IFATCA The Controller - 4th quarter 2001

THECONTROLLER JOURNAL

future ATM from Boeing

OF

AlR

ATC and September11th

TRAFFlC

CONTROL

ZagrebRevisited

RegionalMeetings

4/2001 4th quarter 2001 volume 40 ISSN0010-8073

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Everyone reads The Controller 1

PUBLISHER IFATCA, International Federation of Air Traffic

Controllers·Associations.

EXECUTIVE BOARD OF IFATCA

THECONTROLLER JOURNAL

OF

AIR

TRAFFIC

CONTROL

Samuel u.mpkln President and Chief Executive Officer

James Ferguson Deputy President

ln This lssue

United Kingdom, December 2001 Volume 40 No 4

Jean Robert Dumfries ExecutiveVice PresidentAmericas

4

Terry Crowhurst

5

Future Concerns

Sam Lampkin

6

Controller Shortage

Alexander

10

USAF ATC School

Ray Curry

12

Single European Sky

European Region

14

Sep 11 - Shanwick

Eddie Wallace

15

Sep 11 Atlantic

18

The Day the Vectors Stopped

Brian Fallon

20

A View of September

Tom Morin

Conference Manager

23

Sep 11 Effects on Controllers

Philippe Domogala

EDITOR

24

Sep 11 from the Flight Deck

Delta 1 5 Flight Crew

26

Zagreb Collision Revisited

Philippe Domogala

29

European Regional Meeting

30

The Future of Air Traffic Management John Hayhurst

33

Asia Pacific Regional Meeting

34

Africa Regional Meeting

37

Charlie's Column

38

Appreciation's

Albert Taylor ExecutiveVice-PresidentAfnca/ Middle East

Phlllp Parker Executive Vice-President Asia/Pacific

Marc Baumgartner

ExecutiveVice-PresidentEurope

Skoniezki

Steph Simmonds Executive Vice-President Finance

Doug Churchill ExecutiveVice-President Professional

Canadian Air Traffic Control Robert Hammond

Andrew Beadle Execu1ive V1ce•President Technical

Jack van Delft Executive Board Secretary/

Chns Stock.

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11th

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Tel: +44 1252 860736 • Fax: +441252 860737 • e-mail: subscribe@ifatca.org• web site: www.ifatca.org IssuesAppear End of March. June.September,December.ContributorsAre ExpressingTheir PerscnalPointsof View and Opinions,v\fhich May Not Necessarily CoincideWith Thoseof The InternationalFederationof Air TrafficControllers'Associations.lFATCA.IFATCADoesNot Ass•;meResponsibilityForStatementsMade and OpinionsExpressed.it AcceptsResponsibilityForPublishingTheseContributions.ContributionsAre WelcomeasAre Commentsand Criticism,No PaymentCan be Made For ManuscriptsSubmittedfor Publicationin The Controller.The Editor ReservesThe Right to Make Any EditorialChangesin Manuscripts,Which he BelievesWill ImproveThe MaterialWithout Altering The IntendedMeaning.Written Permissionby The Editoris NecessaryForReprintingAny Partof This Journal.

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3

TERRYCROWHURST Editor,The Controller !991 - 2000 Terry Crowhurst died on 10 October 2001 after a yearlong fight with cancer. Terry, or TC he was universally known, took over Editor of the IFATCA house magazine, "The Controller" from Harri Henshler in 1991.

TC was born in Eastbourne on 30 December 1944 and lived in the town until the age of 18 when he joined the Royal Air Force. On completion of his operational training at RAF Thorney Island, he was posted to RAF Benson as an Air Loadmaster on Argosies. In 1966, TC married Dona prior to their posting overseas to Aden.

The pressures of Transport Command on family life were considerable so consequently, TC decided to transfer from aircrew to Air Traffic Control. He was commissioned in 1970 and was posted to RAF Finingley as an ATCO. He then moved to area radar at Midland Radar, which was followed by an instructional tour at ARTS RAF Shawbury. It was during this tour that TC was sent to Saxa Vord on the northern tip of the Shetland Islands to establish a new area radar unit.

This project was in response to concerns about the safety of offshore helicopters conflicting with military operations. He succeeded admirably and Shetland Radar provided a radar service for many years.

To those of us who knew TC in his service career, we observed a man of many parts.

Socially, TC was the great organiser bringing people together. He had a natural affinity to please people. Also, he was a keen gardener, wine connoisseur, and golfer. However, most people who have met TC or have had dealings with him will have recognised his considerable management and administrative abilities.

There is no doubt his service training served him well and he gained great

satisfaction in being an efficient organiser.

On leaving Shawbury, he was promoted to Squadron Leader and posted to Manston as SATCO. His final RAF posting was to RAF Rheindahlen near Dusseldorf.

On leaving the RAF, TC joined the UK Civil Aviation Authority at the Safety Regulation Group headquarters in Gatwick. He became a member of the Licensing and College Regulation section

within Air Traffic Services Standards Department. His work involved the European Licence harmonisation project which involved close liaison with Eurocontrol. Although he did not live to see the project to a successful conclusion, he will be remembered for his significant contributions.

In 1989, the IFATCA annual conference was held in Frankfurt so that TC, being just down the road so to speak, attended his first IFATCA function as a member of the UK Guild delegation. This was the start of a long and enduring relationship with the Federation. In 1991, he took on the mantle of Editor of "The Controller" magazine. During his stewardship, significant changes to the style and content were implemented. One of his great achievements was to drag the conservative forces of the magazine into accepting the use of computers and colour in the production process. As Editor, he attended all Executive Board meetings which entailed travel throughout the world. At these meetings and the annual conferences, TC was always in the engine room ensuring that every aspect of the organisation, both professional and social, was functioning correctly and efficiently. His contribution to the workings of the Federation over the decade were recognised this year when he was awarded "The Scroll of Honour" in the grand surroundings of the United Nations building in Geneva. Sadly, his

ASM WORKSHOP ON THE HARMONISATION AND SIMPLIFICATION OF ALL ECAC AIRSPACE BELOW THE UPPER AIRSPACE EUROCONTROL, BRUSSELS - 16/17 JANUARY 2002 The Airspace Strategy for the ECAC States was approved by the EUROCONTROL Provisional Council and Permanent Commission on 18 January 2001. The aim of the EUROCONTROL Airspace Strategy for the ECAC States is to deliver a simplified, optimised and harmonised airspace organisation throughout Europe.

EUROCONTROL will host an ASM Workshop at Brussels on 16/17 January 2002 which will discuss "The Harmonisation and Simplification of all Airspace below the Upper Airspace" ( below FL 195 ) and the division of this task into 2 different work packages (known as 01 - 2A(1) & 01 - 2A(2). The Workshop will examine in detail the implications for national, international, regulatory, ATS provision, airspace users, military, ATM safety and legal issues and planned implementation timescales.

The EUROCONTROL Airspace Strategy will: shape European airspace for the decades ahead; have serious implications for national and international aviation; affect all operators, pilots, ATS providers, controllers, civil and military airspace users.

Therefore, all stakeholders should be represented at the Workshop to ensure that their interests are taken into account.

More information can be obtained from our internet website: http://www.eurocontrol.int/eatmp/events.html Or, please contact Bernadette Tamo: Tel: + 32 2 729 3366Fax: +32 2 729 9003 bernadette.tamo@curocontrol.i Ill

4

THE CONTROLLER

F e Future Concerns Samuel Lampkin President, IFATCA

I Tuesday 11 September 2001 will go down in the annals of history as the day when international civil aviation changed.

Indeed, several of the changes that followed in the immediate aftermath were in no way connected solely to the events of that day.

Closer examination would certainly give rise to the conclusion that the industry was entering a period of recession.

The hastened downturn has inevitably brought with it a new conscientiousness and stakeholders worldwide have in one way or another embarked upon remedial measures.

However, there is still the ever-evasive issue of air traffic controller shortages plaguing the Air Traffic Management (ATM) side of the industry that needs to be addressed.

In almost our entire 119 member associations' countries and organisations it is predicted that the situation will worsen if recruitment of new staff is not occasioned at a comparative level, becoming very critical within the next two to five years.

Current and recently suggested negative recruitment policies and practices need to be improved upon and reviewed so as to stem the imminent shortfall.

Apart from the Eurocontrol projection of air traffic controller shortages over the short and medium term in Europe, the United States of America seems to be the only other country that has acknowledged the

problem.

The contraction in air traffic being experienced at the moment should be considered as only temporary.

It has merely provided Air Traffic Services Providers {ATSPs) with a respite for the time being. Readjustment of the air travel market owing to the renewal of previous and higher levels of public confidence in the security and safety of air travel would undoubtedly return air traffic movement figures to, and beyond those that existed prior to the tragic events in the United States. That day is not far away.

For a significant number of years, IFATCA has been warning states that air traffic control staffing levels in many countries are far below the safety requirement. This has been mainly on account of the inability to provide an air traffic control service when needed on a continuous basis in some instances, and evenmore so the amount of mandatory rostered overtime that is reportedly worked in several countries.

The Federation foresees that with the current geometrically progressive trend of retirement, the number of available fully trained operational air traffic controllers throughout the world would be severely reduced in the ensuing years, and therefore, cannot subscribe to any suggestion to reduce recruitment.

It is believed that to heed such action as championed by many Airline Operators after the September 11 tragedies, and as being considered in certain quarters would further exacerbate the problems faced by

many ATSPs in delivering the required services in the near future. Let us not be lured into accepting subjectivity. Do not allow history to repeat itself. ATSPs should act now to forestall any shortages by systematically recruiting new staff.

IFATCA, therefore, urges ATSPs to focus on the shortcomings of insufficient and inadequately trained ATM human resources, taking into consideration cues from empirical facts, trends and projections in ATM and air traffic growth in order to ensure that staffing levels would effectively meet the needs.

The ATM system coming under the ICAO Universal Safety Oversight Programme (USOP) in 2004 presents yet another reason for ATSPs to review staffing levels.

This development is significant.

The Federation welcomes the inclusion of ATM under ICAO's USOP as therein exists a mechanism whereby shortages of adequately trained ATM staff could be addressed. It is hoped that ATSPs would accept all safety related recommendations inclusive of those pertaining to the ATM human resource needs that emanate from USOP evaluations.

IFATCA views seriously any attempt at the curtailing of recruitment of the air traffic controller resource as this could only rebound to the disbenefit of the Air Navigation Services of the future.

Continued from page 4 illness prevented him from attending in person.

Throughout his time with the UK Guild and IFATCA, TC was always conscious of the need to advise and help individuals who were trying to achieve recognition for their profession and their Member Associations. In particular, he had great love of Africa and Africans of all nationalities - he probably spent more time

THE CONTROLLER

at regional meetings in that continent than any other Board member did. He certainly worked very hard on their behalf and promoted their cause through the pages of the magazine.

On 22 October 2001, TC was buried in the St George's Church cemetery in Rollesby, the Norfolk village where he had bought his retirement home. It was fitting that a RAF Jaguar from nearby Coltishall carried

out a flypast in salute at the burial ceremony. TC will be sorely missed by many controllers and his friends throughout the world. Our sympathy and condolences go to his family left behind, his wife, Dona and daughters, Amanda and Marie.

CJS

5

Controller Shortage Situation in Europe EUROCONTROL Activities for Co-operative Solutions Alexander Skoniezki, Head of EATMP Human Factors and Manpower Unit, EUROCONTROL Too few ATCOs in Europe

EUROCONTROL, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation has, over the past two years, made an analysis of the controller staff situation in Europe. This analysis was done in conjunction with Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) of EUROCONTROL's 30 Member States.

The results show that there is a shortfall of about 12% in Europe on average. However, some ANSPs do not have a shortage of staff, whereas others are struggling with a staff shortage of up to 3025%. There is also a marked need for air traffic controllers (ATCOs) required for non-operational duties (e.g. training, projects, management, etc.): about 275 % more are needed in this area.

The chances of any quick improvement are not high. Staff shortages are tipped to remain a constraint until at least 2005. The reason for this is that despite increased efforts to select and recruit new trainee controllers, it can take up four years before they are properly licensed to provide air traffic control services. Besides, a large number of controllers are expected to retire in the coming years.

Staff shortages will remain an important reason for capacity shortfalls and, subsequently, for air traffic delays. At present, staff shortages are responsible for some 10% of the overall ATC-related delays in Europe, mainly in the high traffic density areas.

The Underlying Reasons

The following factors have been identified as major reasons for the present staff shortage situation:

competition from other industrial sectors, all trying to attract the same target population. Another factor is that the controller's job is not well known to the general public.

- Traffic increase forecasts in the past

has

surpassed

Expected increases in traffic numbers are not always properly taken into account and subsequently reflected in staff planning. Air traffic has doubled over the past 15 years in Europe, whereas the number of controllers has increased only marginally. Thanks to their adaptability and performance, controllers have safely managed the constant increase in traffic, sometimes under difficult conditions.

- Lack of appropriate strategic, long-term planning (in the past)

interactive, manpower

Manpower planning for Air Traffic Management (ATM) is a complex process. A variety of important input parameters have to be considered, like traffic numbers and changes in sector opening times, implementation of new technologies, changes in working conditions, leave times, requisite number controllers for duties other than operational ones, etc.

- Unexpected loss of ATCOs due to early retirement, medical reasons, transfers, non-ops duties requirements, etc

An increasing number of controllers retire early or have to leave the operational environment for medical reasons. They also suffer more and more from burn-out effects due to high stress and workload.

- Recruitment problems

Attracting and obtaining applicants for a controller's job are proving to be increasingly difficult nowadays.

Appealing job alternatives exist for young people and there is stiff

6

- Implementation of new systems and technologies New ATM technology has not yet allowed to increase the productivity of

the overall system without the need for additional controllers.

New ATM technology and operational concepts already have, and will continue to have, positive effects on the individual's workload and performance. However, the final responsibility for the provision of safety in ATM will, for the foreseeable future, stay firmly with the controller.

