Ep32: Kansas City Controllers Use Experience, Coordination to Guide Piper PA-28 Pilot to Safety

Summary: At Kansas City Center (ZKC), air traffic controllers on position have a list available to them of fellow controllers at work who are also pilots. If needed, those controllers can be brought to the area to assist a pilot in distress, including things like reviewing emergency checklists. The pilot of a Piper PA-28, flying in instrument flight rules in February 2020, needed help and the controller on the other end of the microphone happened to be the perfect person for the situation: ZKC NATCA member Sarah Owens. Now in her 20th year at ZKC, Owens has been flying for the last 14 years. She flies jets, has worked for charter companies and flown around the country, and is also a flight instructor. She’s an Air Force veteran, a member of NATCA’s Air Safety Investigations Committee, and has represented NATCA at numerous pilot-controller meetings including at the annual Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture Oshkosh. “She knows the checklists for those aircraft like the back of her hand,” said fellow ZKC controller Jordan Haldeman, who worked with Owens in this flight assist. “As far as a pilot being in distress, Sarah is the person you’d want on the other end. She had that all under control with the pilot in helping him run those checklists.” Owens was working sectors 44/48 in the Trails Area. The pilot was attempting to land at Topeka Regional Airport (FOE) in Kansas but missed the approach after the first instrument landing system (ILS) attempt and was being vectored back around for another ILS. Owens noticed the pilot was descending and issued him a low altitude alert. She instructed him to climb and maintain 3,000 feet. He was at 2,000 feet. Owens worked with the pilot, advising to keep the wings level and climb. Haldeman’s mindset was making sure that everything else was being taken care of as far as coordination with the approach control at Kansas City ATCT (MCI) and with the local towers, and evaluating weather and field conditions at all surrounding airports. Together, Owens and Haldeman guided the pilot to a safe landing at Lawrence Smith Memorial Airport in Harrisonville, Mo., 80 miles east southeast of Topeka. For their efforts, the controllers have earned the Archie League Medal of Safety Award for the Central Region.