A Day In the Life of a Controller
Edited by David Barth, July 1995
It was a clear day as the three of us flew across wide, boring Nebraska in a Mooney, heading for Denver following a stop in Ottumwa, Iowa for fuel. We were
on an IFR flight plan and the radio activity was slow and mundane due to the excellent weather. We were with a sector of Minneapolis Center, listening to the
sparse radio reports as we cruised along, gazing at the farms along our route.
Our attention was suddenly riveted to the radio as we heard this exchange: "Cessna 123, confirm squawk code." A moment of silence was
followed by this report from the Cessna: "Cessna 123, confirming squawk code."
There followed a dead silence on the frequency, and we could visualize the activity in the sector radar room as supervisors and controllers redistributed assignments
and prepared to meet the potential threat. The verified squawk code was that used for airplane high jackings.
Then Center came alive. It began dumping aircraft off the frequency, one by one. Everyone knew what was happening. The frequency was being isolated so that
only the Cessna would be on that channel. As our turn came to switch to a new sector frequency, we acknowledged and reported in, but, like every other crew
who had heard the squawk exchange, we kept one radio tuned to the old frequency to listen in.
Center calmly communicated with the Cessna in a way that would make a layman think nothing was out of the ordinary. We liked the way the Center controllers
handled the event, but we flew out of range before we heard anything exciting. We often wondered if it had been a surprise drill for the controllers or a real
crisis.
Years later, I heard about a similar event that occurred at Boulder Airport where a woman flight instructor was taken on an unplanned ride to Kansas, and I wondered
how that flight had been handled. Controllers have a difficult job. As pilots, we let them do the work of keeping us apart while we, if we are in visual conditions,
look out the windows for traffic, but otherwise relax in our cockpit. They can never relax.