Narrative:

I was working local control at sna; runways 19L and 19R were in use. Socal TRACON was running visual approaches to runway 19R. The controller working the tustin sector at socal called over the land line and said that a B737-700 was requesting to land on runway 01L (opposite direction). I had no tower traffic so I allowed it; this is a fairly common practice when it is not busy at night. The B737-700 was switched to my frequency; having been cleared for the runway 01L approach and about 7 miles south of the airport; at the same time a B757-200 was on about a 3 mile final to runway 19R. The same controller was working both of these aircraft to sequence them for the approach. If the B757-200 had to execute a missed approach for any reason it would have put him directly in the flight path of the inbound B737-700. Additionally; when the B737-700 was about 3 miles from landing; I noticed another B757-200 being turned on the to runway 19R approach by the tustin controller. I called the controller over the interphone and he then broke the second B757-200 off of the approach. In light of the numerous procedures required for opposite direction departures; I believe there should be some clearly spelled out procedures for opposite direction approaches. However it appears that there are none in place. When we request an opposite direction departure; the supervisor must make the request with socal; but when they want to run an opposite direction arrival; they just call over the line and ask the controller. It also appears that they don't have any spacing requirements with the traffic making an opposite direction and an traffic making a normal approach to the same runway. My recommendation would be that they could not have any aircraft cleared for an approach to a runway when there is an aircraft cleared to make an opposite direction approach to the same runway until they receive a 'landing assured' call from the tower.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: SNA Controller voiced concern regarding the current; but ever changing; 'opposite direction procedures' and interpretation of same by SCT TRACON.

Narrative: I was working Local Control at SNA; Runways 19L and 19R were in use. SoCal TRACON was running visual approaches to Runway 19R. The Controller working the Tustin Sector at SoCal called over the land line and said that a B737-700 was requesting to land on Runway 01L (opposite direction). I had no tower traffic so I allowed it; this is a fairly common practice when it is not busy at night. The B737-700 was switched to my frequency; having been cleared for the Runway 01L approach and about 7 miles South of the airport; at the same time a B757-200 was on about a 3 mile final to Runway 19R. The same Controller was working both of these aircraft to sequence them for the approach. If the B757-200 had to execute a missed approach for any reason it would have put him directly in the flight path of the inbound B737-700. Additionally; when the B737-700 was about 3 miles from landing; I noticed another B757-200 being turned on the to Runway 19R approach by the Tustin Controller. I called the Controller over the interphone and he then broke the second B757-200 off of the approach. In light of the numerous procedures required for opposite direction departures; I believe there should be some clearly spelled out procedures for opposite direction approaches. However it appears that there are none in place. When we request an opposite direction departure; the supervisor must make the request with SoCal; but when they want to run an opposite direction arrival; they just call over the line and ask the controller. It also appears that they don't have any spacing requirements with the traffic making an opposite direction and an traffic making a normal approach to the same runway. My recommendation would be that they could not have any aircraft cleared for an approach to a runway when there is an aircraft cleared to make an opposite direction approach to the same runway until they receive a 'landing assured' call from the Tower.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.