[REAL ATC] FULL LOSS OF POWER at Miami International

[@VASAviation]

ATC Zero is probably the most 'nightmaring' situation for an Air Traffic Controller.... BIG LIKE FOR THESE GUYS!!! Previous video (Captain incapacitated in mid-air) --> kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZpyXgoKiYrl3f6M

[@ronwilliams357]

I'm a controller in the U.S. (FAA) and it's not really a "nightmare" -- we use what's called "positive separation" which means aircraft are never on collision courses with each other, and especially in the terminal environment like here, arrival, departures and overflights are already procedurally separated (by route, altitude, or speed control). Since new arrivals and departures are stopped, it's more of an annoyance to get everyone onto the right frequency (departures to the overlying center, arrivals already on approach to the tower, and overflights into hold).

[@ronwilliams357]

They had the radios because obviously we can hear them! They may not have known it though.

[@1dgram]

Ron Williams My guess is that they were using handheld radios while they were waiting for their regular radios to come back up.

[@ronwilliams357]

We don't have handheld radios in the FAA. Our radio system is based on dedicated phone lines to the transmitters which are spread out. They're powered separately.

[@1dgram]

Are you saying that gone are the days of the emergency battery-powered transceivers talked about in the now canceled FAA order 6510.4A?

[@ellenorbjornsdottir1166]

This is basically the ATC declaring a mayday

[@VASAviation]

Hahahaha great comment! :)

[@rc300xs]

Ellenor Malik best comment ever!

[@erictaylor5462]

"Mayday" Comes from the French for "Help me." I think it's more ATC calling to say, "I can't help you." Kind of the opposite of "Mayday"

[@TheMrJuoji]

i think not, in french(wish i am) help me is said(a l'aide) or (aider moi), the way mayday sound would be near from (moi aider) wish translate to, me helping but not while refering to yourself , but more like me helping you,also, moi aider isn't a correct way of saying it it would be (moi, j'aide) or (moi, je t'aide)

[@samuelchung7783]

it's from this apparently: "venez m'aider"

[@MrJdsenior]

And all the passengers in all these planes sit calmly in the back knowing NOTHING exceptional is going on.

[@thomaspayne6866]

John Sikes -- now I will download LiveATC and listen to my pilots. 😩

[@Moon-Jelly]

@@thomaspayne6866 be careful with that if you in ANY way intercept its.. A) illegal B) 10x more dangerous

[@thomaspayne6866]

Disassociated -- it’s in the App Store homie. It’s public information. How do you think you’re listening to atc in this video?

[@jalenholmes2426]

A n g e l o Exactly how is it illegal...

[@deephorizon1365]

@@Moon-Jelly You cannot transmit with LiveATC, only listen.

[@josephr.2170]

ATC-"Everybody on this frequency, we have no power, we can't see you" *Pilots all silently checking manual for procedure*

[@Starfock]

Some small airports don’t even have ATC all the time, pilots can manage fine between themselves as long as it’s not too busy

[@leonardochapman4736]

@@Starfock yeah but this is something different. This is miami airport. It's very busy

[@Starfock]

Leonardo Chapman I get that, I’m just saying it’s a common procedure and they wouldn’t be “silently checking manual for procedure”

[@leonardochapman4736]

@@Starfock yeah. It's also meant to be a joke just saying. Don't wanna get you woooshed

[@Starfock]

Leonardo Chapman right.. and I’m explaining why it’s a bad joke... don’t be too eager to woooosh that you don’t understand what someone’s saying Also, why was your first reply so serious if it was a joke? But then You revert to “it was just a joke” when you realized your comment was pointless

[@m4gg197]

"Psbsjkdjjsjkdjsha can kajjd you hear kajjdkajhd me?" "Loud and clear"

[@justsaiyansteve]

Lol

[@neyta3789]

Plane radio signals are not digital, so how they hear it will be pretty different than how you do

[@m4gg197]

@@neyta3789 Interesting to know

[@htroberts]

The audio quality you're hearing is a function of the location of the receiving antenna used for the recording. The airplanes, which were at altitude, could probably hear the MIA ground station just fine.

[@razorzk4025]

hahahahah moood

[@justbass252]

0:31 Gotta love how all the pilots do a roll call ;)

[@sifujamie]

"red five standing by"

[@finmueller7827]

Reminds me when I was in elementary school

[@snowboard424]

sifujamie I know this comment is 10 months old but I just laughed out loud at that

[@nathaliechaparro]

Yeah very cute

[@buddyclem7328]

I'm imagining a Power Rangers scenario, where all pilots sound off, followed by a scene where they all share the same cockpit of one huge airplane.

[@tampazeke4587]

As passengers we never know all the heroics that go on behind the scenes to keep us safe. Thank you to all pilots, crew and ATCs!

