I'd argue that Tenerife was due to taking off (in bad weather), not landing. But of course, a bunch of planes landing at the same airport without ATC sounds quite dangerous.
    - School-Cotton 2y ago
      There were a lot of contributing causes, but it wouldn't have happened if not for the fact that Tenerife North airport was massively overcrowded due to Gran Canaria airport being suddenly closed (for unrelated reasons) and flights forced to divert. The issue wasn't with landing specifically; I'm just using it as a general example of issues caused by havoc situations in aviation.
  - xcv123 2y ago
    Also lack of visibility. The two pilots couldn't see each other through the fog.
- qingcharles 2y ago
  Pilots know where there are other places to land, e.g. there are a lot of military strips and private airfields where some craft can land, depending on size.

langsoul-com 2y ago

That might be fine for a single or a few planes. But given the magnitude of the outage, what if a single airport had dozens of planes landing anyway. There's a very good reason airport traffic control exists.

silisili 2y ago
I'd be highly surprised if ATC systems were affected by this, but if anyone wants to correct me please do.
- TeMPOraL 2y ago
  I wouldn't expect emergency rooms and 911 to stop working either, but here we are, so until someone says otherwise, I'm assuming some ATCs went down too.
  - swells34 2y ago
    I imagine the flight planning software they use was affected (so their ability to coordinate with other airport's ATC), but not their radio systems or aircraft radar (nearly all radar systems I've worked with are run on Linux, and are hardened to the Nth degree). Been out of the game for 12 years though, so things have likely changed.
School-Cotton 2y ago
The Tenerife disaster (second-deadliest aviation incident in history, after 9/11) was ultimately caused by chaotic conditions due to too many airplanes having to be diverted and land at an alternate airport that wasn't equipped to handle them comfortably.
- Mavvie 2y ago
  I'd argue that Tenerife was due to taking off (in bad weather), not landing. But of course, a bunch of planes landing at the same airport without ATC sounds quite dangerous.
  - School-Cotton 2y ago
    There were a lot of contributing causes, but it wouldn't have happened if not for the fact that Tenerife North airport was massively overcrowded due to Gran Canaria airport being suddenly closed (for unrelated reasons) and flights forced to divert. The issue wasn't with landing specifically; I'm just using it as a general example of issues caused by havoc situations in aviation.
- xcv123 2y ago
  Also lack of visibility. The two pilots couldn't see each other through the fog.
qingcharles 2y ago
Pilots know where there are other places to land, e.g. there are a lot of military strips and private airfields where some craft can land, depending on size.