- Lack of OJT capacity and high failure rates in training

Only 80% of available training capacity can be used today, mainly due to a lack of instructors. The overall average failure rate in training is around 25%, of which the failure rate in initial training is lower and the rate in OJT somewhat higher.

- Agreements on working conditions

In some ANSP organisations agreements with staff do not always contain sufficient flexibility for the managers to adjust working hours or rostering schemes so as to cope with traffic demand without applying overtime rates.

Trying to overcome the staff shortage situation

Short-term measures are being implemented by those ANSPs with too few controllers.

They are drawing up agreements with staff for overtime work or extra-duties, for leave arrangements and for aligning staff development and training to real needs. ANSPs also are reallocating licensed ATCO staff resources from nonoperational duties to the operations room and to shift work where possible. These short-term measures are helping to ensure a safe ATC service and to increase capacity at the moment but might well have negative knock-on effects in the future.

Increased

efforts

and

additional

THE CONTROLLER

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7

Controller Shortage investments are planned by ANSPs in attempt to redress the situation in the medium- to long-term. They are working towards more efficient staff planning; enhanced recruitment, selection, training, staff distribution and moving closer to more flexible rostering in both the shortand medium- term. For instance: ANSPs are making increased efforts to recruit Ab-initios through wider marketing campaigns.

Improvements are planned for the initial and OJTtraining processes. These include the increased use of advanced training tools, e.g. CBT: additional investments in advanced training facilities, e.g. buildings, simulators; buy-in of additional training capacity from other countries.

guidelines for harmonised management in the areas of:

ATM staff

Marketing, recruitment, selection, personal and career development They include effective marketing and communication strategies, concepts and tools to promote the ATCO job in Europe as well as rreliable, valid and costeffective selection tools for wide and flexible application in the selection of suitable candidates for ATCO training.

planning,

staffing

and

Integrated manpower planning processes will be improved and coordinated.

Current rostering systems and shift cycles will be redesigned in agreement with staff to allow a more flexible staff allocation, based on traffic demand.

Institutional and On-the-Job training, including continuation and refresher training

The European ATCO Licensing Scheme is being progressively adopted.

This list highlights the most important activity areas for which considerable investment in human resources is required. This is not an easy challenge to meet, especially in times of budget constraints. It calls for united effort, flexibility and co-operation on the part of all involved - staff and management.

EUROCONTROLProvidesCo-operative Solutions Within the European Air Traffic Management Programme (EATMP). the Human Resources Domain provides assistance and expertise through the implementation and development of a framework for the efficient management of human issues in ATM. This framework is aimed at achieving two major operational improvements for ATM in Europe: Timely availabilityof ATM staff.

Proactive Management Performance

of

Human

The products and deliverables developed are based on recommended practices and procedures, tools, methods and

The activities of the EATMP Human Resources Domain also contribute to the achievement of the Single European Sky initiative, launched by the European Commission.

The Way Forward

Manpower rostering

This comprises aadvanced methods and tools for strategic and tactical manpower planning for the reliable establishment of manpower requirements in the dynamic and complex ATM environment.

Career and personal development will be emphasised so as to heighten the appeal of an ATCO jobaccess to outside OPS functions and assignments in line with demand.

More than 70 EATMP Human Resources documents and deliverables have already been published and these will be implemented by European ANSPs in the coming years.

Harmonised standards for common core training syllabi and plans, together with new training tools and methods aligned with current and future controller licensing requirements, are being delivered.

In addition, common courseware based on new training technology for quick and reliable training delivery and the development of continuation training syllabi and plans for ATM staff are in production at EUROCONTROL's Institute of Air Navigation Services (IANS) in Luxembourg.

Human Factors Integration Methods, tools and guidelines are being developed to enable the integration of human factors into the ATM system life cycle. They also provide guidance on human contributions to system performance in computer-enhanced ATC systems.

Licensing of ATM staff (European Air Traffic Controllers Licensing Scheme) The harmonised "European Manual of Personnel Licensing for Air Traffic Controllers" has been developed as a recommended practice and procedure.

Now in its implementation phase in Europe (until end of 2003), it is held to be an important milestone in the improvement of safety and efficiency in ATC operations, through the application of harmonised, guaranteed standards of controller competence.

EUROCONTROL, together with the ANSP organisations, have agreed on the following recommended actions for improving the overall staffing situation in Europe by: • Increasing efforts and investments in all areas of ATCO job marketing, recruitment, selection training, staff planning, staff distribution and rostering.

•

Collaborating and co-operating on regional levels to share available capacity and resources where appropriate, e.g. for recruitment and training.

•

Collaborating and exchanging information on best practices so as to obtain more flexible working arrangements in agreement with staff, aimed at matching capacity with traffic demand.

•

Implementing available EATMP deliverables and tools for Recruitment, Selection, Manpower Planning, Training, Personnel Development, Human Factors and Licensing.

In order to avoid mistakes made in the past which have resulted in a dearth of controllers, a collaborative approach is required. All parties involved in ATM have one common goal: to guarantee a high level of safety in Air Traffic Control. In times of staff shortages, controllers are still able to maintain a high safety standard, a fact which is highly valued and appreciated by the airlines and the flying public. But the controller should not have to continue to bear the brunt of this for too much longer. Every effort has to be made to ensure that the individual controller workload is well balanced and that the overall system performance guarantees the provision of a safe service.

Collaborative activities - those conducted by human resources managers, manpower planners and operational staff have to be given high priority so as to achieve balanced staff levels, highly

-

................................

-.. .......

------------------------------------

8

THE CONTROLLER

qualified and motivated controllers, for a safe, reliable and cost-efficient ATM system.

For human resources is the central success factor in Air Traffic Management; humans are the sole guarantors of the provision of safe ATC service, now and in the future.

AlexanderSkoniezki Alexander Skoniezki worked for 16 years as an Air Traffic Controller at Frankfurt ACC. For seven years, he was an ATC Instructor and after that, became Head of Qualification Programmes at the DFS ( Deutsche Flugsicherung) Academy at Langen.

He continued his career as Head of Strategic Human Resource Planning at the DFS Headquarters in Offenbach. He represented the DFS in various

EATCHIP/EATMP Task Forces, and was a member of the Human Resources Team.

Since summer 1999, he has been Head of EATMP Human Factors and Manpower Unit at EUROCONTROL Headquarters, Brussels, and the Chairman of the Human Resources Team.

The Human Factors and Manpower Unit, a part of the European Air Traffic Management Programme (EATMP), is responsible for the provision of harmonised standards, recommended practices and procedures, guidelines, tools and methods for manpower planning, recruitment, selection, training, licensing and human factors integration for ATM staff in Europe.

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9

USAF ATC SCHOOL INCREASES TRAINEE THROUGHPUT 500 PERCENT. Ray Curry The United States Air Force (USAF) Air Traffic Control Operator Apprentice School is meeting the challenge of an anticipated shortage of air traffic controllers with innovative training

air traffic through training technology innovations such as advanced real-time training simulators and computer-based

trainer ratio limits qualification-training progress and increases controller qualification times. USAF-wide, the average qualification time for control

systems, sophisticated simulators,

training. According to USAF Instructional Systems Development (ISD) guidance, training managers must consider all

specialized instruction and Web-based instruction. "The air traffic control course

available resources for training delivery.

long as 24 months to become fully

This ensures total quality training in the

qualified.

at Keesler has made extensive changes to

most efficient manner.

the way we train over the past two to three years," said Major Gregory Kesler, the 334th Training Squadron commander.

tower personnel is 10 months. Radar Approach Control personnel can take as

To mitigate the effects of its controller shortage, the USAF is moving toward more effective and efficient training curriculums, as well as advanced training

"Great strides

devices. Two significant initiatives are advanced

and improvements

ATC training simulation systems to improve the

along the way have increased the number of

quality of training and specialized instruction to improve the quality of

students put through the

trainees entering the career field.

course from roughly 120 per year three years ago to 618 this past year."

The ATC Operator Apprentice School's advanced simulation systems include a Standard Terminal Automation

Replacement System Shortage The Wesson Industries' TOWERPro 300 Visual Aerodrome Simulator (STARS) simulator for radar Predicted controllers and Wesson The International Industries' TOWERPro 200 and 300 series Operating Hours Affected Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) control tower training simulators for tower Last March, the Airfield Operations forecasts a worldwide air traffic controller controllers. Both systems achieve nearExecutive Session and Functional shortage due to attrition and training realty, real-time training fidelity. Visual Managers Workshop noted that the Air limitations by the year 2005. The USAF, resolution in training simulation displays is Force is experiencing a qualified controller however, has already felt the pinch of a a major consideration in training quality. shortage-75 percent of authorized booming aviation industry and global Prior research conducted by the Volpe manning-which is mandating a reduction economy, and is now scrambling to fill Center-a US Department of of operating hours at 30 out of 75 bases. vacated controller positions as quickly as Transportation research and development Following a drawdown of required possible. organization-indicates a positive controller manning during the last decade, correlation between the level of training the USAF is now struggling to increase its As air traffic levels increase and simulator fidelity and the degree of pool of qualified personnel. procedures and technology change, the training transfer to real situations.

USAF must rapidly adapt its training At 274 percent of its normal trainee level, systems to provide the required number Specialized training to provide more inthe USAF's qualified controller training of qualified personnel. The USAF is depth knowledge and experience is not a force is now overburdened. Data from the honing new apprentice controllers to meet new concept. The USAF shifted its pilot workshop indicate the inflated trainee to the forecast increase in civil and military

10

THE CONTROLLER

E§:;:a:,,--

ii higher quality trainee with

more exposure to the complexities of the career field to help reduce [qualification] times out in the field."

Students undergoing radar training ......... .

...... whilst their colleagues act as pilots training to a dual-track-fighter or cargotype-curriculum during the mid-90s.

Using the same idea for its radar or control tower specialist students, the USAF ATC School hopes to produce better-trained and field-ready graduates within the confines of existing resources.

"This October, a new specialized training program was initiated which allows us to train the same number of students, but with increased [simulator training time] in either the tower or radar labs," Major Kesler said. "The goal is to produce a

THE CONTROLLER

The USAF has also developed and deployed a secure Intranet Web site to aid student comprehension of the more difficult aspects of air traffic control. Launched in May, the ATC knowledge portal mirrors a typical Internet site with hyperlinks to specific areas of ,. knowledge or blocks of instruction. This similarity between the knowledge portal and other Web sites alleviates any need for additional training on its use. Both faculty and students agree that the portal has met its goals of reliability, utility and simplicity.

Multimedia content plays a large part in maintaining student motivation and interest. The site contains a virtual library with hyperlinks to electronic versions of all applicable publications and regulations for immediate cross-referencing and research without the need for the more expensive and cumbersome paper versions.

The site also integrates Javatechnology for imbedded simulation and learninggame applications called "applets" which motivate the students to learn. This technology is particularly useful in the areas of aircraft characteristics and recognition, situational awareness, and multiple-task concentration.

Virtual Classrooms Taking the "e-learning" concept a step further, the USAF ATC School deployed

two virtual classrooms within the students' dormitory as well as one within the school itself. This facilitates additional opportunities for aspiring controllers to hone their knowledge and skills. Instead of studying conventional handouts or static airport diagrams, students may log on and experience multimedia-enriched presentations or high-fidelity simulations.

Through this Web-based training, students may review entire lecture presentations, experience video and audio files or practice controlling aircraft through interactive real-time simulations.

Today's cyber-savvy students welcome such a learning environment. In effect, this training system enhances student achievement by empowering studentinitiated and self-motivated learning.

The Web-based design of the knowledge portal enables the use of cutting-edge technology while promoting cost effectiveness. Java applets, for example, are readily available as freeware downloads from the World Wide Web and are designed for easy customization.

And, using highly experienced instructors with a passion for new educational technology, the USAF ATC School has successfully merged traditional adult learning techniques and cutting-edge tools without the need for additional personnel.

The ATC School is on course toward meeting its mission requirements through its triad of education initiatives-advanced training simulation systems, specialized curriculums and Web-based trainingwhile also achieving a higher level of efficiency and effectiveness.

"The Web-based training has been very beneficial," noted Chief Master Sergeant Samuel Nickels, ATC School superintendent. "More than 30 computers loaded with numerous selfstudy aids are available to all ATC students in their dormitory for off-duty study. We have already seen improvement in appraisal scores since the inception of the program."

11

1gle Sk Single European Sky A story in 4 parts Part one In the rich history of Gibraltar, there was a period when the Romans were the masters of this small piece of land. The Romans gave it the name "ne plus ultra" ("beyond this point, continue at your own risk"). But what is the reason for a history lesson in The Controller magazine? This is because that even in today's world of a "single currency" and the European Commission's everincreasing bureaucracy, the political status of "the rock" has been the reason for the delay of the Single Sky initiative. After one year of difficult negotiations, Spain and United Kingdom have been able to put their differences aside over Gibraltar, with regard to air navigation services, opening the way for the implementation of the Single European Sky.

The communication covers 3 broad regulations: Provision of Air Navigation Services in the Single European Sky The organisation and use of the airspace in the Single European Sky The interoperability of the European Air Traffic Management network

So, were the Romans right to say "ne plus ultra"? Will this new agreement between Spain and United Kingdom mean that European Civil Aviation will go beyond the point which should not be exceeded?

sprawling beneath its feet the worldlike a frightened lamb waiting to be quartered Mediterranean Sealeft Atlantic Oceanright Africafront Europeback under the setting sun I see Gibraltar gazing like a greedy lion ready to pounce

Part two The European Commission decided to resolve the problem of delays and inefficiency of Air Traffic Services (these airline quotes were copied by the Commission for this Initiative), and published a communication on this subject at the end of 1999. During the year 2000, the Director Generals of the 15 Member States of the European Union as well as their military counterparts, worked in the socalled "High Level Group" on how to improve the current system. Switzerland and Norway were involved in this work. The rest of the industry (including the representatives of the Air Traffic Controllers) was allowed to contribute in the Social and Industrial Group. The final report of the High Level Group was published at the end of 2000.