[@faudanke4459]

Welcome to FSX steam edition

[@fionn4252]

LOLWTF673 LOL

[@dcalho]

LOLWTF673 airforceproud95 would rate the professionalism in this situation with a 6/9

[@faudanke4459]

AFP95 would communicate with the planes using tin cans and wire

[@roudydogg1]

AFP95 would suggest you send your requests to the blog

[@faudanke4459]

Blog affirmative

[@herrhornbuckele5227]

Attention all pilots! Miami ATC is in great danger and needs your help. All they need is your credit card number, the last three digits, exportation month and year. But you gotta be quick so they can achieve working radar again.

[@mohpkhall622]

Lool

[@buddyclem7328]

_Your Air Traffic Control has been suspended for suspicious activity. Please call 121.5 at your earliest convenience._

[@Sand.Springs]

jokes on you I don't have that much cash

[@napalm3899]

Can we pay in iTunes gift cards?

[@Sand.Springs]

@@napalm3899 yeah we're partnered with apple, please do pay with iTunes gift cards!

[@thewhitefalcon8539]

"Everybody on this frequency, we've lost all communications" ...

[@jumbledsiren8190]

Lol wtf

[@Shadowtail]

I think they mean main communications. If you notice, all ATC transmissions contain a lot more static than usual, so they're probably using backup or even handheld transceivers to communicate.

[@jumbledsiren8190]

@@Shadowtail r/wooosh

[@davidhenderson3400]

@CalvinV7 I just see the mad dash pulling the handhelds out of the closet and ripping packs of AA batteries open and trying to cram them in the radios.

[@jaredvoorhees8617]

Had that happen in the army once. I was able to transmit but couldn't receive anything.

[@strato172]

I was flying in the airspace just after the power outage. And weather wasn't great either. Tough day

[@VASAviation]

Indeed :S

[@MattandtheBeckinator]

I love how calm everyone is. It gives me great confidence to step on to an aircraft knowing that even in extremely high pressure situations, the atc and pilots don't panic and just move to plan b.

[@mrz80]

When the fecal matter splatters the rotary impeller you don't have TIME to panic. You just clench your gut, work your lists, and keep your eyeballs all over the sky :D

[@windowssonic5953]

Stress on a normal day: 10 Stress during power outage: *10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000*

[@luvondarox]

Ngl, I was expecting Ye Olde "Over 9000" joke.

[@DBR00]

You’re missing 1 zero, but I’ll let it slide. :)

[@UnclePengy]

@@luvondarox "It's an older meme, sir, but it checks out."

[@burningisis]

Wow! Big respect to these gentlemen and ladies. It must be terrifying being so blind.

[@jacobdoolan4978]

If you remembered this comment, your crazy

[@brendadryden356]

I always knew air traffic controllers had a difficult job, but this gives me a whole new respect for them.

[@HS-zm4ow]

The controllers did a superb job handling this

[@MickNJ1979]

They get trained use note pads and position reports plus each aircraft has inboard raidar they can see each other as well as transponders

[@jarredjordaan337]

ATControlers are acturly trained to work in situations with no radar. Technically how they did it in the old days with maps and pins and where pilots keep informing them of their local so ye this is an extremely stressful job

[@carbon1255]

True but the margin for error was kept a lot wider then.

[@DiabloOutdoors]

... and paper strips.

[@alyx6427]

yeah but stuff now is designed assuming radar is working so obviously gonna be a lot harder (even tho i would assume they're all properly trained to work with zero radar)

[@joshworkman6455]

For those commenting about backup power. As someone who installs and maintains backup power systems I have to chime in here. First, no system is 100% fail safe. even with redundancies, the failure rate is never 0. Second, with facilities of these size, yes they do have backup up generator systems but keep this in mind: When power is lost, the generator has to wait, usually about 1 minutes before it fires up. It does this incase regular grid power comes back on in under that minute. After that minute the generator initiates it startup sequence which can take another minute or two. Once its warmed up, the system needs to engage the transfer switch which directs all or necessary circuits from regular grid power to backup generator power. Think of it like a giant light switch. The transfer switch computers needs to make sure the power coming from the generator is accurate in voltage and matches the equipment that will be drawing from it. If it doesn't do this, then you risk frying all the expensive ATC equipment and then they are offline good. Lastly the radar computers, radios. and servers take several minutes to boot back up after power has been restored. All in all this takes time for the backup generators to kick in and for equipment to boot back up. Its not like the movies, nothing is instant when backup power comes online.

[@kellynolen498]

yeah the big ass generators take a few minutes i can only imagine the power reqirements for all there radar and atc computers and transmiters and radios for comunicstion for an airport that large although i have heared of backup batteries to as a bridge between regular power to backup generators but ive only seen it on server farms

[@itellyouforfree7238]

that's why one should also have batteries online, to cover the time between grid blackout and the generators turning on

[@joshworkman6455]

@@itellyouforfree7238 you don't know how large scale DC to AC power generation works do you

[@itellyouforfree7238]

@@joshworkman6455 what makes you think that? all i said is that the most critical systems usually have batteries backup too

[@theKashConnoisseur]

@@itellyouforfree7238 You're not going to be able to find enough batteries to power a multi megawatt radar installation.

