Appreciate your speaking some truth on this, Tom. People need to understand that controllers in fact do things like sleep, read, listen to radios, use PCs, watch TVs while controlling traffic, each of which is not entirely unreasonable, especially where the controller is stuck being awake all night, often with 2-hours or even 5-hours of zero traffic to work. The problem comes in when controllers drop their vigilance - their ability and responsibility to drop the distraction - and the problem is compounded by both an agency and a controller union (NATCA) hellbent on coverup.

i think everyone had the burrito special at "al's mexican fiesta"

or they got the special instead of the soup.

In today's environment, the pilot may have been concerned terrorists as a possible explanation for the radio silence. (Am I being paranoid, or what?)

Seems rational that, if this was a technical glitch, FAA would have said say very early on. That said, I do not believe it is a union action, either (and I paid dues to that union for years, BTW). If it had been a union action, the pattern would have likely been repeated at other airports. In recent months, both FAA and NATCA have been very cordial, working together trying to get the ATC privatization scam pushed through, as both controllers and FAA managers would then be able to exceed pay limits of around $180K/year (the level paid to elected congressional reps).

This is the FAA, in this case. Sadly, this agency actually has staff, highly paid, who exist to obstruct the FOIA laws Congress passed. The two at the top, at FAA HQ, are Duke Taylor and Melanie Yohe. No accountability. I know this as a forced-to-retire ATC who has filed hundreds of FOIA requests with FAA, and had dozens of phonecalls all the way to Taylor, Melanie, trying to get them to do their jobs.

Solid investigative journalists would easily obtain the callout transcript and reports filed by local police and the airport authority. But, the real meaty information is controlled by FAA and NATCA; they know exactly what transpired, but have chosen to hide it from the Public.

Interestingly, a few years ago, when a controller at Knoxville made a bed and napped a couple hours, it created a media storm. Likewise, when a supervisor dozed off at Reagan National around midnight causing two late airline arrivals to delay landings, that too created a media storm. But, in 2016, it is as if FAA, NATCA and the mainstream media are colluding to keep us all ignorant.

You're on GGGGUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUAAAAARRRRDDDD!

What does "on guard" mean? I'm not a commercial pilot.

TCL has football charters land late @ night/early morning after the tower personnel have gone home. They are controlled by BHM 50-60 miles up the road. For big football Saturday's, the city pays the overtime & a secondary runway is closed & used for overflow parking.

I would think a larger airport like Midway would have a better tower presence.

SWA has a presence at MDW, I would think that the would divert to the closest SWA destination.

Respectfully I would disagree. It is night and you have souls aboard. You cannot see what might be on the runway, or what type of emergency has silenced the tower. Could be a danger to health, a terror event, police or fire emergency, or a skunk loose in the terminal.

No one aboard would object to the diversion in the world we currently live in. Gone are the days when a 3 foot chain link fence on the apron separated well wishers from the travelers boarding a Connie.

I say the pilots made the right move.

But I think the point here is that there is a "situational awareness" difference between a "known to be uncontrolled aerodrome that is uncontrolled" and a "supposed to be controlled aerodrome that seems to be uncontrolled for unknown reasons". The first is in it's normal state, and the second is clearly a "red flag" that could mean just about anything, as pointed out all over this thread.

If I'm a passenger, I want to go land somewhere where everything appears normal, thank you very much!

don't think they could do that... comm jets with pax?? was at a tower that closed at night and would stay on overtime to clear late arrival

That would take initiative on the part of the pilot. Is initiative spelled out in the SWA contract?

FAA stole a page from the Hillary Clinton playbook?