link to Home Page

LAX Radio Outage
Sep 14, 2004

Radio Failure Grounds flights at West Airports
All flights at McCarran International Airport, Southern California and Arizona airports resumed flying after they were grounded for almost three hours Tuesday because of a radio failure at a Federal Aviation Administration control center. The cause of the radio failure, which had not been determined late Tuesday, is being investigated by the FAA.
 
FAA Radio Outage Snarls Western Flights
http://www.komoradio.com/stories/33055.htm
Departing flights had been held on the ground since 4:40 Tuesday afternoon because of a radio failure at the Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center in Palmdale north of LA. The center controls airspace in the LA region, northern California and parts of Nevada. An FAA spokeswoman says at the time of the outage, air traffic controllers could monitor the planes on radar but were not able to communicate with them. The cause of the outage is not yet known.

I don't know if this is anything but the FAA has their regional operations here in Auburn, WA. They have a cable that runs right under my shop. I believe it travels from the FAA center to SeaTac. AM radio broadcasts are shunted from dusk to dawn in this direction so they will not interfere with the FAA radar. I wonder if this story of FAA radio outage is due to an underground cable problem?

So. Cal. Airport Problems Could Affect Here
Palmdale Regional Airport in Palmdale, California lost radio transmission capabilities with high altitude planes -- meaning most commercial flights. As a result all flights in Southern California were grounded and all flights headed there were told to turn back.
 
ONTARIO
Radio failure at a Federal Aviation Administration control facility forced some airports in the West to hold flights on the ground Tuesday afternoon, a Los Angeles International Airport spokesman said. The outage occurred at 4:40 p.m. PDT at the Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center in Palmdale, in the desert north of Los Angeles, said Gaby Pacheco, citing information from a regional FAA office. Control of the airspace was turned over to other air traffic control facilities.