Radio Dereliction Enraging

The Federal Aviation Administration set forth in a Twitter thread that the malfunction and subsequent repair of a radar system at the Potomac Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facility had compelled the agency to ground flights across the airports of the Washington D.C. Metroplex for roughly one hour on Sunday, 25 June 2023.

The FAA added the Potomac TRACON continued to function—albeit not to its capacity—by dint of a backup system.

“During the repairs, a back-up system handled communications safely,” The FAA asserted in the aforementioned Twitter thread. “Normal operations are resuming.”

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) reported departures from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) and Dulles International Airport (IAD) were subjected to ground stops.

Officials stated, also, that flights from Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) and Richmond International Airport (RIC) were affected as well.

TRACONs, known also as Approach, Departure, or Local control facilities, are tasked with managing IFR traffic within thirty-to-fifty nautical-mile radii of large terminal airports—primarily within Class B and Class C airspace. Locales in which numerous high-traffic airports are located within close geographical proximity to one another—e.g., the New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, and Southern California greater metropolitan areas—are often consolidated under the control of a single controlling entity; in the antecedent instances: New York, Potomac, Chicago, and SOCAL TRACONs.

The airspace boundaries and altitudes assigned to U.S. TRACONs vary as functions of traffic flow and terrain. TRACON traffic flow is broadly divided into departures, arrivals, and overflights.

In addition to standard ATC services such as separating IFR traffic, providing navigational assistance and weather reports to pilots, and disseminating PIREPs, Terminal controllers are responsible for sequencing arriving aircraft for landing at their respective destination airports. Departing aircraft, conversely, are routed on-course by Terminal controllers and handed off at appropriate altitudes to Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCCs).

In the U.S., TRACONs are further differentiated by three-digit alphanumeric codes. For example, the Chicago TRACON is designated C90, Dallas-Ft. Worth is D10, Atlanta is A80, New York is N90, Las Vegas is L30, and Anchorage is A11.

FMI: www.faa.gov