[@mikecowen6507]

I experienced something like this about 30 years ago in Phoenix. I was on a United flight back when they provided ATC radio on the entertainment system. This was before TCAS or ADS-B, so the "backup" was just the two sets of eyeballs up front. We had just handed off to departure when they lost all radar. I was listening VERY carefully, and in the stress of the moment some callsigns were mixed up by ATC - including US! Our crew was on the ball, and called for confirmation after a screwy instruction, and ATC corrected the error. As this was a radar site failure (not just power outage), Albuquerque Center also lost our sector. It took nearly 20 minutes to get things back online. I definitely complimented our crew for catching the error and handling things smoothly. They were surprised anybody had been listening!

[@lindsybacon6742]

How did you know what your call sign was? I've always thought it would be alot of fun to listen to ATC while in flight.

[@mikecowen6507]

@@lindsybacon6742 You need to know the airline call sign (en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airline_codes) for your airline plus the flight number. Some are simple. For example an American Airlines flight might be "American 2345", but British Airways might be "Speedbird 1", or South African Airways might be "Springbok 476". It's pretty easy, and the call signs can be very interesting.

[@lindsybacon6742]

@@mikecowen6507 ok thanks! That is pretty straight forward!

[@bobbydazzler9465]

Lindsy Bacon I’m a plane spotting nerd like the rest of us here. Now give me 2 push ups for such an amateur question. Back to model making for you.

[@Penoatle]

@@mikecowen6507 America West being called Cactus was one of my favorites which was kept after the merger with US Airways.

[@YaofuZhou]

Pro like blind chess! Imagine the ATC guy and lady doing all the work with hand held radios!

[@keyworksales6241]

People have literally been doing this since the advent of the plane and airport.

[@weasle2904]

@@keyworksales6241 Pretty sure people back then didn't have to be ATCs for dozens of aircraft every hour at Miami airport...

[@paralinq]

"Wow, that guy just went off that jump with that BMX bike like a pro!" This guy: "People have been LITERALLY doing that since bikes were invented"

[@YaofuZhou]

kidovate good BMX reference there ·_-

[@paralinq]

@@YaofuZhou "Wow, they just landed that plane perfectly!" The person in this thread: "People have literally been doing this since the Advent of the plane and the airport." Better?

[@Chrispbacon94]

One of my favorite episodes yet. Exciting yet nerve-wracking to listen too. All of them always handle the craziest situations sounding calm like nothing is even happening. Great work!

[@NikosWings]

And my question is, in today's world of redundancies and fail-over standby power backups, how in the hell is this possible and who is responsible for this mess?

[@NikosWings]

Thomas2013000 I didn't but I would have if I was flying in the area that day and time

[@williameudy633]

Theoretically when the computer goes down the screens can be pulled out and lay flat like a table. Small pieces of transparent acetate can be placed over the primary targets to identify them. If there is no radar the controllers can look at their sector map and visualize where the planes are by radio communications and keeping track of them with notations of their clearances on the paper strips. They call it "manual control" and it's the first thing they learn at the FAA academy in Oklahoma City. That's what these controllers were attempting to do but, in place like Miami, it's a pipe dream.

[@metaph3r]

Every system has a certain failure probability. Redundancy can lower it but it will never be 0.

[@TankEnMate]

The most common cause of complete power loss is back up power systems (generators, batteries, etc) not being tested fully and regularly.

[@Dowlphin]

The only thing keeping a system from 'virtually 100%' reliability is (enforced) resource scarcity, which is a big thing in the USA. Many incidents, even when rare occurences, could still have been easily avoided, but saving lives is always weighted against profitability. (That's why I personally don't consider air travel safer than car travel. Too many variables not in my control.) Human error is often a result of that situation, too. Basically, these things are symptoms and warning signs of flaws in the system that need to be fixed and actually needed to be fixed earlier but weren't. "Professionality" is to some degree a damn PR myth.

[@hydrosapienaquatic2600]

I live right next to the Miami airport, I can tell you this has happened several times over the years. You legit can see 10 or so planes looping around eastward to and from Miami beach whenever theres some sort of emergency. They usually get diverted to FT lauderdale or west palm beach.

[@rockym2931]

The definition of professionalism, on the ground and in the cockpits.

[@perstephanies]

This sounds like an extraordinary level of communication and cooperation in an emergency. They all sound focused and professional.

[@MiloFlying]

It’s so satisfying when the ATC asks if they can hear them and all of the aircraft’s come back one after another

[@gunpro2866]

Good Lord....that is a Next Level Cluster F*ck. God bless ATCs.

[@PatchworkRose567]

It’s crazy how everyone worked together and stayed calm during this. Imagine how the ATC had to frantically get the word out that their radar was down and other things may follow. They had to talk to with all nearby planes and tell them where to blindly go based on the pilots word. That takes some skill.

