The Role of Air Traffic Controller in the Cirrus Tragedy at William P. Hobby Airport

 Just now I saw a video that was uploaded by Air Safety Institute. I feel sorry for the three people who died in that tragedy, particularly feeling sorry for the female pilot who was at complete peace and calm till the last moments even though she was burdened by air traffic controllers with frequent instructions throwing her all around at the airport.

The elaboration detailed by the Air Safety Institute mostly blaming the pilot for the tragedy forced me to write this article. We may agree that in most cases we blame the pilot for any incident or accident. The elaboration given by ASI is quite sorted, but the thing I didn’t like in here is that the first culprit here is found to be the private pilot who had minimal amount of flying experience.

It is easy to blame the pilot for not being alive to fight for her case and everyone else involved in the tragedy, particularly the ATC who want to save their jobs and reputation. 

What I didn’t like was the cirrus private pilot was asked to give way to a Boeing 737 even though the cirrus was cleared to land.

I agree that the 737 is a much bigger and heavier airplane and faster too, plus there are nearly 300 people in there and they should be given the chance to land.

But when the air traffic controller sees that the 737 is closing in and will overfly the cirrus, the 737 should have been asked to go around.

Here it is not about who is bigger or who should be given the first priority, it is about who is more experienced and better suited to handle the pressure of class B airspace.

We cannot expect a private amateur pilot in the cirrus who had flown roughly 9 hours in the past three months to be as proficient as the 2 737 pilots who are coming right behind her.

Talking about a typical American situation, it is like a pedestrian should wait at the crossing just because he is slow, to give way to a car that is coming at a much faster speed but was still at a distance from the crossing.

The first mistake, or rather blunder was made by the first ATC guy who asked the cirrus pilot to go around and give way to the 737, and the second killer mistake was from the second ATC who was himself confused as to what instructions to give.

In his confusion he was giving more detailed instructions, which was confusing the cirrus pilot even more.

I feel the analysis in the end that is detailed by the Air Safety Institute is more likely to spread the blame among everyone by putting the major portion of the blame on the pilot who cannot have any say.

I feel the ASI does not want anyone in the ATC to be thrown out of their job so they have carefully put the blame on the one who is no more in this world.

If we don’t expect a private pilot to be as proficient as a commercial pilot flying a big airliner, then we should not allow private pilots to enter a class B airspace, and never a place like Houston.

And if we think that they are less proficient then they should be given the comfort to get out of the way rather than loading them with more work by keeping them in airspace.

The solutions suggested by ASI are not going to do any good as every person in this incident will feel that he or she is not the one, and the problem will linger on.