The European Commission has now published a Legislative Proposal (http://www.europa.eu.int/ comm/transport /themes/air/ english/single_eur _sky _en. html ). This communication has been endorsed by the Commission and the European Council of the Ministers of Transport and will follow the normal legislative process through parliament. This process will take 6 months.

Once adopted in the various readings, the 15 Member states, as well as Switzerland and Norway, will have 4 years to implement this European Recommendation into national law.

12

Before analysing the three regulations in detail, let me remind you that the Commission favours liberalisation in all activities and the creation of a competitive environment. The overall aim to have one efficient and competitive European entity against the North American and Asian economic areas.

Gibraltar

William Marr 2001 Provisionof Air Navigation Services in the Single European Sky foresees that the Commission sets the conditions for airspace above a certain altitude over the 15 Member States (plus Switzerland and Norway). The Commission will elaborate rules to obtain a licence to operate the airspace, becoming the regulator. The governments (through their regulatory bodies) will have to elaborate a catalogue with conditions to be fulfilled to obtain a concession. They will be able to distribute this license to any Air Navigation Service Provider. In the beginning, the Commission accepts the principle that the current established ANSPs would operate their current airspace.

Ancillary services (e.g. AIS, Met, R&D) will be put into a competitive environment and be privatised at an early stage. The inherently monopolistic provision of ATC should not be privatised according to the Commissions' vision. To operate the future European Airspace, the Commission proposes that the States create "Functional Blocks of Airspace". This means that Europe will not be divided into 55 centres with their

own airspace (as currently is the case) but that there will be 7 - 9 defined airspace blocks which will be operated according to the same criteria such as Maastricht has been doing for several years. This does not necessarily mean a reduction of Area Control Centres, even if reading between the lines hints that this is an overall aim of the Commission. Within these Functional Blocks of Airspace, new financial initiatives will be taken (different pricing mechanisms are foreseen e.g. higher price for rush hours and/or adapting the price to demand and capacity). The conditions for obtaining an ANSP license from the Commission have already been established.

The organisation and use of the airspace in the Single European Sky. The European Commission proposes to create a single Upper Information Region (UIR) above FL 285 with identical airspace classes. Access to the airspace will be granted to all the airspace users (but especially to the member airlines of AEA sic.) The military will have to make the effort through the concept of the "Flexible Use of Airspace" to adapt more to the current demand of civilian traffic.

Proposals like Cross Border Areas and shifting of military zones outside the "Core Area" to less dense areas are to be considered. Theoretically, this is wonderful, but practically speaking the Commission is asking the European Air Forces to transfer their training zones to Siberia. The CFMU should, according to the Commissions' proposals, receive regulatory functions.

Current Eurocontrol studies foresee that the CFMU could give priority to a departure of a flight with supporters of a football team over a half-empty plane with businessmen (for the time being it is still considered that a charter with supporters of a football team is a greater risk than business men, for the respective airport).

The interoperability of the European Air Traffic Management network. While maintaining the safety at the current level or better, the Commission will explore the possibility of harmonising the ATC systems throughout the 15 member states. For this the Commission proposes spending billions of Euros on new technologies such as Mode Sand Free Route. This harmonisation process should also increase the mobility of workers. ATCO representatives were unable to convince the Commission that the splitting of the airspace cannot been done

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according to mathematical formulae and the Commission has simply ignored that it takes 3 -12 months for conversion training.

All this will be implemented within 4 years!

Partthree To implement this project the Commission has identified various "Enablers": institutional, social, technical and harmonisation procedures. It is planned to create a so-called "Single Sky Committee", where the Director Generals of Civil Aviation, as well as their military counterparts, will be represented.

Staff come under the "social enabler" category. At the social level, the Commission talks about a Single European Licence for ATCOs that would allow the mobility of the ATCOS and could help alleviate the lack of ATCOS. The current lack of ATCOs is identified as being around 1600 in the 17 countries. To be able to cope with the proposed legislative proposal. the Commission has pressured CANSO (Civil ANS Provider Organisation) to initiate a social dialogue with ATM Staff. Three meetings in the ATM Working Group have already taken place.

Safety should remain the same and the Commission would like to create a "Safety Regulator" which would take the form of an

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agency. For the time being, this agency has as its only goal to certify the Airbus 380 and will look at ATC at a later stage. In the meantime the Eurocontrol Safety Regulation Commission will continue to regulate safety.

Partfour What does this mean for A TCOs? According to the author's view, this will mean that above FL285, the European sky will be sliced into 9 pieces with more or less similar dimensions. The Nordic countries have decided to create a Nordic UAC located in Malmii, Sweden, which will control the upper airspace of Sweden and Denmark in the beginning and at a later stage, the upper airspace of Finland and Norway. Ireland and UK will make up a Functional Block of Airspace. There will be a new Maastricht UAC, CEATS will be run by Austria maybe DFS, and Spain and Portugal will work together. France might accept to enter into negotiations with Italy and Switzerland, and the southern part of Italy will work together with Greece.

Other consequences for ATCOs is that the Commission will publish the operational conditions necessary to exploit the airspace and will exert political pressure on the governments to choose, in mid-term, the 'best-performing' provider to exploit the

"Functional Blocks of Airspace".

The potential for social upheaval and unrest

by ATCOs is already programmed and this will affect everybody.

IFATCA and the other representative bodies of ATCOs, trying to properly defend the profession, have already written to the Commissioner of Transport and Energy highlighting the points which are difficult to accept. The Commissioner, in trying to reassure the A TCOs has answered our letter saying that we should not be afraid; that all the problems related to the social status or the institutional, financial problems - as well as the technological changes - will be addressed by the Commission in a coherent and progressive way. Through social dialogue the changes linked to this new legislative proposal should be discussed.

This legislative proposal has a big potential to create a two-tier system with the countries in the EU and those on the outside. The role of Eurocontrol has not been clearly defined and IFATCA is very worried about this text because it has the potential for big disruption of the current A TC system.

If you think that this is not a very optimistic article, please be aware that in our opinion this is what our future looks like - we have no reason to believe that it will be any different.

13

Septen1ber 11 ..

_,

....... ,- .............

-...,..

. -·

TUESDAY 11th SEPTEMBER Shanwick Oceanic Eddie Wallace, IFATCA NATSPG REP Tuesday 11th September At 1342UTC in the middle of the westbound flow, the tragic news about the events in the New York had filtered down to Shanwick Oceanic. We were advised that all US airspace was closed.

However, nineteen minutes later it was amended to allow overflights but still totally restrict all US landings. What had started as a normal afternoon with two planning and three en-route sectors open, suddenly changed to a near maximum of nine operational sectors.

At this time there were approximately 197 aircraft either just about to enter, or in the process of transiting Shanwick Oceanic.

The domino effect of the cascading news information was alarming.

, what I can only describe as a "flushing" of oceanic airspace. Significant numbers of aircraft adopted standard contingency procedures whilst others continued on , hoping for their requested reroute to be delivered.

On that note a special mention has to be given to the excellent work by Shanwick's Communicators at Ballygirren who did a superb job delivering all the HF messages.

By early evening most of the oceanic traffic had diverted to the eastern seaboard of Canada, Keflavik, Bermuda, with some even reaching Toronto and Montreal.

Within the first hour , the North Atlantic Region faced its worse disruption ever when over forty aircraft decided to turnback mid-ocean and return to European airfields.

Wednesday12th September Canadian and US airspace remained restricted and it was not until 2145 UTC that we learned that Canada was allowing the departure of foreign commercial aircraft.

For most controllers who have been brought up on radar and have not experienced the oceanic environment, the natural first thought is "that's no problem, there's lotsa room". This, however, is not the case. Due to the required separation minima ( approx 80 nm in trail, 60 nm laterally, and 1000/2000 ft vertically ) it quickly reduces the space available for SAFE reroutes and turnbacks.

Thursday13th September 0745 UTC brought news from the US Secretary of Transport which advised us that US domestic airspace would open this afternoon however, this was coupled with New York OCA adding that advance notification for non-US registered aircraft would be required. A very confusing time for everyone.

During the first chaotic hour, coupled with the multiple turnbacks, were 4 declared emergencies and one Mayday call. The next three to four hours brought

By the end of the evening 4 positional flights and one RAF VC10, who all thought they had some semblance of

approval, had to turnback mid-flight because the required authorisation had not been granted in time.

Traffic Figures Tuesday 11th September 879 aircraft movements (-11.4 % ) on the year 2000 Wednesday 72th September 107 aircraft (-89.3%) Thursday 13th September 185 aircraft (-82.4%) Friday 14th September 491 aircraft (-53.7%) Saturday 15th September 802 aircraft ( - 24.8%) However on Sunday 16th September there were 1061 movements ( - 2. 7% on last year ) which was something close to normal figures.

Form Filling On the day of the attack there were obviously numerous losses of separation and other occurrences which would normally require individual reports to be filed, therefore, a generic CA 1261 and SRATCOH (duty hours legislation) violation report was filed.

FinalThoughts The impact of such an act of terrorism will not be known fully for some time to come, however it can only be hoped that the financially driven companies who inhabit this industry are not tempted into "kneejerk" reactions which will, I am sure, have a direct bearing on future air safety.

Diverted Airliners parked on runway at Halifax

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TUESDAY 11th SEPTEMBER The Atlantic Canadian Air Traffic Control Robert Hammond, Controller, Moncton Area Control Center Canada's Air Traffic Control system has seven area control facilities, two of which are located within the Atlantic Provinces.

The Gander Area Control Center, located in central Newfoundland, is famous for its oceanic controllers, who handle flows of traffic proceeding from North America to Europe and back. The Moncton ACC, where I am employed, controls airspace which has a boundary with Gander airspace to the east, Montreal airspace to the north, Boston to the west and New York to the south.

Within Moncton Center there are three specialties, High Level, Low Level and Halifax Terminal. My specialty is the Halifax Terminal Specialty, where traffic into Atlantic Canada's busiest airport is managed by us, working in concert with the controllers at Halifax Tower. We also work closely with the Low Level Controllers, who are responsible for airspace up to twenty eight thousand feet; They, in turn, coordinate with High Level Controllers, who control all aircraft at twenty nine thousand feet and higher.

The High Level specialty also handles the european bound flows of traffic each

evening, as some three hundred and fifty aircraft funnel into our airspace and are later handed- off to Gander. The next afternoon some three hundred and fifty aircraft return, and are distributed to the appropriate American and Canadian facilities to the west of us. Approximately twenty five percent of these aircraft are flying from, or to, New York City.

On the morning of September 11, terrible attacks were made upon the Trade Center buildings in New York, and the Pentagon in Washington. The Americans, fearing further airborne assaults, grounded all air traffic over their airspace and closed their boundaries to any incoming traffic. This had a profound and immediate effect upon the dozens of aircraft which were enroute from Europe to North America, under the control of Canadian Air Traffic Control. The following article details our handling of this situation. This story was written with the assistance of Mike Leblanc (Moncton High Level), Bob Buchanan (Moncton Low Level), Rob LeClair (Halifax Terminal), Nancy Harvey (Halifax Terminal), and Tom Mollins (Halifax Tower).

Tuesday the 11th started out as a normal day in Moncton ACC. The first of several westbound aircraft were handed off from Gander to the High Level specialty in Moncton, and more sectors were opened to distribute the workload. It was then that the High Supervisor received the incredible news that there was a crisis within the US, and no more flights would be accepted. As well, all American registered aircraft were to land as soon as possible. For the first time since the American controllers strike in the 1980's, the US borders were closed to all air traffic.

It was a fortunate coincidence that several refresher and equipment courses were being run at the Center that day. These courses were canceled and as such, an immediate supply of surplus controllers became available. These people were each assigned a task and the process of clearing our airspace began.

It was deemed to be inappropriate to describe the real reason for the instruction to land. Pilots were simply told that US airspace was closed, and that they

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s must quickly choose a Canadian destination in close proximity to their present location. Runway length and weather information for various airports was made available, to assist in the decision.

At first the pilots resisted the idea that their flights were to terminate, in an unplanned fashion, at an airport they had probably never been to before. Some pilots announced that they would divert from their original destination to Albany New York, or some other point, at which time it was reiterated that they did not have such an option and must land immediately. One reluctant pilot had a destination chosen for him and was give a vector and decent clearance to facilitate this instruction, As descent clearances were initiated to other aircraft, the pilots began to realize that an extraordinary event must have taken place.

jets were descended by High Level to flight level two nine zero and handed off to the Cape Breton Sector. A High Level controller delivered several handwritten flight progress strips, as there was not sufficient time to input this information into our computers. As the Low Level controllers began to vector and descend their unexpected traffic a new reality set in. Most of these aircraft were heavy jets, which were far from their intended destinations. These aircraft had plenty of fuel and were in many cases overweight to land. Some pilots requested an orbit and burn off fuel, while others elected to dump. The skies over eastern Nova Scotia must have smelled of kerosene as five aircraft dumped fuel over various parts of this region.

intended to alleviate the parking problems which were expected at the Halifax airport; also it would buy time for controllers to deal with unexpected situations which may arise. The Terminal specialty split into an inner/ outer configuration, which is normal. The Terminal also added an "unusual circumstance" position, utilizing a work station and frequency normally used to handle visual flight rules traffic. This position accepted aircraft, which had to delay landing due to fuel dumps or other circumstances. When the aircraft were ready to land they were handed off to the Halifax outer position, which dealt with the traffic in a normal fashion.

Another impromptu meeting was held, this time between Low Level and Halifax Terminal controllers. A traffic-metering plan was initiated, and the Cape Breton Sector began to hand-off arriving aircraft to the Terminal, with ten-mile spacing.