[@dyzio2206]

when power is lost the only thing you have is procedural control.. reports of aircraft over specific waypoints as seen here.. great job from everyone great vid!

[@nuclearthreat545]

Thank you to the amazing ATC and Pilots for working through all of this with NO RADAR

[@bazzinbulgaria4826]

I've had this happen to me only once in my flying history....I'm talking about a real inflight experience, not on a simulator where you can pause the action and wonder about what to do next...the real deal with real big lumps of metal, full of real people, flying blind in very close company with other big lumps of metal! Someone was on my side that night...because I had enough fuel and remaining endurance, I was able to fly back up to cruising altitude and return to my departure point, but it was a very tense 10 minutes. Just in case anyone is wondering, the intended airport was under a very heavy mortar attack and EVERYTHING was out of action and at around 3am, it was very dark...TCAS was not something commonly found on aircraft back then. I like this video, mainly because I can hear everyone trying really hard to make it work....doing their jobs to the best of their ability and calling on every inch of their experience to keep you safe.

[@ajmomoho]

Where were you flying?

[@bazzinbulgaria4826]

It was in SE Asia, during the Vietnam era...very near the border with Cambodia.

[@bazzinbulgaria4826]

Thank you. It all seems so very long ago and such a waste!!

[@cadetrenew]

if you don't mind me asking, what kind of aircraft?

[@bazzinbulgaria4826]

I don't mind at all...it was a DHC-4, Caribou. (general purpose dump truck).

[@TheErod1944Channel]

I've been in a FAA Radar Site. The backup power at that site was well thought out. Backup consisted of two large generators plus a huge room full of Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) batteries. For a site of this type to "go black" something extraordinary bad and unusual would have to occur. The site I visited was on a mountain top and had on-site personnel 24/7. There was also a "comments mention" of the time required to place backup generators on line - the suggestion was "5 minutes". While I don't know the start-up parameters at an FAA site, numerous large Telco sites have Backup Generators that come on line within a matter of seconds with 50 Kilowatts to 1 Megawatt after the loss of commercial primary power. The generators are kept warm when not running with coolant heaters and oil heaters. There's also the possibility that the radar was fine but they lost the communications feed to ATC on a microwave or fiber route.

[@stevenyau2443]

they probably lost power in the control room not the radio arrays and they probably use a single large UPS for the whole room which explains the loss of everything

[@TheErod1944Channel]

Yep. You could be right. After all, "stuff" happens....!

[@Steve211Ucdhihifvshi]

im with you @the erod...etc ive been working on sites where contractors doing airport maint. work have severed the fibre link between the shacks and tower, took less than a minute to change over to the secondary system. Wernt as many aircraft in the pattern, but no delay. they were even quicker sending a car out to find the unlucky sod who cut it as well.

[@Tonatsi]

The Erod1944 Channel no, they specifically mentioned no power

[@thomasesr]

The thing about having a UPS room filled with batteries and a generator before that, is that if there is something between the UPS room and the Control room that let the magic smoke out and takes down the Circuit Breaker or RCBO in the room, if there isn't battery backups in each individual equipment, then there is no use for UPS or Generator because those are mitigating for external power issues. This is most likely an internal power issue, and the person responsible for restoring the power had to first identify what caused it, remove it from the grid and then reset the breakers, plus the time to boot all the equipment. That is why In a hospital for instance all the life support equipment either comes with internal batteries or have an external dedicated UPS for at least 30min of autonomy. Even the servers in the server room had dual power supplies each connected to a different UPS unit inside the room to avoid any downtime.

[@MTGThrownDown]

being a air traffic controller must be helluva stressful. mad props to the men and women during this

[@Xezlec]

Hehe "props"

[@coltonbonnell8217]

It's amazing to me how everyone worked together to avoid further incident.

[@casanova419]

They actually found Johnny Henshaw-Jacobs holding the power plug in his hand singing The tower, the tower! Rapunzel, Rapunzel!

[@MightYoungJoe]

WOW, the level of stress. Great job! I don't think I could ever do their job. Much appreciation for the ground and flight team.

[@alexandrabcdn4692]

😬😳 I learned something new today.....have never healed of ATC Zero!! That must have been quite a scene at ATC. They did a good job....although you could hear that bit of extra tension in their voices. Thanks VASAviation 👍🏻

[@VASAviation]

You learned something? That makes my work be worth! :)

[@bait28]

you can hear what sounds like a fire alarm sounding code 3 in some ATC transmissions, possibly an equipment fire/smokeshow?

[@Dowlphin]

It was definitely amusingly puzzling how pilots were coming in clear and the ATC was the one with loud noise in the background.

[@ryanhampson673]

It’s probably a collision alert when two aircraft are converging..I hear it over the freq on occasion.

[@bait28]

uhh, how could it be a collision alert, they have no radar... Code 3 is reserved for fire

[@JasonBluefire]

Those beeps are from battery backups.

