Narrative:

Working sector 13 combined with 3 and 9. Aircraft X was cleared for the RNAV approach to runway 01L. After I verified he had the weather and NOTAMS; he read clearance back fine and was sent to the CTAF and told to report arrival with center. There was no NOTAM for personnel and equipment on the runways at bet. I then made a transmission to the next inbound; clearing him to descend to 30. This second pilot advised me that aircraft X was talking to a snow plow at bet and he did not know if the aircraft X was going to land or not. I asked him if it sounded like the plow was on the runway and he said he wasn't sure yet that he was going to monitor the CTAF to see. Next I get a call from another aircraft on the ground at bet requesting his IFR clearance out. I gave him the clearance with a hold for release and asked him if he could see the runway from his position and if it looked like there was a plow on that runway. He said it appears that there is a state pickup truck on the runway doing an inspection. I requested that he go to the CTAF and ensure that the vehicle knew of the inbound aircraft X and that the aircraft X knew about the pickup. I called ena radio to check on the NOTAMS and they had no awareness of there being any vehicles on the runways at bet. We have in those sectors 2 other airports that have control towers besides bet. When the towers are closed; the airport personnel are very good about calling flight service and telling them and then flight service tells us that the vehicles are out there. It happens every morning. Airport checks are something we expect. One airport even has the peculiarity of closing the airport for their runway checks. Bet never calls. They must be doing the checks; but we never get calls from them unless the tower is open and we might get a runway closure call from tower. I must also say that of all of the airports that we work; and there are many; bet airport maintenance; not the control tower; is difficult to work with. They don't communicate with ATC; they will close runways at the drop of a hat with no notice/information regardless of how many inbounds we have or their distance from the airport. This is the only airport that we continually have these difficulties with. Recommendation; I think that the airport personnel should be calling flight service; or at least center directly on the frequency; to advise when they will be out there on the runways during hours that the towers are closed.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZAN Controller expressed concern regarding the lack of timely runway information provided by BET maintenance personnel during airport operations with the control tower closed.

Narrative: Working sector 13 combined with 3 and 9. Aircraft X was cleared for the RNAV approach to Runway 01L. After I verified he had the weather and NOTAMS; he read clearance back fine and was sent to the CTAF and told to report arrival with Center. There was no NOTAM for personnel and equipment on the runways at BET. I then made a transmission to the next inbound; clearing him to descend to 30. This second pilot advised me that Aircraft X was talking to a snow plow at BET and he did not know if the Aircraft X was going to land or not. I asked him if it sounded like the plow was on the runway and he said he wasn't sure yet that he was going to monitor the CTAF to see. Next I get a call from another aircraft on the ground at BET requesting his IFR clearance out. I gave him the clearance with a hold for release and asked him if he could see the runway from his position and if it looked like there was a plow on that runway. He said it appears that there is a state pickup truck on the runway doing an inspection. I requested that he go to the CTAF and ensure that the vehicle knew of the inbound Aircraft X and that the Aircraft X knew about the pickup. I called ENA Radio to check on the NOTAMS and they had no awareness of there being any vehicles on the runways at BET. We have in those sectors 2 other airports that have control towers besides BET. When the towers are closed; the airport personnel are very good about calling Flight Service and telling them and then Flight Service tells us that the vehicles are out there. It happens every morning. Airport checks are something we expect. One airport even has the peculiarity of closing the airport for their runway checks. BET never calls. They must be doing the checks; but we never get calls from them unless the tower is open and we might get a runway closure call from tower. I must also say that of all of the airports that we work; and there are many; BET airport maintenance; not the Control Tower; is difficult to work with. They don't communicate with ATC; they will close runways at the drop of a hat with no notice/information regardless of how many inbounds we have or their distance from the airport. This is the only airport that we continually have these difficulties with. Recommendation; I think that the airport personnel should be calling Flight Service; or at least center directly on the frequency; to advise when they will be out there on the runways during hours that the towers are closed.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.