Lt. Colonel Michael “Wildcat” Tetrick, Retired American Airlines Captain shares his thoughts on the nationwide air shutdown:
“In my twenty years in the military and thirty-five years with American Airlines, the only other nationwide shutdown we’ve experienced to this magnitude was 9-11. But it’s important to remember these shutdowns occurred for two entirely different reasons.
The 9-11 shutdown was terrorist related with instructions to land at the “nearest suitable airport” for security reasons. Today’s shutdown was not a land ASAP scenario and was allegedly caused by technical problems and communication issues.
However, we may find it was caused by nefarious actors, and the cause remains to be seen. The nationwide ground stop is being directed in the interest of safety and an abundance of caution.
Over my four decades of flying, I dealt with several sector or area shutdowns for various reasons – ground stops, radar outages, radio communication breakdowns or severe weather. There are 22 ATC control sectors nationwide, so it is unusual that all of them would be facing the identical problem at the same time.
With the limited information provided so far, we can only surmise that the problem has something to do with radio communications, radar outages or possibly satellite interference that is used for navigation.
There is an old adage in aviation, that when things go wrong, pilots need to prioritize their tasks to aviate, navigate and communicate. All of these tasks are important but communication is at the end and least critical to this safety equation. As such, it is reasonable to assume that pilots will be able to navigate their aircraft to a safe landing.
The decision to implement a nationwide ground stop and reduce congestion until the issues are resolved is wise, prudent and necessary in the interest of safety.”
Lt. Colonel Michael “Wildcat” Tetrick, is a retired American Airlines Captain and author of the recently released book, Rules of Engagement- A Fighter Pilot’s Inside Look At Living Your Best Life.