[@Sean-sm3lr]

Dᴏᴡʟᴘʜᴡɪɴ they are probably using Handheld Transmitters I'd power was out.

[@roaringskiesstudios9453]

I learn so much from these videos! I'm planning to become ATC, even though im just a kid im starting early. Any terms i hear i dont know i look them up, then once i know i use them in my ATC simuilator (unmatched atc)

[@dingle849]

RoaringSkiesStudios Try Endless ATC if you wanna control airspaces.

[@missing9112]

Roaring... Good luck. Nice to see wanting the job for the love of it.

[@JusticeSevenfold]

PASSwordUSERname better yet, use VATSIM. it's free and you use real world procedures and phraseology and can choose to control anywhere in the world

[@roaringskiesstudios9453]

JusticeSevenfold thanks I'll check it out !!

[@labanjohnson]

join VATSIM, you will learn all the real-world procedures and radio terms. You will get to control virtual traffic people on flight simulator who want real air traffic control not computer. It's fun. I worked JFK from clearance delivery to ground, tower and departure. I worked with lots of great kids who all grew up to work in aviation, many are FAA controllers and pilots now. We all keep in touch :)

[@coltonbonnell8217]

I am just amazed at how everyone works together and communicates, but manages to keep their cool.

[@Nummer378]

I guess the UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) was working (else the radio would be down too), but apparently a lot of their systems went down though and it took them a while to reboot everything.

[@tylisirn]

They could also be using handheld radios, which might explain why they're so unsure of people being able to hear them. Much weaker than their usual transmitters and further attenuated by being indoors.

[@imzoltan]

Yeah, should have used SSDs for faster boot. XD

[@jaalan7896]

Yea but even commercial UPS dont last that long. If they didnt have a generator they would have like 30 minutes at absolute best.

[@mrz80]

@@jaalan7896 Lotta computers, radios, and radars all hanging off a big UPS, just waiting for the generator to spool up and the ATS to throw... Most redundant power scenarios nowadays design for a UPS capacity just big enough to hold the load up long enough for the generator to crank a couple times, start, and stabilize. No generator, no luck. :-| See it in IT all the time.

[@zaredt]

There is a great amount of work. Bravo, ATC

[@theVRpilot]

I was in the radar room that day, this is the first time I hear this since then. it was insane! Im having flashbacks nd chills just listening to this.

[@fionn4252]

smartcocker "smartcocker" mk

[@user2C47]

What caused the radar to fail?

[@WRXcellent]

Oh hellz yeah ma dude that ish was intense glad we made it through

[@Cervidae]

r/thathappened.

[@andrewrixon2347]

I was flying with a friend out of opa locka in his Cessna Cardinal and we heard this transmission. I’ve never transferred control so quickly to my more experienced friend !

[@scbane]

What a nightmare. Can you imagine going back to 50's atc tech, shuffling icons manually on a chunk of cardboard that someone used a Sharpie to draw the airport and airspace on?

[@heikojakob6491]

Had experienced this once back in 95, sitting in MIA on the tarmac for a couple of hours after lighting struck the tower to get out of MIA to FRA. Due the complete loss of power on the airport we couldn't even get back to the gate. They shut down the engines after some time and had the plane run on the APU without AC to preserve fuel.

[@allenlark]

This is like the cash register going down at Chipotle all over again.

[@AlexChristian]

Ah, another man of culture. Nothing made for a bad day like the crash kit coming out....

[@TheGreenCouncil]

Except with high stakes

[@sludge4125]

Oh, man, the humanity!!! Did you guys get *any* lunch? Did they tell you to drive to the location six miles away and just keep driving around the block? I am actually shaking just thinking about it.

[@allenlark]

@@sludge4125 we got free lunches so that really wasnt the problem. It was having to write every item on carbon reciepts and only accept cash and customers getting pissed while we add their orders up and make change and tell them we cant take their card.

[@sludge4125]

@@allenlark gotcha. 🤪🤪🤪🤪

[@Crafting_Through_Life]

I’m going to be honest here, I was a shift leader at Domino’s pizza and our sticker machine went down that prints out each individual sticker per ordered item and also has the number order on each sticker to keep your order together per item and that also stopped the automatic printing of stickers from online orders and we did not stay this calm. It was an absolute madhouse because we were making whatever orders popped up on the screen between online orders and phone orders but we had no stickers to label the boxes so nobody knew who ordered what, or anything. It caused a major backup for the oven catcher and before we knew it we had pizzas sitting in boxes on top of the oven, every inch of the heat rack was taken and we then had to resort to pulling all the delivery bags off that rack and we covered that rack with more orders. It was basically like flying a plane with nothing but a yoke and where the ATC was telling you to go or like in this situation planes everywhere but nobody could be told where to go without the radar. They did a fantastic job staying calm and keeping everyone safe.