This wider than normal spacing was

each airport ..The Canadian military was contacted to arrange for arrivals at air bases in Shearwater and Greenwood Nova Scotia. The military was very cooperative, but, as it turned out, their assistance was not required.

An unknown quantity in this situation was just how many aircraft could be parked at

It became apparent that turning aircraft back to the east was not an option.

Gander Center was swamped with aircraft coming off the Atlantic Ocean, that were to land at a limited number of Newfoundland airports. As such they informed Moncton that they could not accept the return of aircraft which were now in our airspace. Items, not normally important to a High Level Controller, became relevant. Airport descriptions, runway length information and holding clearances were soon provided to several aircraft. It is not a common occurrence to issue a hold to an aircraft with a ground speed of over five hundred knots, but this was now being done. Surplus High Level staff provided important information to the controllers who were working the aircraft.

An impromptu meeting was held with the supervisors for the High and Low specialties, and a plan was quickly developed to deal with the unexpected arrivals.

Moncton Low Level supervisors added staff, and made a quick decision to create two sectors out of the Cape Breton Sector.

This large piece of airspace was divided down the middle along a north/south line and it was agreed that initially most aircraft would be directed to Halifax International, with Moncton as an overflow airport. A handful of aircraft were also to be directed to a smaller airport at Sydney, Nova Scotia. Controllers busied themselves with the task of clearing traffic already in their airspace. This included Canada's air demonstration team, "The Snowbirds", whose eleven aircraft wound up landing unexpectedly at Sydney. Several heavy

16

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Halifax can be a busy airport, with its offshore helicopter traffic, flight training, charter and scheduled airline traffic.

However, parking space for several large aircraft is limited.

Supervisors and controllers in Halifax Tower came up with a plan, which was provided to, and accepted by, airport management. One of the two runways was closed, with the longer one kept open for arrivals. Forty-four jets were parked upon runway three three, which is seventy seven hundred feet long. This excluded the intersection, which was kept open where this runway intersects runway two four. The increased spacing in effect for arrivals gave the tower time to maneuver arriving aircraft across the active runway and onto the "parking"runway.

By the time this exercise was finished, two hundred and thirty nine unplanned arrivals had recovered and landed in Canada.

Atlantic Canada absorbed one hundred and thirty two of these flights.

In the days that followed, incredible stories surfaced regarding the community efforts to contend with thousands of unexpected guests. Stranded passengers waited up to ten hours to disembark.

During this period, firefighters and other airport crews delivered food and medicine to aircraft, until security and customs personnel were able to accept the next group. Buses were used to transport people to churches, sports arenas and other makeshift shelters. The Canadian

Red Cross did an admirable job of providing food and other essentials.

management "Command Center" which was established, only began to operate after the affected aircraft had landed and as such had no effect on the handling of this situation. Over the next few days this center proved to be of limited value, in sorting out the conflicting information which emanated from governments and other agencies.

In Moncton, as in other Atlantic communities, dozens of people volunteered to billet stranded passengers.

Several controllers hosted guests, in some cases for several days. In Gander Newfoundland, the population nearly doubled to twenty thousand, as passengers were accepted into stranger's homes.

Some humourous stories surfaced in the midst of this event. Take, for instance, the flight crew in Gander who were desperately trying to locate a missing passenger so they could depart for the United States. He was eventually located, moose hunting with some newfound friends. The Italian airline, Alitalia, inadvertently gave out the Halifax Tower number to relatives concerned about their loved ones. All controllers in Halifax speak English and some speak French, but not one could be found to speak Italian to the many people from Italy who called. I particularly enjoyed the story of an Alabama couple, billeted by a Newfoundland outport family. I doubt that a stronger contrast of accents could be found within the realm of the English language.

Over the next four days, restrictions were gradually lifted, and eventually all of the flights were allowed to depart, either for their US destinations or, in some cases, to return to Europe. Most departing crews expressed heartfelt thanks to us for all that had been done. in the weeks that followed there was much fallout from the crisis of September 11th . America declared war on terrorism.

All of us tried to deal with these senseless and cruel acts. Dozens of letters poured in to local newspapers, from grateful passengers who had been well taken care of by Canadians.

I was disappointed by the way in which our employer, Nav Canada, portrayed the company response to the events of September 11th . Included in the company newsletter issue which followed the attacks were several photos of management crisis teams, and not one of an air traffic controller. In fact the

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In closing, the Atlantic Canadian response to this situation made me proud to be both a controller and a Canadian. Hopefully the great job, of which we have proven we are capable of doing, will never have to be repeated.

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The Day The Vectors Stopped Brian J. Fallon, NY TRACON NATCA Dawn broke as clear as I'd ever seen, the thick cobalt blue of the night being chased silently into the western horizon by the radiance of yellow growing on the east. A benevolent high-pressure system had settled onto the East Coast of the U.S., clearing skies while allowing wonderfully moderate temperatures to prevail. I was driving into work on my favorite road on Long Island, the Ocean Parkway, which traverses the barrier island along the south shore, and lets me pass through the world famous Jones Beach area before the parkway turns northbound and towards the New York TRACON. I love mornings like this, not only because I can soak up the natural beauty of the seashore environment - an effective way to lift my spirits before having to face the crush of air traffic that a good VFR day like this will most certainly bring - but also because as I cross the drawbridge leading out of Jones Beach, I can look to my left and clearly see the proud twin spires of the World Trade Center, some 25 miles away, gleaming in the bright morning sunlight now spilling over the horizon. Little did I know that this would be the last time I would ever set eyes on those buildings.

The morning routine was well under way at work, with the scramble of commercial departures pouring out of the area airports and nosing their way towards the jet airways. The majority of the departure push was completed as I went out on break: the time was 8:45am.

"The news is saying that an airplane just hit the World Trade tower." ''I'll call you back!" I ran into a nearby office where I knew there was a radio, and quickly tuned it into one of the metro area's 24-hour news stations. The early, chaotic on-the-scene reports were being shouted by reporters trying to talk over the scream of rescue vehicles pouring into the area. I quickly called my union facility representative, to ensure that he was aware of the breaking news. "I'm watching it on TV!" was his immediate reply. It dawned on me that he was out at a NATCA multi-regional conference being held in New Orleans, Louisiana. Dozens of NATCAvists from all over the country were watching this unfold right before their eyes. And here I am, atthe TRACON, learning about this from a phone call from my son! ''I'm gonna go see if we were talking to this guy. I'll call you back." I slapped the flip-phone shut and ran up the stairs.

It's always disconcerting, walking into the dimly lit Operations Room after having been out in the bright sunlight, and this was no different. As I rounded the corner at the end of a bank of scopes, I stood there for a moment, to let my eyes adjust.

The silhouettes moving about took human form, and I moved over beside a friend of mine, who was standing behind the final approach controller for one of the 'Big 3'

airports. He was staring at the multicolored display with rapt attention. As quickly as my eyes adjusted, I realized that the tension in the room was electric.

"Were we talking to him?" I asked gently, following his gaze at the swarm of targets before us, quickly reading the traffic flow as the controller at the position kept issuing instructions in crisp, professional staccato. He slowly turned his head towards me, his mouth agape.

His voice was thick with emotion. "It just happened again!"

I felt like I had just been slapped.

"What?!?"

His arm lifted straight from his body, almost as if a string was pulling it, until his finger was pointing right at the scope.

"There. It just happened again."

I looked where he was pointing. The southern tip of the island of Manhattan.

Our eyes locked. We both knew exactly what was going on. We were under attack by terrorists. There could be no other explanation. Suddenly, a single question bubbled to the forefront of my consciousness: What do I do now? I stood there for I don't know how long, my mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water as a million and one options shot through my mind. Finally, I realized that there was only one thing that I could do.

I walked outside to drink in more of this beautiful morning, looking up to watch the heavy jet arrivals pass majestically overhead as they were being vectored to the final approach course at JFK International. It never ceases to amaze me as I watch these behemoths quietly glide by that my friends in this very building are guiding them in this most crucial phase of flight. If only we had windows ...

My reverie was interrupted by the angry buzz of my cell phone. A call from home!

It was my son. "Dad, what happened with the airplane?"

"What airplane?" I said, thinking that he was probably in a last minute scramble before school, having forgotten to finish his homework the night before.

"The plane that hit the building."

That got my attention. "What building?!"

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went and grabbed my headset.

The events went liquid shortly thereafter.

No one had to wait to be told to stop departures, but then in rapid succession the airspace cleansing began. Normally, at this time of the day, we're getting into our early lunch rush. The scopes around the room become littered with targets; student pilots thick as fleas, turboprops zooming about like seagulls in a feeding frenzy, and jets of all stripes droning in and out of the area airports. Now, the screen was almost blank. The airspace of New York, arguably the busiest and most complex airspace on the planet, was all but empty. I don't know how long it took, but it wasn't very long. As the quiet descended on the room like a heavy blanket, the voice behind me said, "I've never seen anything like this." It was my supervisor. He has over 35 years of ATC experience.

Then another co-worker walked into the sector. He had been watching TV in the break room. He announced that the Pentagon had just been hit. I couldn't believe my ears. The Pentagon?? That can't happen. THIS can't be happening! turned to the controller working the position next to me. He's a Viet Nam veteran. His eyes were set. "So that's it, then." he said, his voice rock steady, his tone final. "We're at war." The wheels in my head did yet another spin, my own military training evaluating the possibilities. As the answer locked into place, I nodded my agreement. My throat was too tight to speak. I looked at my hands. They were shaking.

I didn't even see the footage of the events

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until a few hours later, when I finally got home. I watched the news for about five minutes, and then shut off the TV, after I felt the bile begin to rise in the back of my throat. It would be another day before I learned that Susan Mackay, the wife of Boston Center controller Doug Mackay, was on American Airlines flight 11, the first one to hit the WTC. It would be a few more days before the body of another friend of mine, a New York City firefighter, would be pulled out of the rubble. But the feelings of grief and utter helplessness in the face of such unspeakable horror were already settling in.

I tried to keep up a brave front for the kids, cooing that everything would be all right, that our guys would go out there and find the Bad Guys, and put them out of business. I wished I could've convinced myself, but one look at the gray glass of the TV told me that there was a whole world of horror and terror out there, and that at long last, it had washed upon these shores, crashing in like a tsunami. I held my kids close, and said a prayer, asking that they would not get swept away too, like so many of my neighbor's neighbors and friend's friends had, so senselessly, just this very morning. I tried to keep the kids busy, got them going on their schoolwork, because "tomorrow was going to be just another normal day." As I was helping my daughter, I noticed a little inspirational message at the top of one of the pages in her homework agenda. It read, "You may be but one person in all the world, but to one person, you may be the world." That gave me some needed perspective. I

stroked my daughter's hair as I took a deep, calming breath. For whatever divine reason, I realized I was where I needed to be, doing what I needed to be doing. In time, perhaps something in all this insanity would make sense. But for now, I knew what my job was - to keep on doing the things that I needed to be doing.

Things were anything but normal for the next couple of days, as the resuscitation of the National Airspace System began.

Chaotic and convoluted it was, but resuscitate it we did, anaemic as it may have been. It took several days for all the NATCAvists down in New Orleans to find their way home. Most had to rent vehicles and drive home. The NATCA National Executive Board (NEB) had told the Communications Committee to shut down our WebBoards. NATCA has both a public and a private Internet-based electronic Bulletin Board Service (BBS), which allows controllers from all over the country to post messages and discuss issues on a multitude of topics, where along with our websites - the National Office can disseminate the latest news on issues affecting NATCA, aviation, and labor. Because of the criminal nature of the attacks, as well as the over-arching National Security concerns surrounding them, any discussion or speculation related to these events or the new procedures in place - which seemed to be changing daily -would receive no statutory protection and/or union privilege whatsoever. For our own protection, NATCA issued a gag order on itself.

It was only a couple of days after "The Events" that the Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Team began to appear throughout the facilities touched by the tragedy. The CISM Team is a cooperative effort between the FAA and NATCA, where specially trained NATCA controllers come to a facility after a major accident or incident, to talk to not just the controllers involved with the event(s), but anyone in the facility - supervisors, support specialists, secretaries - who may be feeling stressed out by what happened, and to give them information on ways to help them cope, as well as contact information for more in-depth assistance, should it be needed. For major accidents, there will often be formal de-briefings. Normally only 1 or 2 controllers goes at a time, usually for just one day, and almost never more than 3 for even a major accident. The events of September 17th mobilized almost the entire CISM Team of 14 controllers for almost a month.

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With our interactive forums closed, the only national communications we had was through our websites. We had just last year moved NATCA's entire Internet presence onto a new system and revamped the en.tire look and feel of both the public and private sites. The main architect of this re-structuring was none other than my dear friend Bryan Thompson, who is also the Editor-In-Chief of The NATCA Voice, our national grassroots newsletter. Bryan, a controller at the Chicago TRACON, and a former U.S. Marine, was feeling especially frustrated by the terrorist attacks and the ensuing self-imposed NATCA gag order.

Then the letters started pouring in. John Carr, President of NATCA, began forwarding e-mails and letters the National Office was receiving from controllers and ATC organizations from all over the globe.

So Bryan created a new area on the website to post these messages of support and camaraderie, as well as other relevant news items. It became his way of working through the event. You can judge for yourself how well he did; the area became so large, we broke it off as a stand-alone website, and now it is probably one of the largest and most comprehensive websites of news, information, and tributes dedicated to the events of September 11th on the Internet:

http://september11.natca.org/ It was through this website that I was able to see the full scope of the events of that terrible Tuesday, and the many ramifications thereof. When the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Norm Mineta, gave the order to shut down the NAS, the response was immediate. Across the country, over 700 airplanes were brought down safely in 4 minutes; in less than 2 hours, over 5,000 flights that had been airborne were on the deck. There was not a single incident outside of the four hijacked aircraft. Then we began receiving information about all the flights around the world that were diverted.

