December 1953, Taegu Air Route Traffic Control Center, on the hill by the Children’s School in downtown Taegu, Korea. The war, I mean the ‘Police Action‘, has been over since last June. Both sides are still at the ready and wary of each other. About the same as it is now in 2011 (58 years later?)
In the middle of a midnight to seven A.M. shift I was the only controller “on the boards”. Didn’t need any more. Taegu Air Route Traffic Control Center was a manual control facility, e.g., no radar and the air traffic at night was not more than a couple of aircraft.
There was another controller operating the radios in another room and a supervisor, T/Sgt Aaron Willeford, at the desk also operating as the Air Defense liaison controller. Three of us in all plus a radio technician available on call.
Special 304 a C-54 had landed some time ago at Seoul (K-14). He would be calling for clearance at any moment to proceed from Seoul to Taegu (K-2). A proposal was on the board for a C-119 from Kunsan (K-8) to Taegu. Special 304 was a courier flight that flew every night from Tokyo to various bases in Japan and Korea. Same flight, same call-sign, same route and about the same time every night. Kept us all awake no matter the weather or lack of other operations.
Well, both the C-54 and the C-119 called for clearance about the same time. My dilemma was that both aircraft were going to the same destination and I was estimating them to be there at about the same time so I needed to have them stacked at the appropriate altitude when I handed them off to the Tower at K-2(Taegu). I made a guess that the C-54 would depart on time because of the scheduled nature of his operation and the C-119 would be a bit late because, well, it was a C-119.
So I issued an airway clearance to the C-54 to fly at a wrong way altitude, 5000, which was the minimum enroute Instrument Flight Rules altitude for his route from Seoul via Amber 5 to Dog King (DK homer,K-5) then Green 5 to Tare George (TG Homer) to land at Taegu. There was a reporting point south of Seoul, abeam Roger Willy (RW Homer at K-54) which was normally the first time the K-14 departures contacted Taegu Center after departing Kimpo or other Seoul airports..
The C119 I cleared from Kunsan Air Base via Green 5 to Dog King to Tare George to Taegu. I assigned him 6000, also a wrong way altitude but if he were a few minutes behind the C-54 the approach to Taegu would be facilitated.
I then put in my estimated times of departure and made the estimates over each reporting point. I hollered to the back-room radio controller that I would take control of the radios at my console and do the whole operation from there.
We were real proud of our new control room in the Quonset huts on the hill. The new center had been built under the guidance of Maj. Maxwell King and it was an immense improvement over the orange crate and field telephone operation in a Quonset Hut we had at Taegu AFB behind the rice fabric sandbag revetments. We had left Taegu Air Base in October of 1953 for these brand-new quarters in downtown Taegu.
The Tower at Kimpo AFB called and Special 304 was airborne within a couple of minutes of my estimate and the first reporting point estimate, Abeam Roger Willy, was posted. The C119 was reported airborne by K8 Tower, also very close to my estimate. Wow! I was doing real good. All my estimates were working out and the traffic was really moving the right way.
First radio contact. “Special304, abeam Roger Willy at zero four, climbing to six thousand, estimating Dog King at one four, Tare George next.” I was ecstatic. Everything was happening within a minute of my estimates. No contact with the C119 yet. They never did come on frequency until they were almost to Dog King. But the estimate I had made placed the C119 behind the C54 all the way, just as I had planned.
Next radio contact, “Special 304 at six thousand.”
Third radio contact, “Special 304 over Dog King at one four, six thousand, estimating Tare George at thirty three.”
Fourth radio contact, “Taegu Center this is Air Force 40885, two minutes west of Dog king at six thousand , reversing course.”
Damn! How did they get at the same altitude?
If you noted the radio contacts above you will have seen that Special 304 , twice reported a final altitude of six thousand instead of the five thousand that I had issued to Kimpo Tower. But I was so proud of the estimates working out the way I had planned that I just didn’t pay attention.
It was found later that Kimpo Tower had transmitted the correct altitude, 5000, and the radio operator of Special 304 had read back 5000 to the Tower. Somehow the pilot heard 6000, which was the correct altitude for his direction of flight according to NEodd SWeven (North & East odd and South & West even) and was normally issued for that leg of the night’s operation. The pilot had made the calls to ATC and the radio operator hadn’t connected the clearance with the reported altitude. Even though he had written down the contacts and the information as required.
The C119 had just come on frequency in time to hear the C54 report over Dog King turning from south to south-east while he, the C119, was approaching Dog King from the west southwest and was estimating two minutes from a position over Dog King Homer.
The investigation of the incident was done by the Safety Officer of the Special 304 squadron and was complete and correct. He noted that the radio operator had not confirmed the correct altitude with the pilot, that the pilot had not heard the correct altitude and that the controller, ME, had not paid attention to three radio reports from Special 304 which had mentioned 6000 instead of 5000, the cleared altitude.
By great good fortune I was about to clear the Detachment for return to the “Land of the Big PX” when the report was received. An endorsement was made indicating I had been given special training and some type of discipline but I was gone by the time any other paperwork could be transmitted.
Well, the third time is the charm, goes the saying but this time the third time was the most dangerous of the three to that date. By the way I’m still an E-3 at this time with 15 months in grade. But this is not the end of my stories. See you next time.
BAKER SUGAR