[@DinnerForkTongue]

I mean, it's understandable. These guys deal with hundreds of potential deaths on the daily, so they train and follow instructions and contingencies very rigorously. Domino's is not quite as life or death, despite pizza being a vital service 😜

[@janiselmeris5705]

The pilot of FLG538 is my favourite by far (08:02, 08:12, 08:45, 08:51, 10:43). Such a phlegmatic voice, a sharp contrast to the quick and tense voice of the ATC woman.

[@1979hellcat]

Their job is stressful enough. I can’t imagine that! 😳 mad respect for everyone that day!

[@santosh18901]

I'm 12 and want to become an ATC

[@nerdyism2523]

@@santosh18901 Do good in school, learn as much as you can, read as much as you can, try not to play too many video games, FSX is fine. :)

[@kellypenrod2979]

Kudos to the pro's on the ground and in the plane's for the fabulous handling of a nightmare, and preventing a total class A Charlie Foxtrot!! Well Done ladies and gentlemen WELL DONE!!

[@AflacMan13]

When ATC loses power like that... they gotta go old school... REALLY old school. Like from the ancient days of aviation when radar didn't yet exist. All paper tracking, map plotting, altitude mapping, and mass glide slope calculations. Stress in that control room went through the ROOF that day for certain!

[@mikegallant811]

Pucker factor!

[@humblenoob7631]

sounds like a movie lol, imagining the “alright, I guess we gotta do it the old fashioned way” from the old guy

[@barzu8266]

or they could just pull up fr24..

[@petersteitz200]

Great job by everyone. Need to remember the radar antennas might be miles away from the ATC building. There's a very real chance that something happened in the feed to the controllers. The actual ATC building has backup generators that will come on line immediately. However, if the problem is in the circuits, they are protected by breakers. The real cause has to be located and fixed. I wasn't flying when Chicago Center had a fire and was shut down. What a day that must have been.

[@mikegallant811]

Ooohhh,that must've been a real bitch....

[@pmvaldez1]

This reminds me of when I had a police scanner and we had a massive power failure and listening to all the police traffic. Dispatch finally said if it's not a life or death situation, let it go and man the major intersections for traffic control.

[@Dani-it5sy]

Everybody so calmly and than suddenly at about 7:30 there comes a woman that literally talks like a machine gun. LOL

[@danielhartin7680]

My God, she must be looped on uppers.

[@Dani-it5sy]

@J Hemphill I see 👌 Changed it 😄

[@Dani-it5sy]

@J Hemphill You nailed it 👌

[@Dani-it5sy]

@J Hemphill 3rd language after Dutch and Norwegian 😁 There was a typo in the word ''Literally'' so that was what I changed. But I understand you mean she can't be ''literrally'' speaking like a machine gun. It is of course figurative. But some people say things this way to (try) and make their comment more funny. I got that from a Mr Jeremy Clarkson. One exaggerates and that makes the statement more funny without anyone actually missing the point of what you try to say. But we do agree that she speaks so fast it becomes a bit ridiculous right ? Considering how important it is that everyone understands her and the fact that if she would have to repeat herself once in a while she might actually loose more time than just saying it properly the first time.

[@joshuawalker3986]

I bet NTSB hearts were all pounding 😂😂 the moment they heard they lost radar

[@Silenthunter199]

ACC controllers: WE LOST ALL RADARS! WE CAN'T SEE ANYTHING! Procedural approach controllers: *laughs loudly*

[@m1co294]

Silenthunter199 ATC Controllers: WE LOST ALL RADARS!! WERE BLIND!! Airforceproud95 aka AnalPound69: Sounds like a personal problem.... blog it

[@Droop75]

I couldn’t imagine being a pilot in a busy section like that flying blind, that had to be horrifying but they all remained so calm.

[@111himan]

The backup generator could have broke a relay or low battery or whatever. Its likely stationed at a remote radar site instead of outside the offices so someone has to physically drive up to the radar to manually power on the generators. Sometimes it takes multiple starts with a complex system like this is likely very old like the rest of the ATC system. Airports with backup generators for ILS go down sometimes in test due to small unresolved issues. My local airport couldnt give ILS approaches for a day in bad weather because the backup system had failed and the tech had to be called in to replace a battery. Caused diversions due to bad weather

[@joshworkman6455]

@@Weuniok As someone who installs and maintains backup power systems I have to chime in here. First, no system is 100% fail safe. even with redundancies, the failure rate is never 0. Second, with facilities of these size, yes they do have backup up generator systems but keep this in mind: When power is lost, the generator has to wait, usually about 1 minutes before it fires up. It does this incase regular grid power comes back on in under that minute. After that minute the generator initiates it startup sequence which can take another minute or two. Once its warmed up, the system needs to engage the transfer switch which directs all or necessary circuits from regular grid power to backup generator power. Think of it like a giant light switch. The transfer switch computers needs to make sure the power coming from the generator is accurate in voltage and matches the equipment that will be drawing from it. If it doesn't do this, then you risk frying all the expensive ATC equipment and then they are offline good. Lastly the radar computers, radios. and servers take several minutes to boot back up after power has been restored. All in all this takes time for the backup generators to kick in and for equipment to boot back up. Its not like the movies, nothing is instant when backup power comes online.