Photos of Gander and Newfoundland in Canada, flooded with diverted aircraft, heavy jets packed onto runways like they were on an aircraft carrier. Stories of the citizens of these small communities opening their homes to the stranded passengers. The letters and e-mails from around the world continued to flow in, the world aviation community embracing us in sorrow and brotherhood.

Slowly things began to get back to normal, or as we're calling it, the 'New Normal'.

The private BBS came back on line, and a few weeks later, the public BBS was back up. We're still cautious in what we say, but we're talking about how we feel.

While the terrorists had most certainly hit America with a near-crippling sucker punch to our collective Solar Plexus, what they didn't realize at the time they planned their attacks was that by turning aircraft full of innocent civilians into weapons of mass destruction, they had attacked every nation on Earth. The world was now pulling together, not just militarily, but emotionally. We as Americans were hurt, and our friends around the globe reached out to help.

And in the especially close fraternity of aviation, we unified in friendship, empathy, and understanding. As the sordid process of reclamation and rebuilding continues, we in the ATC community are faced with a whole new paradigm of safety and security. There are many more questions than answers of how to best implement many of the new challenges before us, but for Air Traffic Controllers around the world, our mission remains unchanged. We are to grab our headsets, and safely keep the airplanes moving.

Brian J. Fallon has been a controller at the New York TRACON for 11 years. He is also Associate Editor of The NA TCA Voice, and a member of NATCA 's Communication Committee.

A VIEW of SEPTEMBER 11th Tom Morin, ATCO Boston Center NATCA Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Team By now you've heard it a thousand times.

September 11th sta~ed like any other day. Nearly the entire eastern half of the United States was enjoying crystal clear skies with moderate temperatures and low humidity. Life was good. September 11th has somehow become a dividing line between innocence and awakening. It was a rude awakening indeed, but an awakening nevertheless. While I mourn the way life used to be, I am now grateful for so many more things. I am especially grateful for the support that our nation received from other countries during the crisis. I have never felt such pride and humility simply by virtue of being an American. Where were you on September 11th7 Here is my story for September 11th and the days that followed.

It was my second regular day off from

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work and I was at home lazily contemplating what project I might do around the house that day. One of the morning shows was on TV. Then there was the first picture of the North Tower with the tentative news that an airplane had just impacted the building. If you are an air traffic controller, you know instinctively that this was a deliberate act.

The news media was still very much in the dark about what happened in those first ten to fifteen minutes. Immediately my mind began to fabricate scenarios.

Obviously this had nothing to do with normal ATC operations. What could this be? The answer came just moments later when the second aircraft struck the South Tower. You could see from the video footage that this was a regular airliner. I said to myself that this was at least a B737 sized aircraft. I sat in front of the TV absolutely wide-eyed in disbelief. That was an airplane full of people. Airplanes are the lifeblood of the air traffic

controller. For that last 16 years, I have had more involvement with airplanes than my family or friends. I simply could not get my mind around the fact that an airplane full of people had just rammed the World Trade Center, twice. I quite literally started to shiver as I continued to watch the story unfold on television.

At 9:22am my phone rang. I knew it was work calling. For the last six or so years, I have been a part of NATCA's Critical Incident Response Team. We are generally called on to help our fellow controllers involved in aircraft accidents with fatalities. I have always been enthusiastic about stepping up to help my fellow controllers after they have been through a difficult incident. But this day, I did not want to answer that phone. On the other end was the Boston Center NATCA President, Ron Geoffroy. He confirmed what I suspected and then somemore. The aircraft were intentionally

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flown into the WTC and both aircraft were out of Boston and both aircraft were Boeing 767's and American 11 was hijacked in our airspace. My duty to serve my fellow controllers called but this time was different. My profession had been abused at the hands of those fundamentalist scum bags. But I wasn't angry yet. I was intensely saddened. I wanted to stay home because I myself was hurting for what happened. This was not an accident in which I had no involvement. This was my building and my peers and my profession. I was also told that there was another scenario developing and Ron asked that I find him as soon as I arrived at the building. I told him I was on my way. After hanging up the phone, and quite by surprise, I briefly wept.

The forty-five minute ride to work was long. The radio blared news about the events. I had heard enough in the first 10 minutes and turned on the car's CD player with some calming music. Then my cell phone rang. It was a friend telling me that the Pentagon had been hit with another American jet. We chatted about the whole thing for several minutes. My phone rang again. That same friend told me the South Tower had collapsed. I asked not to be called for the rest of the day. I was trying to focus my thoughts. I finally arrived at work around 10:15am.

Things seemed normal upon driving through security. As I walked toward the building, I became aware that despite the clear and beautiful weather, my head was IFR. I learned quickly of the "other scenario". One of our fellow controllers lost his wife to the tragedy. She was on American 11 with six of her co-workers.

He had just arrived at work and already left. Could there be more? How much can we take here? Is this really happening? I walked around the facility looking for the controllers involved in the hijacking. I was told they were outside. I passed the cafeteria and it was jammed with people watching the images of New York. The airspace had been shut down and most everyone was in there. I met up with the controller that was talking to American 11 just prior to the hijacking.

Inside my head I am thinking that if I am saddened vicariously from home, how is this guy doing who was working the sector? I waited outside as he went back into the building briefly. In that moment, a dozen or so people from my right were running toward me screaming for me to run toward the furthest parking lot from the building. There was allegedly another

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aircraft headed toward our building. I met up again several minutes later with the controller I was looking for earlier and we both evacuated to a nearby parking lot away from the premises. The "other aircraft" turned out to be a military plane.

In the nearby parking lot, I met up with the small group of controllers that had some direct involvement in the hijacking.

My job at that time was to determine who was primarily involved in working the hijack. This includes controllers at adjacent sectors depending on the circumstance. Then I make contact with each controller. At this point, my primary focus was the controller that was talking to American 11. I will call him Paul, not his real name. Paul helped me determine who else was working, and where, so I could make contact with them. Paul and I walked about 100 yards toward one end of the parking lot and rested on some wooden guardrails. My heart was still heavy. There was a health club nearby and one of the patrons yelled over to us to advise us that the other tower had collapsed. What do you say? Thanks?

We said little or nothing and carried on our discussion. Paul told me his story.

Needless to say, his story is one of the more unique of the September 11th tragedy. Boston Center was in the position of being the first facility to encounter a hijacked aircraft and we were some of the first people to realize what happened. Everyone that saw that aircraft's primary target heading toward New York City never could have foreseen an outcome like this. In many people's minds, the aircraft was going to JFK to land and, in the words of one of the controllers, order pizza and make demands. The outcome was obviously vastly different. I wanted Paul to know that this event would more than likely disrupt his life. He would likely lose sleep and/or lose his appetite. I told Paul not to be upset with himself if he gets emotional.

All of these are normal reactions to an abnormal event. And events don't get more abnormal than this. I also urged him to try his best to maintain a normal routine. For over an hour I sat with Paul on the guardrail. At the time, Paul was not sure if he could do this job anymore. asked that he suspend making any of those kinds of judgments for a while until he can get a few days behind him. For Paul, life became an exercise in living day to day. Sometimes it's hour to hour or minute to minute. While I spoke with Paul, the other controllers involved had left and gone home to be with loved ones.

Meanwhile, I spoke briefly with a few people in that parking lot. One of them was at a nearby sector and heard what went on. He was shaken up. We spoke for several minutes and I asked that he call me if things got rough for him and he left for home.

I went back to the facility. We were on the highest state of alert at this point and security was tightened. Once inside, I went to my area to see how my coworkers were. It was then that I noticed that the only aircraft that were flying were fighters and tankers. My area of specialty overlies the state of Maine and south to Cape Cod and the ocean to the east. The bulk of the traffic I work is international.

Where did they go? It was then that I realized that my fellow Canadian controllers at Moncton Centre and Montreal Centre and even beyond them were sucking up all our traffic. Every facility that borders the United States had to "eat" their airplanes as we "shut the door" on the whole country. A strange and tragic day continued to ripple through the entire ATC system worldwide. A quick look at the Traffic Situation Display (TSD) and I could see clusters of airplanes around any Canadian airport large enough to accommodate a heavy jet. I would like to take this moment to extend my personal and professional thank you to all my fellow air traffic controllers worldwide that took it on the chin on our behalf.

From the Pacific rim to Mexico to Spain to Canada, your efforts did not go unnoticed by your American counterparts and we thank you from the bottom of our headsets. Your letters of support to NATCA's National Office were comforting and much needed as we all struggled to regain some semblance of normalcy in our jobs.

For the rest of this infamous day, I contacted all the controllers that were close to the AAL 11 hijacking. I contacted the Team Coordinator for NATCA's Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Team. I updated him about what was happening at my facility. He then told me that there was a fourth airplane that was hijacked in Cleveland Center's airspace. That was United 93. We discussed in general the Team's response to the tragedy. He would eventually drive to Washington to work directly with the FAA to help facilitate our response.

There was a lot to consider. Let me summarize what happened on September 11th . There were four aircraft down in one day killing thousands on the ground

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involving five Air Route Traffic Control Centers and four major Approach Controls and numerous Air Traffic Control Towers as well as the Command Center near Washington. There were four Air Traffic Control Towers in the New York City area that viewed the Twin Towers with their own eyes and Washington's National Airport Air Traffic Control Tower watching American 77 circle before striking the Pentagon. I am only one of 13 people nationwide on NATCA's Critical Incident Response Team and needless to say we had our hands full. With no Team members able to fly, only those within driving distance were able to provide any assistance in the first few days. I was able to take care of my facility and, later in the week, Boston Approach Control and Tower who talked with both ill-fated departures that struck the WTC that morning. Just prior to leaving my facility, I stepped into the "smoking shack" on my way to my car. I do not smoke but I could hear news on the TV. Nobody was in the room. I momentarily watched Peter Jennings interview a WTC survivor while seeing replays of the towers collapsing.

Wow. I still could not believe it. I left feeling satisfied about spending the day helping out my fellow controllers. They will get through this. We all will get through this. I was physically and mentally exhausted and still emotionally beat up by the day's events. I could see on the drive home that many others behind the wheel were similarly glazed over. At home I watched the news again.

I wanted to know all that happened that day. I was pleased to have this day behind me but I had much more work to do in the days and weeks to follow.

Wednesday came early. It was two in the morning to be exact. I awoke from a sound sleep. I did not just stir. My eyes flew open and I was wide-awake in an instant. I had the horror of the previous day on my brain. For some reason, I found myself inside those hijacked airplanes. We don't even see airplanes where I work except a distant contrail overhead but the event had taken its toll on my psyche. I said it before and I'll say it again. It's the airplane thing. As air traffic controllers we are all intimately connected to aviation. And planes just aren't supposed to get hijacked and fly into buildings. That's an abnormal event.

I knew I was going to feel the psychological effects of September 11th and I did for a short while. The rest of the night was very long. I did not fall back into a deep sleep state. I was sleeping just below the surface so it did not feel like

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sleep. At 7am I could not take it anymore and I got out of bed. Fortunately for me, that was the worst of it. I was tired on September 12th but feeling much more functional. With no air traffic except for fighters and tankers, people clustered around in small groups in their areas of specialty. I made it a point to talk to most everyone. I was curious if anyone else had a night like mine. Despite the fact that this part of the world was completely silent with the absence of aircraft noise, I did not find anyone that got a restful night's sleep. Suffice to say that I believe the entire world was awash in sleeplessness on that first night.

On Thursday, September 13, a mental health professional and I provided a Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) for all those controllers who were closely involved with American 11. These group meetings are a most effective tool in helping controllers bounce back psychologically from a powerful event.

While not a guarantee for recovery, CISD's lay the groundwork for helping individuals reestablish themselves after being knocked down by providing plenty of useful information about the human condition and various tips for coping.

While we here in America have only had a program for a little more than 6 years, our Canadian counterparts, for example, have had a CISM Program for at least twice that time. Most all law enforcement agencies and emergency responders here in America have active CISM programs. If you are an air traffic controller without CISM, get it. If you have CISM and are not familiar with it, learn about it. The midst of a crisis is not the time to learn about your CISM program. More information is available from the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (http://www.icisf.org) or from NATCA's CISM web site. (http:// cism. natca.org)

Each day so far had been a new experience for me and Friday the 14th was no exception. This was the day I went to Boston's Logan International Airport to meet up with my fellow controllers from approach and tower. departed for the 75 mile drive (from my house) to Logan around 8:30 am. I thought I might miss all the morning rush hour traffic but I was wrong. There was one thing missing from this commute into the city. The usually aggressive Boston drivers were calm and passive. Nobody was honking their horns. Politeness was

the rule not the exception. Did I make a wrong turn somewhere? Where am I? Yup, that's Boston out of my window.

Now I don't mean any offense to my friends in neigh boring Massachusetts, but I must admit this commute was different.

And it was about to get even more strange. As I turned onto the airport access road to Logan, I noticed I was the only car. The twists and turns, the jockeying for position, the virtual race to the terminal was absent. Did I mention I was the only car? The Mass. State Police was staffing every corner of the airport.

Security was no doubt tight as a drum around there. I arrived at central parking.

I showed my Federal ID to enter the garage. I had to pass two more checkpoints before getting into the building. Once at the facility, a look out of the window showed an even more bizarre sight. This hustling and bustling airport was completely motionless. Every airplane was neatly parked. Vehicles and luggage carts were stopped where they were several days before. Except for the occasional seagull, the field was entirely still. Multiply that scene by every airport in the country. While such stagnation of our aviation system cost hundreds of millions of dollars, not to mention headaches, it did prove America's resolve to protect itself against the "faceless cowards."

Saturday the 15th. I continued to follow up with a handful of controllers who were involved with the 11th . The skies were open again for business except for some airports like Washington National and some foreign carriers.

