The Dallas Morning News
April 20, 2018
By Jacquielynn Floyd

"The men and women in airport control towers and regional radar rooms don't always spring to mind when we're talking about dicey aviation incidents, but they should. They're the ones who have to re-choreograph an intricate, high-speed, three-dimensional ballet without pausing to hold a meeting or draw diagrams or fetch coffee.

"There have been air traffic controllers as long as there has been air traffic, beginning with spotters on the ground who lit bonfires to guide barnstorming pilots to rural runways. 

"Their job is to keep what is sometimes criticized as an outdated, overburdened system moving as efficiently as possible. In an emergency, a cool head is paramount.

"'The pilot is dealing with a tremendous amount,' said Patrick Ream, an air traffic control specialist and the local president for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association in Philadelphia, where the crippled Southwest Airlines jet made its emergency landing (April 17). 'The last thing they need is a controller who is showing signs of stress.'

Ream said Philadelphia controllers were aware when the flight was handed off from New York-area airspace control that the flight was in trouble, but the plane's condition and the extent of the damage remained unclear.

"'It's kind of a real fine line between getting the information we need and not bothering the pilot, because they've got a lot on their hands.'"

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