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| Home > News > Graduations (All) > Wollenberg Inquiry followup
Wollenberg Inquiry followup
A few short hours after some of the worst controlling in ZLA's history (save for the cry for help that was Keith Smith's vectoring of several KAYOH FOUR's into KSNA that rendered 4 pilots unconscious and one to die of old age) , NTSB officials raided Wollenberg's home, the gravity of the situation confronting them the moment they entered his apartment.
Every square inch of the walls was plastered in approach plates. While not an uncommon situation for aspiring pilots (right? right?), it's certainly unusual for a controller to build an approach plate shrine. Closer inspection, though, revealed the dark truth. "Every single plate was for a localizer approach," remarked Jordan Jaffer....Jafferdoo.... said Jordan.
JJ fell victim to Wollenberg's predatory vectoring and phantom instructions just the previous the evening and was eager to join investigators as they tried to determine the cause of Wollenberg's nonsensical instructions. Investigators were in for one last shock, though, as they entered Wollenberg's living room. The carpet had been replaced by a laminated, enlarged version of the LOC/DME BC RWY 34L approach into Reno, NV. "We think this is where it all started for Bryan," remarked the clearly fictitious investigator, "at some point, he started dabbling with backcourse approaches. Worse still, a cursory review of radar tracks shows him instructing pilots to hold on the wrong side of the localizer. It appears as though Mr Wollenberg was engaging in unprotected backcourse appoaches." An investigator sniggers in the background, "that would explains the shirt."
Not long after the publishing of the article exposing Wollenberg's maniacal obsession with localizers, a number of pilots came forward, under the condition of anonymity. Several stated that despite being told to expect the visual approach by one controller, the moment a shift change took place and Wollenberg was at the helm, they were given a suspiciously gentle intercept angle and casually told to join the localizer. "He made it so easy, and it seemed so harmless. One minute we're looking out the field for the airport, the next, we're fat and happy on the localizer."
Wollenberg was careful not to draw too much attention to himself and stopped just short of clearing these pilots for an ILS or localizer approach, proceeding instead with a thinly veiled visual.
Upon hearing the news of the JJ incident, one of these pilots broke down, claiming he felt "dirty" and "showered continuously", and that somehow it was his own fault.
One pilot who was in the air during the JJ debacle was on the VOR RWY 25 approach into Hawthorne and said "oh crap, I might be next." Despite being all set up for the VOR approach, he pulled out the LOC plate and dialed the frequency into his NAV2 radio, just in case. "At least Hawthorne actually HAS a localizer. So, I guess it wouldn't have been so bad."
"It's only because I'm such a spectacular pilot that I had the presence of mind to come up with a contingency plan, " said the same pilot as he gazed off into the sunset. He asked the camera crew, "You guys got the the NAV2 radio bit, right? Alright, good. And you got the shot of me looking into the sunset? Alright, good, good."
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