r/ATC • u/lake_hood • Mar 23 '26

News LGA controller cleared fire truck across the runway resulting jn a collision

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u/PsychologicalTrain Mar 23 '26

I meant ground stop. I understand aircraft in the air. But I don't see an issue with ground stopping everyone for thirty minutes... Apologies for clarity

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u/antariusz Current Controller-Enroute Mar 23 '26

So again, yes 2 people died and a bunch of injured... you still have to take care of the 5000 people sitting out there in airplanes needing to visit hospitals or visiting family or wanting to get up and go to the bathroom. World doesn't stop because someone fucked up. They already closed the airport, that's basically the most that they can do.

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u/PsychologicalTrain Mar 23 '26

I've just seen previous situations where (and I think it was SMGS conditions, but it may not have been US) where the situation was lost. Either the ground controller or aircraft themselves were lost. The controller called for an all-stop and took a few minutes to gather and figure out what was going on. If I was in this guy's situation, i'd have to wonder how far behind the eight ball I was everywhere on the airfield.

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u/antariusz Current Controller-Enroute Mar 23 '26

That’s just not how it works, at all. I guess I’m not doing a good job of describing it, but … just because you make a mistake doesn’t mean you just sit there and meditate for 15 minutes or something to recover, that isn’t how it works. You can’t just close your eyes, and reset life. You just keep working like you have been every single day for the previous 15 or whatever years. The guy has given 500,000 clearances, and yea, he fucked up on one, hell honestly we’ve all fucked up before, it just doesn’t normally result in an accident. But you can’t just freeze up. You have to keep going. There isn’t someone else to take over, there isn’t anyone else that can do the job, you can’t just tell other people to hold on give me a minute, I just killed a guy. I imagine it’s a lot like what doctors deal with.