[@romegeorgiamanshannongeorg7413]

Cool calm and collected Miami ATC in this Scenario. Awesome tower Awesome pilots.

[@warthundercinematic.113]

ATC "We can't see you". :pilot tip toes across airspace: FAA "But we can, write down this number."

[@amoghavarshamurthy]

All this conversation makes me feel very professional and want to take up my work and finish it and handle anything it may throw at me!

[@MoA-Reload...]

This is why I always preferred working commercial ferries instead of airliners.lol any comm or traffic issues coming into port we just cut engines and n bob around for a while till they sort it out. Considering the stakes this lot sounded far calmer and in control over the radio than a lot of harbour masters if things hit the fan.

[@m1co294]

MoA-Reload... But travelling by air is still safe

[@routadu]

Just imagine 5-10 planes declaring engine failure or cabin fire at the same time

[@OfficialShadowKing]

one of the busiest airports and it doesn't have back up power for the essential and ATC tower??? what the fuck is that

[@Obi1nacobi1]

Algorithimic Process they do have backup power it just takes a while to boot up. Also, if my friend at MIA center told me correctly the tech is ancient at MIA center.

[@Boodieman72]

Why aren't they running at the same time as they can switch over instantly.

[@techcheckreviewde2493]

Boodieman72 Costs. And environment. It makes no sense to let really really big diesel generators run 24/7/365. They would also break every year or so, and would need refuel allthetime. Just makes no goddamn sense. They have backup batteries to immediately kick in, but they can only power ILS/Basic radio stuff. Not a MW radar.

[@Boodieman72]

Then they need to fix it so they do have battery backup for radar, at least enough time for backup generators to start up and stabilize.

[@fontsweetwater2665]

welcome to Miami.

[@nathanhardin6992]

Nice seeing pilots and atc working together to get it sorted back out.

[@operator8014]

Communication would probably be a lot easier if it didn't sound like all aircraft were connected to the tower via an impossibly long piece of string and some tin cans... Is there a reason all aviation microphones sound like they were designed and built a few years before Edison discovered electricity?

[@AgentSmith911]

Brad Gefroh Cheap electronics, low bitrate

[@bobthecannibal1]

It's a function of encoding, modulation and location. Aviation communications are AM, and the receivers for LiveATC et al are usually closer to the airport than the aircraft. AM works best with gobs of transmission power to break through the noise floor. (the static) The double re-encoding (Once for LiveATC, a second for KZbin) with lossy audio codecs for internet transmission tends to freak out over lots of static. (Same for video. Here's the video example of the same problem: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qGe1oWCrpJt7o6s) To get around the encoder hurdle of the LiveATC side, you can reasonably assume that the audio is run through a bandpass filter that clips the sound at the higher frequencies, then run through a companding filter. And the compression (bit rate) is low to keep it able to be streamed by almost any internet connection. Basically, you hear the tower the best because the antenna is closer to it and it's very much louder than the static, meaning less noise gets passed on to the audio encoder. Move the antenna to an aircraft, and the broadcast from that aircraft would be outstanding and the tower transmissions would be "down in the mud". Now as for the actual microphones: The FAA is a cruel mistress: Things don't keep up with the times because of "safety": Same reason there's an ashtray in the lavatory even though smoking isn't permitted on most airlines, same reason it took over a decade to figure out that, yes, in fact, cell phones don't interfere with GPS or navaids, and same reason why the FAA are taking their sweet time with ADS-B. Everything has to be tested for safety even if it's blindingly obvious that it's safer the new way.

[@rellewilson7814]

Wow smh

[@benrobins8385]

Operator 801 they aren't as bad as this usually slightly better when in flight, it's just the receiver and recorder used to capture audio, however it's to do with frequency I think plane radios use hf which doesn't allow good quality, like watching a KZbin video in 360p, you know what's going on but not perfect

[@spamlord7570]

Operator 801 Edison didn’t discovere electricity he invented the light bulb

[@bolshoibooze8010]

2:33 ATC: "Everybody on this frequency, use caution. We cannot see you on the radar" Everybody: "Gooood gooood...I am F-22 Raptor now"

[@62Loralee]

Makes me so thankful for the years of being a Flight Attendant and never preparing the cabin for an Emergency. Thank God. Not saying we didn’t have Emergencies on board, we just never had to do an evacuation. Ugh

[@RidinDirtyRollinBurnouts]

Talk about cool handling of the situation, this is where all that training starts to really matter

[@superandreanintendo]

Just imagine this during the berlin blockade where every 6 minute a plane would land at the allied airport

[@takethel7746]

This is AMAZING how well it was handled!!!!

[@metasystem8625]

Tip: Put the "Pause to read" disclaimer on the top of the slide, rather than the bottom. I read top to bottom, and I need to read the disclaimer first for it to be useful.

