The Big Sky
Hatian ATC Operations
On Friday January 22nd a group of 13 Air National Guardsmen departed New Hampshire’s Pease International Tradeport, bound for Port Au Prince, Haiti. Eight of the thirteen are members of the 260th Air Traffic Control Squadron based at the former Air Force base; the others hailed from similar units across the country. Their mission, part of “Operation Unified Response, CTF (Combined Task Force) Haiti”, was to relieve a similar number of Air Force combat air traffic controllers already in place at the country’s main air terminal, Toussaint Louverture International Airport (ICAO identifier MTPP). The day after the devastating earthquake struck the Caribbean nation, Air Force Special Operations Command personnel hastily set up shop and began to sort the operations at Haiti’s largest airport. The controllers became a safety net for the massive relief operation that followed.
MTPP airport has a single 9,974 foot runway 10-28, offering ILS, VOR, and RNAV/GPS IFR approaches. The runway has no parallel taxiways; the paved ramp area can accommodate up to 9 large jetliners near the terminal buildings at a time. Routine operations before the quake saw no more than 15 to 20 commercial flights operate per day. The country’s Flight Information Region (FIR) contains airspace controlled by the Port Au Prince Area Control Center (known as MTEG ACC), which borders Cuban airspace to the west, and the U.S.’s FAA Miami Center to the north.
The quake struck Haiti on Tuesday January 12th. The next evening, an advanced party of combat controllers arrived to assist in the evaluation of the airport. The main job of a combat air traffic controller is to take over and control the operations at an airport under austere conditions, normally under enemy fire. Luckily, there was no gunfire to deal with, but damaged structures included the control tower, which was soon deemed “unusable”. On a positive note, the runway and ramp area was spared damage and would accept aircraft continuously. ATC service was reported as sporadic; one dispatch told of aircraft darting in and out of the airport unannounced. The combat controllers soon set up a folding table, turned on their portable radios, and within half an hour of arriving began issuing control instructions, sorting out local airborne and ground traffic.
In the days that followed, Haitian authorities worked with FAA and military personnel, most notably the FAA’s ATC System Command Center (ATCSCC) in Herndon VA, to update the world on the progress at the airport and airspace overhead Haiti. Miami ARTCC controls the airspace north of the country, and received much of the initial air traffic that responded to pleas of help from North America and Europe. There were many times, especially during the first week of the rescue and recovery effort, when there were many more arriving aircraft airborne than the airport could safely accommodate. Holding and diversions occurred, usually due to ramp congestion that bottlenecked the airport. Ultimately, United Nations (UN), American, and Haitian authorities worked with the controllers and the FAA in prioritizing the arriving aircraft and setting up arrival slots. “U.S. airmen and Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control experts at the Haiti Flight Operations Coordination Center (HFOCC) have safely increased the number of flights supported at the international airport to more than 120 per day, four times the airport’s normal capacity” said a military news release from the U.S Southern Command, who was assigned the duty of coordinating airborne rescue and relief efforts with Haitian government officials. With the main seaport damaged beyond use, the Toussaint Louverture airport had become Haiti’s main lifeline to the world. The U.S. combat controllers worked 12-hour shifts to keep the lifeline operating as safely and efficiently as possible. FAA enroute controllers had to adapt to the unusually heavy demand for MTPP, and deal with stop-and-go arrival delays.
Plans for relieving the initial combat controllers with a more conventional ATC team were quickly developed. The ANG group from New Hampshire included Chief Master Sergeant (CMSgt.) Tim Sowder, who is the NCO-In Charge (NCOIC) of the deployment. At a briefing just prior to the team’s departure, he said that he hadn’t communicated with the combat controllers in Haiti directly, and the only bit of news that they had was that they’d probably be sleeping in tents. Some concrete news was that the simultaneous deployment of an FAA-supplied portable tower promised the controllers more permanent radios and shelter from the environment… including air conditioning. U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (NH) attended the small “send-off” briefing, greeting the out-of-staters and wished all of the group members well.
To deploy, the group packed enough water, rations, and survival equipment to last a week in austere conditions. E-mail and other web-based computer operations were still not available and cell phone service was just beginning to be restored as they departed, almost two weeks after the quake. CMSSgt. Sowder was expecting to be deployed for 180 days, although some of his team would be “in country” for half of that time.
In a surreal scene under harsh lighting, the ANG controllers boarded their preloaded C-130 on a cold night in New Hampshire, and left their comforts of home behind for an extended period of time. They’d arrive in tropical Haiti the next day, and begin to learn about the life-saving operation that they’d soon inherit. The adaptability, resourcefulness, and dedication of air traffic controllers – both military and civilian - played a major part in maximizing the amount of immediate assistance that was delivered to Haiti. The inbound group of ANG controllers will enable this lifeline to continue for the foreseeable future too.
By Ken Kula