Inside how pilots, airlines train for air traffic control disruptions

How pilots bid for disruptions

How pilots bid for disruptions with aerial postulation control 03:19

Blacked-out air postulation control screens and connection issues successful places similar Newark, Denver and Jacksonville implicit the past respective months person enactment a renewed absorption connected the U.S.' aging aerial postulation power system. 

The Fourth of July could acceptable a caller question record. The TSA expects to surface much than 18.5 cardinal flyers implicit a 7-day stretch.

With the adjacent summertime question unreserved upon america for the Fourth of July, CBS News got a first-hand look astatine a pilot's training, wrong a 737 Max simulator taking disconnected from a simulated Newark Liberty Airport.

"We run connected a strategy of aggregate layers of redundant systems," said Capt. Miles Morgan, who oversees United Airline's formation grooming halfway successful Denver, adding adjacent earlier joining an hose aviator learns however to grip ATC outages. "One of the archetypal things you larn arsenic a pilot, erstwhile you're getting your instrumentality standing successful a tiny airplane, is what to bash if you suffer connection with the aerial postulation power facility."

While flying Morgan dialed into aerial postulation power connected an assigned vigor frequency.

Morgan explained what would hap if ATC went retired midflight, saying, "So the archetypal happening is I'm connected this superior frequency. I would instantly spell to the frequence that I was past on, which is present successful my standby."

Another vigor is acceptable to an exigency transmission that each aerial postulation power centers and different craft tin hear.

If that doesn't work, Morgan said determination is simply a substance messaging strategy pilots tin usage to pass with crews connected the ground. While flying, the plane's transponder sends a awesome identifying the level to controllers and different aircraft. Pilots tin alteration that fig to 7,600, the codification for comms trouble.

"Hey, this craft has mislaid communication. So they'll commencement separating aircraft, you know, astir from us," Morgan said.

All airliners besides person an onboard collision avoidance strategy — known arsenic TCAS — that scans the skies for different planes.

"I'm gonna halt everything that I'm doing. I'm gonna look astatine my navigation show and I spot that I've got postulation encroaching connected me, 600 feet above," Morgan said. 

But if his level is not a harmless region away, "my craft would springiness maine a command," helium explained. "If my craft was told to descend, that craft would beryllium told to climb, and that would summation the separation."

In May, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy spoke CBS News astir ATC outages, saying, "the pilots, erstwhile that happens, they cognize that they person to look ... to different halfway or, TRACON oregon operation to pass with and they each commencement to wage adjacent attraction and enactment distant from each other."

Morgan said passengers are not little harmless due to the fact that of aerial postulation power outages, but they whitethorn beryllium inconvenienced.

"Because we're going to instantly person delays," helium said.

Delays volition hap due to the fact that erstwhile there's an issue, aerial postulation power volition bounds postulation successful the impacted area. Controllers besides person backup vigor channels and if 1 halfway does spell dark, different facilities tin inactive way the planes.

Air postulation power outages

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating aft aggregate aerial postulation power outages since April were reported astatine the Philadelphia aerial postulation power center, which is liable for handling flights successful and retired of Newark Liberty International Airport.

In April, aerial postulation controllers directing flights into the New Jersey airdrome mislaid communications for 90 seconds. 

The aerial postulation power halfway successful Denver had a temporary, partial outage successful May that impacted communications. The halfway covers 285,000 quadrate miles of airspace.

The Trump administration announced plans successful May to overhaul the country's system.

• Air Traffic Controllers
• Transportation Security Administration
• Newark Liberty International Airport
• Airlines