Ryan Dierking, Ryan Keel – West Area – August 2019

Ryan Dierking was working the radar position at Washington (95), combined with Hanna City (91) and Ryan Keel was working the Iowa City (94) radar. Mr. Dierking had UAE212 (A388) northbound at FL350 and UAL230 (B739) southwest-bound at FL340. Ryan Keel remarked that Emirates is a “Super” and Ryan Dierking recognized that while the targets of UAL212 and UAL230 were not likely to merge, they were going to pass within a few miles of each other, possibly creating a hazardous wake turbulence scenario. Mr. Dierking requested control for turns from Joliet (83) and alerted UAL230 of the possibility of wake turbulence from the Super Airbus A380, and asked if they would like a vector to avoid. The pilots of UAL230 took a moment to deliberate and responded that they would like a right turn. Ryan Dierking corrected them and advised that a left turn would be better to pass farther behind the A380, and turned United 15 degrees left. When United crossed Emirates’ flight path they were 20 miles behind and Ryan asked if they encountered any wake. United first said no, then when 23 miles behind they said they encountered “pretty rough” bumps for 2-3 seconds and described it as moderate turbulence. A few minutes later UAL230 stated “that was some real good controlling on your part, saved our butts on that one,” and that if they didn’t turn it “would have been ugly.”

Mr. Keel’s observation and notification to Mr. Dierking about the Emirates Super is an excellent example of “see something, say something” and area teamwork. Mr. Dierking’s notification, conversation and resolution with the pilots of the affected United flight helped them avoid a potentially serious wake turbulence encounter, which often result in injuries.