Tuesday seemed both a near and distant memory all at once. Today was the memorial service for Susan MacKay, the wife of my fellow controller Doug MacKay, and one of the hijacker's first victims. At 11 pm, I plugged in for my first shift since September 9th . It was very busy for a mid-shift. The traffic was all international trying to recover stranded passengers both stateside and abroad. It was quite steady all night. I initially worked radar-associate performing coordination and hand-offs. Around 2am, I was working a sector by myself. Traffic was light but steady and a number of the flights were US based carriers recovering their equipment from locations in Eastern Canada like Gander (CYQX) and St. Johns (CYYT) to name a few. I had time to sit and contemplate the past few days. It was hardly a cathartic moment but I could not help but listen extra carefully to the pilot's voice at each call. The pilots (and

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passengers) were finally going home and one pilot commented on frequency how happy he was to finally be headed home.

I could not blame him one bit. We chatted briefly on frequency.

My days off had arrived again. still had lots of follow up work from the previous week. There were a number of controllers I was still following up with on the phone since the prior week. A few controllers I spoke with on Tuesday I called everyday. Sometimes it was nothing more than a quick "hello" and "how ah ya". (That's how we say it around here.) It's important to make sure that people have resources for their well being at a time like this. Sometimes the resources are actual referrals to mental health professionals and sometimes the resource is a fellow controller like me.

Every situation and person is different.

For the next three weeks, I did more CISM related work. I visited Boston two more times. I organized a debriefing

for the Traffic Management Unit at my facility with another Team member. The following week I visited Cleveland Center in Oberlin, Ohio and worked with another Team member and a psychologist out there to provide that facility with support.

The week after that I went to LaGuardia Tower in New York City to help out there.

Meanwhile the entire Team was put into action visiting every affected facility at least once and usually twice. Everyone was as busy as I was visiting facilities and providing assistance. It took a month to make sure that we had covered everything. In the end, the entire Team met to have our own debriefing and begin to let down from a very intense month of crisis intervention. I am proud of the service that NATCA's entire Critical Incident Response Team provided in the days and weeks after September 11th . To

heartfelt thank you and the entire CISM Team thanks you.

all who supported our mission from the elected officials at NATCA, to our fellow controllers, to the many levels of FAA Managers, to the contracted mental health professionals, I offer my sincere and

who loved them and may God Bless America.

On the Tuesday that followed that meeting, I made one last trip to LaGuardia Tower in New York. There was a schedule mix up and we missed a crew there. Later that day after finishing at the Tower, I visited the CISM staging area of the New York City Police Department in Lower Manhattan. One of the detectives brought me inside ground zero. It was larger than life and a truly pathetic sight.

It was unthinkable that a small handful of people could do that to us. I circled the entire area and paid my respects to all of America's fallen heroes from office clerk to firefighter to my brother controller's wife, Susan MacKay. My heart remains to this day with the fallen of September 11th . May God Bless them and those

SEPTEMBER 11 EFFECTS ON CONTROLLERS - A Personal View Philippe Domogala Today, the normal passenger is afraid to fly. If this phenomenon does not reverse itself soon, there will be severe consequences for all of us. After all, it is the airlines and the airport authorities that indirectly pay our salaries so if traffic declines and bankruptcies follow, we controllers will be directly affected. The times have definitively gone when ATC was immune to outside events, and where States simply paid whatever budget or deficits were presented to them.

Therefore restoring passenger confidence in air travel, in order to ensure the survival of the airlines, is vital for the whole of the aviation industry, including us.

Let's look at what happened on and after September 11. After the horrendous 4 crashes in the USA in a single day, the whole of the US airspace was shut down for days, resulting in complete chaos for hundred of thousands of passengers worldwide. Besides the emotional shock and the terror caused by the terrorist acts themselves, the added confusion and disruption was felt by all those directly affected by the stranded and diverted aircraft. Then within days, two more crashes occurred killing all on board. A Russian Tupolev 154 carrying Russian and

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Israeli tourists was shot down by an Ukrainian missile over the Black Sea, followed by a runway collision in Milan where a SAS MD80 hit a Citation then crashed into a building a mere 150m from the airport main terminal.

These 2 crashes were immediately followed by the bankruptcy of SABENA, one of the oldest European airline, leaving thousands of passengers stranded, or affected during the following days as wildcat strikes by their staff disrupted their operations. Then one of the most prestigious airlines, Swissair, stopped operations for 3 days, also stranding thousands of passengers, before filing for bankruptcy as well. At the same time, Canada's second airline, CANADA 3000, brutally ceased operations and filed for bankruptcy, leaving thousands of passengers with a note asking them to: "seek an alternative means of travel.".

Another large Belgian Airline, CITY BIRD also went bankrupt. Then SAS grounded voluntarily all its MD80 fleet cancelling 150 flights a day because of cracks found in landing gears.

Later, on Nov 12, an American Airlines A300 lost its tail-fin and engines and

crashed in the city of New York, killing all on board and some people on the ground. A few days later Crossair, the airline poised to take over Swisssair lost one of their RJ's on approach in Zurich and two days later, a cargo Boeing 747 crashed on take off at Port Harcourt in Nigeria. During the same week, an IL 18 crashed in Russia and an Antonov 28 crashed in Lithuania, all with fatal casualties. A week later an IL76 crashed in Siberia., all on board died.

And this is the situation at the time of writing this article!

All these crashes and bankruptcies have probably nothing to do with the terrorist attacks of September 11, but they contribute heavily to this new 'fear of flying" that we thought was gone for good. Video conferencing is suddenly the in-thing to do and business people ( the bread and butter of many scheduled airlines) are changing their travel plans.

Holiday travel might be less affected, but other destinations and other form of transport might get popular suddenly.

Since September 11. transatlantic traffic decreased between 20 and 30 % and typical holiday destinations in North

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Septeml1 r 1 Africa are seeing a tremendous downturn.

Load factors of many flights are well below economic values. Major airlines are switching to smaller aircraft and are parking hundreds of large airliners 9 B747s, MD11s, DC10s, A310s, etc .. ) in the Mojave Desert in the USA. Ticket prices are being sold at discount prices, well below recovering actual costs.

Controllers can say that this is not our business. As air traffic controllers it does not matter if the planes we control are full or half-empty. We are not concerned with the prices of the tickets because our job is the same if we control an empty B747 or a full BA146.

Not so, if the passengers are not re-filling those planes rapidly, there will be fewer of them to control and consequently, less revenue for our employers, the ATS providers. Sooner rather than later, we will be affected because in 2001 many things have changed in our business.

Every ATS provider, whether it is state owned, state controlled or privatised, has now to follow budgets. If the projected income is reduced, cuts will have to be made. For starters, I am not sure that all of our future technological plans will continue at the same pace. I would guess all future projects that include costs for the airlines such as new avionics for Mode S, Data link(s) ASAS/ CDTI, and Free Flight, are likely to be seriously delayed or possibly even put into the freezer.

Whether all the freezer-keepers will continue to be employed is a good question to ask. Issues such as reducing controllers' financial advantages, cutting back on recruitment, and training are points also generally re-surfacing during crisis. ATC providers in some core area

countries have already started to renegotiate collective bargaining agreement to overcome the current crisis. For example, the Swiss social partners have decided to freeze the salary at 2001 levels in order that the ATS provider can survive a cash-flow crisis foreseen for next year.

( Note: /FA TCA has started to collect data in the European area on the impact after the 11.9 on A TS providers Any Association facing difficult time please advise the IFATCA office. about the measures being taken to overcome similar cash-flow problems.)

Taking account of the strength of controllers unions, strikes are the last thing you would need right now therefore I doubt that ATS service providers will go for confrontation as in the past. The problems with all these potential are the long-term effects. We are still suffering today those same measures taken 15 years ago, especially the freeze in recruitment .

The Association of European Airlines (AEA) has already made a clear statement on 13 November warning ATS providers not to cut back in their plans: quote: "It is essential that [A TC] expansion programmes remain in place. The market will return, and the infrastructure needs to be in place when it does " But the newly privatised or corporatized ATS providers are now facing a rough ride. Will their masters allow them to raise their income, like any other business industry? Raising income for an ATS provider is raising its (route) charges .

How will the Airlines react, especially if they are part of the ATS provider's

masters? After all the main reason to support ATS privatisation was to free them from governmental rules to make them more efficient and financially independent. Now the loss of revenue is important. It is based on traffic, the latest losses for November 2001 are as follows: Europe: 11 %, Far East: 17%, North Africa & Middle East: 30% and North Atlantic: 34%.

(Source: AEA) It is interesting to note that when times were good, most of the privatised ATC providers (e.g .. Germany, Canada, etc) refunded any surplus benefit made to the airlines. But now that we have entered bad times, who should make good the deficit?

On November 28, 30 European States met to discuss the route charges issue and agreed to keep the 2002 route charges at the same level at 2001, but only for the first quarter of 2002, adding that the loss of revenue for that period will be added to the remainder of 2002. A small gesture, but the ball has started rolling.

Unfortunately for controllers, history tells us that crisis management has never been the strong point of our managers. ATC is a long-term activity, and what we produce - Safety - is not easily measurable.

However we controllers, do not live in a cocoon or bubble, away from the outside world. What happened on September 11, combined with the financial and policy crisis that the airlines experienced at the end of 2001 will affect all of us.

September 11 is not the cause; it was only a catalyst, a sort of spark plug in an already explosive environment.

September 11 th from the Flight Deck Special Newsletter Delta 1 S Flight Crew We were about 5 hours out of Frankfurt flying over the North Atlantic and I was in my crew rest seattaking my scheduled rest break. All of a sudden the curtains parted violently and I was told to go to the cockpit, right now, to see the captain. As soon as I got there I noticed that the crew had one of those "All Business"looks on their faces. The captain handed me a printed message. I quickly read the messageand realized the importance of it. The messagewas from Atlanta, addressedto our flight, and simply said, "All airwaysover the Continental US are closed. Land ASAP at the nearest airport, advise your destination."

Now, when a dispatcher tells you to land immediatelywithout suggestingwhich airport,

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one can assumethat the dispatcher has reluctantly given up control of the flight to the captain. We knew it was a serioussituation and we needed to find terra firma quickly. It was quickly decided that the nearest airport was 400 miles away,behind our right shoulder, in Gander, on the island of Newfoundland.

A quick request was made to the Canadian traffic controller and a right turn, directly to Gander, was approved immediately. We found out later why there was no hesitation by the Canadiancontroller approving our request. We, the in-flight crew, were told to get the airplane ready for an immediate landing. While this was going on another messagearrived from Atlanta telling us about

some terrorist activity in the New York area.

We briefed the in-flight crew about going to Gander and we went about our business 'closing down' the airplane for a landing. A few minutes later I went back to the cockpit to find out that some airplanes had been hijacked and were being flown into buildings all over the US. We decided to make an announcement and LIEto the passengersfor the time being. We told them that an instrument problem had arisen on the airplane and that we needed to land at Gander,to have it checked. We promised to give more information after landing in Gander. There were many unhappy passengersbut that is par for the course.

THE CONTROLLER

r 11 We landed in Gander about 40 minutes after the start of this episode. There were already about 20 other airplanes on the ground from all over the world. After we parked on the ramp the captain made the following announcement. "Ladies and gentlemen, you must be wondering if all these airplanes around us have the same instrument problem as we have. But the reality is that we are here for a good reason." Then he went on to explain the little bit we knew about the situation in the US. There were loud gasps and stares of disbelief. Local time at Gander was 12:30pm. (11 :00 am EST) Gander control told us to stay put. No one was allowed to get off the aircraft. No one on the ground was allowed to come near the aircraft. Only a car from the airport police would come around once in a while, look us over and go on to the next airplane. In the next hour or so all the airways over the North Atlantic were vacated and Gander alone ended up with 53 airplanes from all over the world, out of which 27 were flying US Aags.

We were told that each and every plane was to be offloaded, one at a time, with the foreign carriers given the priority. We were number 14 in the US category. We were further told that we would be given a tentative time to de plane at 6pm.

Meanwhile bits of news started to come in over the aircraft radio and for the first time we learned that airplanes were Aown into the World Trade Center in New York and into the Pentagon in DC. People were trying to use their cell phones but were unable to connect due to a different cell system in Canada. Some did get through but were only able to get to the Canadian operator who would tell them that the lines to the US were either blocked or jammed and to try again.

Some time late in the evening the news filtered to us that the World Trade Center buildings had collapsed and that a fourth hijacking had resulted in a crash.

Now the passengers were totally bewildered and emotionally exhausted but stayed calm as we kept reminding them to look around to see that we were not the only ones in this predicament. There were 52 other planes with people on them in the same situation.

We also told them that the Canadian Government was in charge and we were at their mercy. True to their word, at 6pm, Gander airport told us that our turn to de plane would come at 11am, the next morning. That took the last wind out of the passengers and they simply resigned and accepted this news without much noise and really started to get into a mode of spending the night on the airplane.

Gander had promised us any and all medical attention if needed; medicine, water, and lavatory servicing. And they were true to their word.

Fortunately we had no medical situation during the night. We did have a young lady

THE CONTROLLER

who was 33 weeks into her pregnancy. We took REALLY good care of her. The night passed without any further complications on our airplane despite the uncomfortable sleeping arrangements. About 10:30 on the morning of the 12th we were told to get ready to leave the aircraft.

A convoy of school buses showed up at the side of the airplane, the stairway was hooked up and the passengers were taken to the terminal for "processing" We, the crew, were taken to the same terminal but were told to go to a different section, where we were processed through Immigration and customs and then had to register with the Red Cross. After that we were isolated from our passengers and were taken in a convoy of vans to a very small hotel in the town of Gander. We had no idea where our passengers were going.

