Bermuda Triangle

While I was debating the wisdom of posting anything to do with Bill O'Reilly on my blog...Todd, over at Vanity Fair Musings put it up on his. Once again, it’s a video from our friend Paul at ATCnews. The video begins with Mr.O'Reilly lambasting the FAA in general and Bobby Sturgell in particular. Then it switches to Jay Leno poking fun at the FAA. Frankly, I don’t know which is worse for the FAA -- getting kicked around by a usually-friendly conservative or being the butt of comedian’s jokes. Just click on the Vanity Fair Musings link and you can decide.

On a different subject, this little blurb about Bermuda in The Royal Gazette caught my eye.

Airport's radar out of action for weeks

”Although the Bermuda tower handles arrivals and departures, Bermuda's airspace is handled from the New York Center. Staff claim they have been forced to develop their own contingency plans to get in and out of Bermuda's airspace.

The union said in a statement: "When the radar failed in the past there was a specific set of rules to follow. Now, without the proper tools or reference books to work the airspace in case of a radar outage, the controllers are left to guide planes using common sense and communication with pilots — tools that are useful but not nearly adequate in safely directing air traffic.“

Most probably don’t think about it but the vast majority of the world’s oceanic airspace doesn’t have radar. New York Center works this airspace and I’m just a little curious as to what the specific problem might be. I’ve got a sneaking suspicion...but it’s not enough to share. Perhaps one of my friends in New York Center’s Oceanic Area will write me and clue me in. I used to have friends in the Oceanic Area. But they are probably all like me and retired as fast as they could. Maybe I’ll make some new friends there.

Don Brown
July 23, 2008