Air traffi c management
Even in a year where air traffi c has fallen to levels not seen in decades, air traffi c control (ATC) still plays a vital role in regulating the fl ow of aircraft. But what happens when an ATC team comes down with coronavirus and how have airports been handling such setbacks? Nicholas Kenny speaks to Juliet Kennedy, operations director at NATS, and Teri L Bristol, COO of air traffi c organization at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), to fi nd out.
n 30 June 1956, Trans World Airlines Flight 2 took off from Los Angeles International Airport, bound for Kansas City Downtown Airport. It would be involved in the worst air collision of its time – the first commercial airline incident to exceed 100 fatalities. Shortly after take-off, the aircraft’s captain requested permission to climb to 21,000ft to avoid thunderheads that were forming near his flight path. Air traffic control (ATC) denied the request, as another aircraft was in the same airspace and the controller had no way to provide the horizontal separation required between two aircraft at the same altitude.
Battle for control O
The captain changed his request to ‘1,000 on top’ clearance, which would allow him to fly 1,000ft above the clouds, and was given the go-ahead by ATC. This allowed separation restrictions to be temporarily suspended, putting the responsibility for maintaining safe separation from other aircraft upon the captain and his crew.
As it crossed the Grand Canyon, Trans World Airlines Flight 2 collided mid-air with United Airlines Flight 718 – the other flight in the airspace – most likely due to cloud cover obstructing the pilots’ vision. All 128 people on board both flights perished. The crash shattered the public’s illusion of a safe air travel system and drew attention to the antiquated state of the ATC of the time. In response, President Eisenhower increased funding to modernise ATC in the US and perform a complete overhaul of navigational rules. No other single event in history has caused such a drastic transformation to this element of the aviation industry. Thankfully, ATC is in a much stronger position today and, while the Covid-19 pandemic remains a challenge unlike any other to all aspects of the industry, it is unlikely to reshape ATC in a similarly drastic fashion. That’s not to say, however, that there are no lessons to take away from the challenges air traffic controllers have had to overcome.
Planning for traffic
When Covid-19 first began to spread across the world, reactions from the world’s governments were initially slow – but when the lockdowns came, they came fast, leaving ATC operators scrambling to rework their industry around the new restrictions. It swiftly became clear that working from home wasn’t really an option for ATC teams, but operators were able to keep the numbers of people who had to be on-site to a minimum. However, even with these measures in place, the concern over outbreaks in ATC centres remained. By the end of 2020, almost 300 ATC centres had been affected by the pandemic in the
40 Future Airport /
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