The town of Gander has a population of 10.400 people. Red Cross told us that they were going to process about 10,500 passengers from all the airplanes that were forced into Gander. We were told to just relax at the hotel and wait for a call to go back to the airport, but not to expect that call for a while. We found out the total scope of the terror back home only after getting to our hotel and turning on the TV, 24 hours after it all started. Meanwhile we enjoyed ourselves going around town discovering things and enjoying the hospitality. The people were so friendly and they just knew that we were the "Plane people". We all had a great time until we got that call, 2 days later, on the 14th at 7am. We made it to the airport by 8:30am and left for Atlanta at 12:30 pm arriving in Atlanta at about 4:30pm. (Gander is 1 hour and 30 minutes ahead of EST,yes!, 1 hour and 30 minutes.) But that's not what I wanted to tell you. What passengers told us was so uplifting and incredible and the timing couldn't have been better.

We found out that Gander and the surrounding small communities, within a 75 kilometre radius, had closed all the high schools, meeting halls, lodges, and any other large gathering places. They converted all these facilities to a mass lodging area. Some had cots set up, some had mats with sleeping bags and pillows set up. All the high school students had to volunteer taking care of the

"Guests".

Our 218 passengers ended up in a town called Lewisporte, about 45 Kilometres from Gander. There they were put in a high school. If any women wanted to be in a women only facility, that was arranged.

Families were kept together. All the elderly passengers were given no choice and were taken to private homes. Remember that young pregnant lady, she was put up in a private home right across the street from a 24 hour Urgent Care type facility. There were doctors on call and they had both male and female nurses available who stayed with the crowd for the duration. Phone calls and emails to US and Europe were available for every one once a day. During the days, the passengers were given a choice of "excursion" trips. Some people went on boat cruises of the lakes and harbours. Some went to see the local forests. Local bakeries stayed open to make fresh bread for the guests. Food was prepared by all the residents and broughrto the school for those who elected to stay put. Others were driven to the eatery of their choice and fed.

They were given tokens to go to the local Laundromat to wash their clothes, since their luggage was still on the aircraft.

In other words every single need was met for those unfortunate travellers.

Passengerswere crying while telling us these stories. After all that, they were delivered to the airport right on time and without a single one missing or late. All because the local Red Cross had all the information about the goings on back at Gander and knew which group needed to leave for the airport at what time. Absolutely incredible.

When passengers came on board, it was like they had been on a cruise. Everybody knew everybody else by his or her name. Our flight back to Atlanta looked like a party flight. And then a strange thing happened. One of our business class passengers approached me and asked if he could speak over the PA to his fellow passengers. The gentleman picked up the PA and reminded them of the hospitality they had received at the hands of total strangers.

He further stated that he would like to do something in return for the good folks of the town of Lewisporte. He said he was going to set up a Trust Fund under the name of DELTA 15 (our flight number). The purpose of the trust fund is to provide a scholarship for high school student(s) of Lewisporte to help them go to college. He asked for donations of any amount from his fellow travellers. When the paper with donations got back to us with the amounts, names, phone numbers and addresses, it totalled to $14.5K or about $20K Canadian. The gentleman who started all this turned out to be a MD from Virginia. He promised to match the donations and to start the administrative work on the scholarship.

He also said that he would forward this proposal to Delta Corporate and ask them to donate as well.

25

THE ZAGREB COLLISION REVISITED What have we learned?

Philippe Domogala, European Editor

Many controllers today were not even born in the 1970's. But the period was a very dramatic one. The first mid-air collision caused by ATC occurred over Nantes in France in March 1973 amid a strike by the French civil controllers who were locked out and replaced by the military. Sixty-eight people were killed when a Spantax Coronado collided with an Iberia DC-9 at FL 280. (I will one day tell the whole story) This collision traumatised a lot of controllers at the time and caused many discussions. Three years later another collision hit us : this time over Zagreb, (Yugoslavia at the time), when a British Airways Trident collided with an lnex Adria DC-9 at FL330 in September 1976, killing 176 persons. This was followed 6 months later by the collision on the runway at Tenerife North, between two Boeing 747s belonging to KLM and Pan Am leaving 560 dead ...

The 1976 Zagreb collision is probably better known to many controllers because it has been dramatised in a TV movie called "Collision Course " that most of us has seen. It is even part of some training syllabus in the Eurocontrol Institute in Luxemburg today.

Now almost 25 years later to the day, I found myself in Zagreb, attending the IFATCA European Regional meeting, walking through that same Ops room in the same building. The sector layout has not changed since that time. (see photo) One of the controllers involved at the time of the collision is still working in Zagreb. With the help of the Croatian Association a meeting was arranged . The aim is not to

26

look for sensationalism, reopen old wounds or to blame anyone, but merely to see if there is something to be learned from history, and if such horrific events are just items from the past...

The facts as reported by the two accident investigation reports are public domain .

For those of you not familiar with the case or who would like to refresh your memory here is a resume of the facts: (Taken from the accident report published on 9/1982) September 1976 : A British European Airways Trident 3 on a flight from London to Istanbul cruising at FL330 estimating ZAG VOR at 1014 carrying 54 pax + 9 crew callsign BE476 .

The other aircraft was an lnex Adria DC-9 which departed Split for Cologne climbing to FL 350 also estimating ZAG VOR at 1014. It carried 108 pax+ 5 crew, callsign JP550.

Both aircraft collided above ZAG VOR at time 1014.41 The R/t between BE476 and Zagreb ACC was very simple : BE476 reported to the Zagreb ACC upper sector ( frequency 134,45) at FL330, estimating ZAG 14, controller replied :roger, call me passing ZAG, squawk A2312.

That was all the R/T exchange with BE476 prior to the collision.

The R/T exchange with the JP550 was first with the middle sector. JP 550 arrived on this sector at FL260 requesting higher (the requested FL on the flight plan was 310).

The middle controller told the pilot that both 310 and 280 were not available and asked if it could take 350. Pilot replied ' Affirmative with pleasure.

What happens next is the subject of differences. Normally the middle controller should have initiated co-ordination with the Upper Sector as 350 is not in his sector.

Also as the FPL was for FL310 max, no strip was made for the Upper Sector and the local procedures said that it was the responsibility of the middle controller assistant to make that strip. Investigation proved no strip was made and the receiving (Upper) controller said later he had not understood that the aircraft was climbing. Also, the Upper controller was alone at his position at the time of the coordination and of the collision, with 11 other aircraft on his frequency, the situation was described as very busy.

Normally the procedures require 2 controllers at all times, but the radar assistant had left the position 4 minutes earlier.

1 min 50 seconds later, the middle controller recleared the JP550 to climb to FL350, and the pilot was asked to report passing FL310. At 1012, the following R/T exchange took place : 1012.03 JP: Zagreb Adria 550 out of 310.

1012.06 MID: 550, for further Zagreb 134.45, squawk Stand-by and good day sir ...

1012. 12 .JP: Squawking Stand-by, 134.45, good day.

The procedure to squawk stand-by on transfer from one sector to another was normal procedure in Zagreb, as each sector had its own limited series of codes and one had to "release" the code before transfer. This procedure was not documented, nor was it an international standard, but was common practice in the Centre.

The consequence of this was that the altitude block and identity disappeared from the Radar.

The Adria crew then waited nearly 2 minutes to call the upper sector.

The following is the R/T exchange between JP550 (JP)and the Upper controller (HI) : 1014.04 JP: Good morning Zagreb Adria 550 1014.07 HI: Adria550, zagreb, good morning go ahead 1014. 10 JP: 325, crossing ZAG at 14 1014. 14 HI: What is your present level?

10. 14.17 JP: 327 All previous communications were in English, now the controller switches to serbo-croat : ( Translation )

THE CONTROLLER

AGENDA 1014.22 HI: ... e...maintain now on that level and report passing ZAG. 1014.27 JP: What level?

1014.29: HI: At which you are now climbing because ... e...you have an aircraft in front of you at ... (unreadable) ...335 from left to right.

1014.38. JP: OK maintaining precisely 330.

The collision occurred at 1014.41., 37 seconds after the first R/T call on the sector and 3 seconds after the last transmission.

Now back in 2001: 25 years later, the bar of a luxurious Hotel in downtown Zagreb. The man in front of me has grey hair, a few years left before retirement, but the eyes are still full of energy. It is difficult for him to talk about the collision, even after all those years.

"The collision was probably 10 % human error but for 90% it was caused by the system .. Can you imagine today, climbing an aircraft at the sector boundary and switching its transponder off before transferring it to the next frequency? But that is what we did routinely in Zagreb in those days. In the ACC. we were stunned by the collision. Could not believe it at first.

You know we were only 40 or 45 controllers in Zagreb at the time . We were very busy, controlling 1000 to 1200 aircraft per day. In comparison, Vienna, our Austrian neighbour, they had 200 controllers for 1400 aircraft a day.

both were accusing each other. But only they knew which one of the two was lying and what was really said during the coordination. Tasic was trying to put the blame on others. Perhaps this is a common human reaction.

January 16 - 17 Eurocontrol ASM Workshop Brussels Contact Bernadette Tamo

Anyway, we stayed in this preventive jail for 2 months, except to our great surprise, one of us, the assistant in the middle sector, was released after one month. The rumour was that it was because he had some good relations with the police and in political circles. Anyway that left only Tascic to be blamed, and after another month in jail ( for what , we will never know) the rest of us except Tasic were set free. Tasic remained in custody until the trial.

Back at work nothing changed. The procedures, the technology used, and the management, all remained in place for the next 2 to 3 years. Everyone knew that the system was to blame, but changing it would have been , in the eyes of some, a sort of admission that something was wrong with the system. ZAG VOR was one of the busiest European VOR at the time. Many airways converged to it and contributed to many problems. Yet the route structure was kept as in 1976 for another 7 or 8 years.

After 6 months in Jail, Tasic lost his salary.

In the Ops room, we all collected money and made sure Tasic's wife received the money. The group was united and strong.

We had more stress because of the After the collision we all stuck together as reactions of our family and friends than no help whatsoever was given to us by our from our colleagues. The reaction from outside was definitively the worst. The controllers were tough. You had to be tough to be a controller in Yugoslavia in those days. We had no idea of what was happening outside Yugoslavia. For instance, not one of us had ever seen an ICAO document.

Doc 4444 was a classified document The Zagreb ACC still the same as in 1976 and was kept secret management. They just pointed fingers. in Belgrade. We only had parts of it Five of us were arrested by the police and translated into Serbo-Croat by the military ( sent to preventive jail. Not one of our it was full of military jargon.) and was never bosses was. Not even one resigned.. updated for 15 years. So we had no way of questioning the procedures we made Last month (September 2001) in Zagreb, ourselves and used everyday. Squawking 21 people died in a hospital because of an stand-by on transfer looked awkward, but error in dialysis , probably caused by a no-one questioned the procedure. Every faulty product made in USA. Anyway the sector had its own SSRcodes. You had too Health Minister resigned and heads will fall. few codes available and had to release Back in 1976, even after 176 dead, mostly them for the next sectors. So we told foreigners, not one of them was disturbed ! aircraft to squawk stand by. Secondary So 5 of us ended in jail. But in fact, only radar was relatively new in 1976.

Tasic and the middle sector assistant were directly involved with the collision. And The fact tat Tascic was in jail was not right

THE CONTROLLER

2002

Tel: + 32 2 729 3366 Fax: +32 2 729 9003 bernadetle.tamo@eurocontrol.int

21 - 23 SC1 Meeting Copenhagen Contact - IFATCA Office Manager, Tatiana lavorskaia Phone +1514866 7040 Fax

+15148667612

Email: office@ifatca.org

20 - 22 Executive Board Meeting Contact - IFATCA Office Manager, Tatiana lavorskaia Phone +1514866 7040 Fax

+ 1 514 866 7612

Email: office@ifatca.org

February

05 -07 ATC Maastricht Registration for EGATS Forum

www.atcmaastricht.com Jane's Conference

Contact:afowler@cmpinformation.com

~ 12-13 Executive Board Pre Conference Meeting 15 -19 41st Annual Conference See details and forms in this issue 20

Post Conference EB Meeting

Contact - IFATCA Office Manager, Tatiana lavorskaia Phone+ 1 514 866 7040 Fax

+1514866 7612

Email: office@ifatca.org

but in those days if you made a mistake you were punished. For instance if a TWR controller ordered an overshoot because the runway was still occupied, this was considered a mistake and you could be disciplined ! Not very good for safety, but those were the days.

When the trial came, we expected the worst. long sentences for everyone was our fear. We were however partially lucky because we got a relatively good judge, who took his time and considered all the facts and went deep into the case. He could have easily blamed everyone and sent most of the team to jail. Instead he singled out Tasic. This was unfortunate, but there were 176 dead and someone had to pay so he imprisoned for 7 years. This was a blow to us. Tasic was probably partially responsible, but he took all the blame. No chief, no management was questioned or held even partially responsible. There were in fact very few witnesses at the trial. After the trial we tried to forget and went on A British lawyer, Richard Weston, wrote a book called "Zagreb one four" and later Granada TV made a movie about it called "Collision Course " The Zagreb controllers did not like either of the two and did not consider them accurate. They did not reflect what actually happened, especially as far as the social environment and the characters were described.

Tasic is described as loner and some kind of martyr. This was definitively not the case

; he was happily married at the time and his wife was pregnant and he was looking forward to his kid. ( the fact that he saw his daughter only one year later was very sad indeed ) But he knew himself what mistakes he did and we all knew that. End of the story. The tensions and the problems between controllers described in the book and movie were not there, Probably exaggerated dramatisation to make the book and the movie more interesting, more sensational.

After three and a half years, a second investigation was completed with some little additions. They tried to blame the pilots of both aircraft for not looking out !

Anyway they used this excuse to pardon Tasic and he was set free at half his sentence. He was sent back to Belgrade and joined the Technical department.

He stayed there and never returned to Zagreb. He died of a cancer a few years ago. The middle sector assistant, did not continue as a controller, he also joined the Technical dept here in Zagreb. He also died some years ago. Of the 3 others jailed , one went to management in Belgrade, the other manage a small airport in an island and only one remained as a radar controller in Zagreb.

