Ask Madden

yo yo....so today our main instructor was shootin the shit with us and he mentioned how he lost is medical(atc'ers need to have their medical evals current every year to work traffic, if u lose it u can do other jobs, just not control positions) but didn't specify why...we didnt wanna ask cuz maybe he got sick or soemthing personal(he's in late 40's)...he then told us how he lost it because of mid air collision he was involved with, the story he told us was actually kinda disturbing
he said early in his career, like 3 yrs after he started a disgruntled employee on the plane he was talking to took out a gun and killed the pilot and staff and the plane crashed while he was controlling it...he was taken off position, debriefed, given 15 min break and then asked if he could go back to position. at the time he thought he could handle it but he couldnt...then he said several years ago his wife had a stroke, lost both parents, a friend and another terrible thing all in a very short period and he had a readback error that almost made two f16's collide...after that he said he hung up his headset and said that's enough
he did say he still wishes he could go back every now and then but likes trainign like he is now