 |
37000 Feet | Browse and search NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System |
|
Mkc controller reported an erroneous MSAW alert involving a departure aircraft climbing at a normal rate.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 967511 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201109 |
| Local Time Of Day | 1801-2400 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | MKC.Tower |
| State Reference | MO |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | King Air C90 E90 |
| Flight Phase | Initial Climb |
| Route In Use | Vectors |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Departure |
| Qualification | Air Traffic Control Fully Certified |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | ATC Issue All Types |
Narrative:
A king air; departed runway 19 at mkc on an IFR flight plan. He was assigned heading 215 as per the mkc/mci. Everything was kosher about his departure and climb out; except that an automated MSAW alert (low altitude alert) occurred. This was an erroneous alert. This was only one of dozens of erroneous alerts we will have today and almost every day. However; this alert was somewhat unique in this respect: it occurred on climb out. Up until about a month or two ago; we only received these erroneous alerts on arrivals. But recently they have started to occur on departing aircraft. In this case; the alert began at 1;900 MSL and continued through 2;700 MSL. The highest obstacle in the MVA area is less than 2;100 MSL. The aircraft was on a terped and approved heading; all nice and established and there was nothing abnormal about his climb rate or anything. He was above pattern altitude within 2 miles of the airport and climbing. Somebody has got to do something about these erroneous alerts. God forbid there is ever a real low altitude situation; because the stars has been crying wolf for years. Recommendations: 1) there's got to be some way to change the parameters on the MSAW alerts. Can someone please look into this? 2) the mci SOP paragraph 2-1-6; sentence 2; which requires mci controllers to call mkc on the shout line every single time one of these erroneous alarms occurs; is an unsafe and uselessly distracting requirement; and needs to be stricken immediately.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: MKC Controller reported an erroneous MSAW Alert involving a departure aircraft climbing at a normal rate.
Narrative: A King Air; departed Runway 19 at MKC on an IFR flight plan. He was assigned heading 215 as per the MKC/MCI. Everything was kosher about his departure and climb out; except that an automated MSAW Alert (Low Altitude Alert) occurred. This was an erroneous alert. This was only one of dozens of erroneous alerts we will have today and almost every day. However; this alert was somewhat unique in this respect: it occurred on climb out. Up until about a month or two ago; we only received these erroneous alerts on arrivals. But recently they have started to occur on departing aircraft. In this case; the alert began at 1;900 MSL and continued through 2;700 MSL. The highest obstacle in the MVA area is less than 2;100 MSL. The aircraft was on a TERPed and approved heading; all nice and established and there was nothing abnormal about his climb rate or anything. He was above pattern altitude within 2 miles of the airport and climbing. Somebody has got to do something about these erroneous alerts. God forbid there is ever a real low altitude situation; because the STARS has been crying wolf for years. Recommendations: 1) There's got to be some way to change the parameters on the MSAW alerts. Can someone please look into this? 2) The MCI SOP paragraph 2-1-6; sentence 2; which requires MCI controllers to call MKC on the shout line every single time one of these erroneous alarms occurs; is an unsafe and uselessly distracting requirement; and needs to be stricken immediately.
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.