[@EntoSanto]

These guys are on the peak of professionalism.

[@Evangelionism]

*"4 1/2 miles to the south of **#LUVLY**."* What a world.

[@bchadaway7469]

No critical infrastructure in South Florida should be without a backup generator, and a backup to the backup. Crazy that this could happen.

[@clearlycryptic]

Excuse a dumb question from the inexperienced. Not in the flight industry at all (healthcare) but I've been flying frequently for work over the last 12 months and am so impressed by and grateful for what you all do. And therefore obsessed with these videos. What are the five-letter acronyms? i.e. WAKED, FISEL, NOVAE, GRITT, PABOY. Are they radar reference points? Are they acronyms, or just five-letter names that get capitalised. If so, how are they named? I'm so intrigued!

[@gwishart]

They refer to waypoints, their names aren't acronyms; but are chosen to be pronounceable and not easily confused with other nearby waypoints. They sometimes have significance to local landmarks, or contain in-jokes. eg. waypoints near Orlando are related to Disney characters: MINEE, POPYE, TWETY, BURRD, DAFIE

[@Quotenwagnerianer]

That must have taken off two years of live expectancy of the poor ATC controllers.

[@CityWhisperer]

When you start reading "FULL LOOSE OF POWER" and you immidiately think on a plane, but the you read "Miami Int'l"...

[@McEntoshFever]

I am so impressed, and in complete awe!

[@catmomjill]

"We can't see you. Be careful." That is some scary $hit!

[@astrodoobs]

These center controllers handled it like absolute CHAMPS. They all need a serious pay raise.

[@louisc8873]

everybody gangsta when the mayday services enters mayday situation

[@MiloFlying]

That’s some skilled ATC right there

[@PAXperMortem]

Imagine if there'd been an emergency during the blackout.

[@scotty523]

Since I heard there was weather in vicinity, it sounded like most flights had fuel to play with. However, as a dispatcher myself, this also could've been a nightmare for a dispatcher who didn't plan extra fuel to handle such an emergency on a VFR/beautiful day.

[@GathKingLeppbertI]

Miami ATC: looks like we picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue!

[@mug875]

That is so scary for a pilot and an atc... imagine the trouble going on without the atcs

[@MikeBachful]

How tf do they understand a single word said on the radio??? W/o subtitles i literally just hear gibberish

[@grenaders3895]

Practice your hearing. Practice. Practice. Practice.

[@miguelnogueira8180]

I understand everything they say without subtitles

[@PetenshiDaa]

I don't understand even with the subtitles. I have no idea why I watch these videos I have absolutely nothing to do with this.

[@garageghost6038]

It's a lot clearer in the plane. Most of the noise is caused by the system that is recording the transmissions.

[@carbon1255]

It is when you know what you expect to hear, and that is why they read back what was said.

[@Sandeee]

Mr. Stark, I am nothing without my RADAR. If you are nothing without your radar, then you don't belong in the ATC.

[@elliesagestar]

"Thanks, bye!" XD

[@elliesagestar]

you can even see the question marks on the Flightradar24, seems like the airport was providing coverage for that area

[@mema0005]

I flew into Norwich once when they just dropped off the radio entirely for 10 mins. Us and the 3 helicopters inbound just started clearing each other, like an uncontrolled airspace. It was almost fun

[@ciaheadoffice5506]

All this stuff happening* Passengers: Hope my luggage isn't coming out the belt last :(

[@janetmiller2160]

I just survived watching the Kazakh flight no control in Portugal, and now this. Better sign off before my heart wears out.

[@randomlyentertaining8287]

"We've lost all communication." He says on the radio to everyone.

[@MatthijsvanDuin]

the fact he's asking whether planes can hear him indicates he's probably using some crappy backup, possibly even a handset

[@Groza_Dallocort]

@@MatthijsvanDuin shortwave radio?

[@MatthijsvanDuin]

@@Groza_Dallocort ?

[@Groza_Dallocort]

@@MatthijsvanDuin sorry did a misstake there anyhow handheld radios are most likely to be used and ATC probably got some fancy stuff that have a good range

[@richarddaugherty8583]

ATC and pilots all handled this well. After action comment after listening to the radio traffic would be to stay conscious of pace, take a breath and make an effort to slow down to ensure understanding. That was on the verge of being too fast. ATC is sure taking an adrenaline hit there... probably feels like everything is moving too slowly when they've never worked so fast in their life. Actually, just thought of body alarm reaction being in play here. Time dilation is a factor in play. This is common in high stress situations and this certainly qualifies.

[@joshblackie08]

Another great video!

[@VASAviation]

Thanks for watching, Josh! :)

[@joshsanderson5512]

VASAviation - another great video

[@eallen7772]

Very professional. Great job!

[@thomaspayne6866]

It’s south Florida so everything is probable.

[@silencedknight]

As a no nothing, I can barely keep track of planes on a radar. How they do it without is nothing short of amazing.