Tag Archives for air traffic control.
Two years ago someone was pretending to be Melbourne, Australia air traffic control. A Virgin Australia flight from Gold Coast was instructed to land by this person — the plane came witin 275 feet of the runway before the real air traffic control waved them off. The Boeing 737 climbed to 3800 feet and made a go-round.
Frighteningly that seems not to have been a one-off. A man has been arrested for pulling that same stunt in Buenos Aires.
This is an incredible story. Air traffic controller Anthonius Gunawan Agung was working at Palu airport in Indonesia on Saturday when several earthquakes occurred.
The tower evacuated but he stayed behind to ensure Batik Air flight ID 6231 got off the ground. It was a 5:55 p.m. scheduled departure. The captain pushed back 3 minutes early and was cleared for takeoff at 6:02 p.m.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
