Nightly News   |  April 19, 2011

Despite scrutiny, ATC errors abound

The First Lady's plane was forced to abort its landing and circle Andrews Air Force base yesterday, after a controller error brought the official White House plane too close to a giant C17 cargo jet; and in Ohio, a night controller has been suspended for watching a movie while on duty. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> we have news from the world of aviation. again tonight, just days after the transportation department promised to fix problems in this country's air traffic control towers, there are two high-profile incidents to report tonight. first, the first lady's aircraft, an air force modified 737, was forced to abort its landing and then circle around andrews air force base yesterday after a controller error brought the official white house aircraft too close to a giant lumbering c-17 cargo jet that was landing in order in front of the first lady's plane. we should add, in the aviation business these are known as go-arounds. they're not entirely uncommon at busy airports. obviously less common on flights like this one. they're usually caused by a preponderance of caution combined with a miscalculation by pilots or the tower regarding air or ground speed . and a night shift controller in ohio has been suspended for watching a movie while on duty. he left his radio key open and was inadvertently transmitting a scene from a samuel l. jackson movie called "cleaner" to pilots passing overhead in the air space . after complaints that the controller couldn't be reached, an air force pilot got through on a military radio frequency.