Have you ever noticed a tall tower near an airport? Chances are, you've just seen an Air Traffic Control tower which handles traffic on the ground as well as those within a certain vicinity of the airport. These are the people who give pilots their take-off and landing clearances, among other things. A busy airport would likely come to a near standstill without the men and women who work in these towers. But, what if I told you that there are airports out there without a control tower that also caters to commercial (passenger airline) flights. These airports are known as non-towered airports.
As the name suggests, non-towered airports are airports without an ATC tower. In the US alone, there are about 20000 non-towered airports compared to just about 500 towered airports. Non-towered airports can be found at airfields with low traffic flow.
So, how does a pilot fly safely into a non-towered airport? Aircrafts flying in and out of a non-towered airport should monitor a specific frequency. A pilot should broadcast their intentions on this frequency to mitigate the risk of collision. Remember to be clear and concise in your broadcast. You should also listen to what other pilots say on this frequency. Situational awareness is key to flying in and out of a non-controlled airport safely. The AOPA Air Safety Foundation (ASF) does not recommend the practice of taking position on the runway and holding at nontowered airports to wait for other traffic to clear as you can't see any traffic behind you. A landing aircraft has priority over aircraft on the ground.
Notable incident at a non-controlled airport
United Express Flight 5925, operated by Great Lakes Airlines with a Beechcraft 1900 twin-turboprop, was a regularly scheduled flight from Chicago O'Hare International Airport to Quincy, Illinois, with an intermediate stop in Burlington, Iowa.
On November 19, 1996, the aircraft collided on landing at Quincy with another Beechcraft, a private King Air, that was taking off from an intersecting runway. The crash was known as Quincy runway disaster. All occupants of both planes, twelve onboard the 1900 and two on board the King Air, were killed as a result. This incident was also featured on Air Crash Investigation (AKA Mayday) Season 15 Episode 1.
Remote and Virtual Tower airports
A new introduction in aviation are airports relying on a remote and virtual tower. The first remote tower that was approved and went into operation was in Sweden in April 2015. London City Airport was the first in the UK to adopt this system.
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