What lessons can we learn from this collision?

First that nothing, but nothing in a collision can be forgotten One has to live with it always. Whether you had something

to do with it or not. Whether today a controller in similar circumstances will also be jailed for three and a half years is questionable but not unthinkable. It is still happening, albeit for other reasons. Our colleagues in Italy and in Greece, and recently Mexico, can confirm this.

Of course today, procedures are published

by ICAO and Eurocontrol and are widely available. No controller, in Europe at least , can be unaware of what is going on outside his own ATC unit in other countries. So the SSR procedure that contributed to the collision will probably be spotted in time by others and corrected ...

Of course we have now TCAS,but VFR traffic still does not have always a transponder and procedures are still an important accident barrier ...

But the rest ; the missing strip ?

The climb at a sector boundary?

The unrecorded verbal co-ordinations ?

The busy controller alone on his sector with no assistant ?

The assistant coming late ?

The inadequate airway structure ?

Are we so sure this does not still happen today even briefly in any ACC in Europe?"

This is probably the saddest conclusion of this tragic story : Have we really learned all of what was to be learned from this tragic event?

Probably not .

BookReviewby Bert Ruitenberg "Human Error - by Design?" by Simon Bennett. Published by Perpetuity Press Ltd, Leicester, UK. ISBN 1 899287 72 8. (Internet: www.perpetuitypress.com) Simon Bennett is the Director of the Scarman Centre's distance learning programme in Risk, Crisis and Disaster Management. He has a Ph.D. in sociology and his research interests include the socio-technical aspects of technological failure.

The author has written this book primarily as an accessible introduction to the application of systems thinking to the investigation of aviation accidents. The first part of the book contains a fair number of quotations from other authors to illustrate the traditional view on the cause of air disasters, i.e. that most of these are directly attributable to "pilot error". This is followed by a description of the more contemporary view that only a very small number of disasters should be blamed on pilot error. Dr. Bennett subsequently develops a theoretical perspective on human error, based on the work from academics like Prof. James Reasonand Prof. Donald Norman.

The next section of the book contains six case-studies of accidents that happened some time ago (1952-1977). What is interesting is that Dr. Bennett usesthe available accident description materials to illustrate that in each of these six casesthere were distinct systemic and/or organisational failures that contributed to the occurrence. In the original investigation reports, all six cases had "pilot error" as the, or at least a, probable cause. Yet based on the more systemic view advocated by the author it is evident that the pilots concerned were just the unfortunate actors who made it possible for an already existing error chain to culminate in a disaster.

In his conclusion the author therefore states that through systems theory it has been shown that operator errors may be facilitated or induced by factors (e.g. poor design, or flawed procedures) that are beyond the control of pilots. He also mentions an important characteristic of the air transport industry: the propensity of the public and some regulatory agencies (and the media - BR) to focus only on the immediate cause(s) of the disaster. In his view the case studies confirm Reason'sthinking that active operator errors may have their origins in "resident pathogens" or "latent errors".

I found this 53-page booklet to be of interest especially in the case-study section, where historical data is being interpreted in a way that is compatible with contemporary views on accident causation. The fact that many systemic and organisational factors can still be identified after all those years is to me an indication that accidents today and in the past have their roots in the same basic human attribute(s) - it's only our understanding of this causality that has changed.

For those in the aviation industry that are as yet unfamiliar with the application of systems thinking to the investigation of incidents and accidents, the book by Dr. Bennett may serve as a useful introduction indeed.

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THE CONTROLLER

THE ZAGREB IFATCA EUR REGIONAL MEETING Philippe Domogala, European Editor audience of the latest This new toolbox is initially set up for developments in the airports. It is supposed to connect and Link 2000+ programme. inform in real time all the players in the He said that field (ATC, airports and airlines) with all Eurocontrol did not their known parameters (such as gate/ stand availability, aircraft technical want to replace R/T by data link and that the problems, parking/ taxing constraints, and idea now was to create holdings.). This is in order to define the an additional link to be priorities and possibly re-sequence arrivals used at controller and and departures. When and if it is fully pilot discretion. He also implemented, this system could have an explained that the effect on all controllers. initially expected On the social side, thanks to Croatian functions such as downlinking aircraft Airlines, Zagreb Airport and Croatian ANS, all lunches and dinners were parameters or The head table Dave Grace, Marc Baumgartner and comparing FMS route sponsored. The association also managed Catharina De Dekker with that of the ATC to provide no less than 23 different wines The 18th European Regional Meeting took ground processing system(s) will be both during the various events, as a kind of place in Zagreb, Croatia last October. It extremely complex and expensive to wine tasting and discovery event, was attended by nearly 100 delegates promoting Croatian wines. Some of them achieve and probably will not materialise. representing most EUR MAs, and by were really excellent (take that from a various observers, such as the Eurocontrol Frenchman!), a very nice initiative indeed.

Then Joe Sultana, the RVSM project Agency, the ETF (Transport Trade Union) manager, gave a very interesting update and IFALPA. The meeting was extremely on the current RVSM preparation. We Finally, this will unfortunately be Marc well organised by the Croatian learned that out of the 9100 aircraft Baumgartner's last time as EVP Europe as Controllers' Association and especially by he will leave us for, hopefully, a higher expected to fly in the RVSM airspace next Josip Lusic and Marinko Keser who, position in IFATCA. Marc has been the January only 78% so far were monitored together with a small team of controllers, and found compliant. It was expected that driving force behind the Region over the did a very good job.

8150 would meeet the requirements by last years and his kindness and powers of 24 January and that the rest will have to fly persuasion will be missed. As the The Agenda of the meeting was very below FL290. They are mainly Tu154, s.

Eurocontrol representative said: it was extensive. Besides the traditional Member largely due to Marc's work and personality DC9, BA146, RJs,E145/185 and business Associations' reports, an the various that IFATCA enjoyed such an esteemed jets. It was not expected that any of the 41 IFATCA representatives to the numerous States involved would have any major status within the Eurocontrol agency.

ICAO and Eurocontrol panels, the main IFATCA is not anymore a mere observer problem by 24 January. However, items of discussion centred around the Eurocontrol will ask that for the first 48 but rather a partner in the various new ATM working group social dialogue Eurocontrol activities. hours a 20% reduction of capacity is set up by the EU, following their "Single imposed on all upper sectors and for the sky "initiative. There were long debates on Indeed one can see the IFATCA Logo next 15 days a reduction of 10%, leaving whether IFATCA should take up a seat in alongside the Eurocontrol one in the the local supervisors the flexibility to this traditionally Trade Union business. modify those by+/- 5 %.

RVSM poster that will be put in every Ops The decision has been deferred. room in Europe. The two organisations are also jointly organising the next Lastly, Eric Miart gave a presentation on The consequences for controllers of the Co-operative Decision-Making (CDM).

Workshop. tragic events around the 11th September were also discussed and the region reThe city of Zagreb inforced the position that ATS service providers should not cut training and reduce recruitment as the results of the call made by airlines to reduce ATC costs.

It was also highlighted that many Privatised ATS service providers, faced with reduced income, would probably run into financial difficulties and this will have an impact on controllers.

The Eurocontrol agency made 3 presentations. The first on data link was presented by Alex Wandels, informing the

THE CONTROLLER

29

A

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The Future of Air Traffic Management John Hayhurst BoeingAir Traffic Management GPS GCNSS

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Unique architecture design provides • Integrity and redundancy for safety-of-flight applications • Enhanced CNS accuracy • Affordable global coverage Copyright© 2001 The Boeing Company.All rights reserve Prior to September 11, the main concern among the flying public was the prospect of increasing flight delays and cancellations, which were reaching record levels again this year. In the postSeptember 11 world, it is obvious that airline passengers are much more concerned about their safety and security as they take to the skies.

Although airline passengers are willing to suffer a degree of delay and inconvenience in the interest of security, they remain unwilling to accept delays for other reasons-such as severe weather, congested airports, or overbooked flights.

To combat the latter type of delays in the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has developed an Operational Evolution Plan (OEP), "a foundation for capacity enhancement" to be implemented over the next decade.

In short, the OEP offers an approach to resolving today's major causes for flight delays-weather conditions at airports and along flight paths, congestion of the

30

airspace between and around airports, and the arrival and departure rates at the nation's airports.

To complement and strengthen the FAA's plan, The Boeing Company has established a new business unit, Air Traffic Management, with the goal of providing an integrated solution for a new air traffic system that will increase capacity and efficiency while significantly improving safety and security features.

There are three key components to the Boeing approach: a Common Information Network, trajectory-based air traffic management and airspace redesign. (See graphic)

CommonInformationNetwork: The Core of the FutureAir TransportationSystem The Common Information Network (CIN) uses secure and encrypted communication links between aircraft, satellites and ground-based users to provide real-time, integrated information about aircraft trajectories, weather, air

traffic flow and other air traffic conditions.

The information transmitted through the CIN will provide controllers with a far greater degree of situational awareness than they have today. As importantly, the CIN could be used to detect and monitor threats and anomalies, reduce air traffic congestion and delays, and safely increase the capacity and efficiency of the national airspace.

One of the most important features of Boeing's proposed new system is the combination of secure satellite-, aircraftand ground-based data links with sophisticated encryption algorithms. The built-in redundancy would prevent the system from being misled by terrorists operating as hackers, whether they are on the ground or on the aircraft. The CIN will be much more resistant to threat and attack than the current system is.

A fully integrated secure-channel information network has important applications in the security arena. For instance, cameras that would give authorities a complete picture of onboard

THE CONTROLLER

events in the cockpit and the passenger cabin could be linked to controllers and authorities on the ground through secure satellite connections. This data would be integrated with aircraft intent and performance data as well as air traffic, weather and terrain data. The CIN would instantly and simultaneously provide the

New flight plans could be issued to the aircraft that are already airborne to assist in a safe and orderly response to the crisis.

The CIN could also be used to add another layer of safety to the flying experience by enabling system-wide

a change in an aircraft's intended route, altitude, speed or other indicators.

Controllers will be able to represent graphically an aircraft's trajectory in real time, enabling them to project its future position accurately up to forty minutes in advance. This will make potential conflicts much easier to spot and resolve while

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integrated data to controllers, civil and military authorities and governmental agencies.

All authorized parties will have instant access to the same up-to-date information, enabling rapid collaborative decision making in times of crisis, even among geographically dispersed decision makers.

The CIN beinwill also allow instant, network-wide notification of crisis decisions. For example, if a security administrator wanted to restrict access to airspace around a sports stadium due to a terrorist threat, he or she could input the restriction directly into the system. The system would immediately respond and update the flight plans of affected aircraft to comply with the security constraint.

Or, if the security administrator wanted to ground all aircraft in the vicinity, the order could immediately be transmitted via the CIN to all affected ATM centers and airline operations centers (AOCs).

THECONTROLLER

instant notification of clear air turbulence.

A pilot who experiences clear air turbulence would simply report it into the network, which would then notify other pilots in the area.

Trajectory-Based Flow Management The technology that will enable the development of the CIN will also help to usher in an era of much more precise, trajectory-based aircraft flow management. Current radar systems do not make use of aircraft intent data.

Therefore, the controller must create a mental picture to anticipate where the airplane will be and plan future actions.

However, a system based on highly accurate satellite-based navigation, position update and aircraft intent information will allow controllers to be much more strategic in managing the flow of aircraft, and will give controllers a fuller picture of air traffic trends and potential conflicts. More precise tracking will also improve safety by immediately identifying

giving controllers the information and the time to plan the safe avoidance of congestion and delays.

One of the most important components of the Boeing system is our Global Communication, Navigation and Satellite System (GCNSS). (See graphic, Global CNS System) The GCNSS we are developing will not only provide precise positioning in the vertical, horizontal and geographic dimensions, it will also enable systemwide connectivity between all aircraft, ground-based controllers and authorities, and flight operations personnel.

In addition, it will enable the use of conformance monitoring, which will combine with high-integrity, trajectorybased flight plans to allow for new separation assurance standards.

Conformance monitoring will enhance safety while permitting closer spacing than is possible with current radar-based monitoring and controller-intensive vectoring procedures. This will help to

31

ll ture safely increase the capacity of the air transportation system without placing undue stress on air traffic controllers.

AirspaceRedesign The combination of the Common Information Network and the trajectorybased tracking and planning system will enable a complete redesign of the national airspace. The current, complex system of control sectors and segregated flow zones will be replaced with a simpler, more open, managed flow configuration.

to handle more aircraft and larger volumes of airspace, reducing at once the proliferation of sectors, control sector radio frequencies, and the repetitive routine of handoffs as airplanes cross from one sector to another.

After our initial meetings, we divided the stakeholders into smaller subteams to gather specific system priorities from every imaginable perspective, which will help us to design the most robust integrated system possible.

Positionedfor the Future

At the same time, Boeing Air Traffic Management is coordinating efforts with Boeing subsidiaries Autometric, Preston Aviation Systems and Jeppesen Sanderson, whose expertise has greatly expanded our portfolio of data, visualization and analysis tools and has accelerated our ability to deliver significant enhancements to the air transportation system.

Developing a fully integrated, completely interoperable and user-friendly security

Boeing envisions an enhanced role for air traffic control professionals.

Controllers will move from maintaining strict control over tightly defined segments of airspace to becoming strategic planners of air traffic flow; they will have a fuller picture of air traffic trends and conflicts and greater access to aircraft information than the current sector-based system allows them.

Air traffic controllers must currently reserve large blocks of airspace to ensure safe separations upon approach and departure, because the tools they have been given do not provide detailed information about flight crew intentions and aircraft performance.

As the Boeing system becomes fully implemented, however, the need for expansive controlled airspace will be minimized. We plan to remedy this situation by providing every controller with full access to a complete portfolio of information, including flight data, trajectory, weather, and immediate notification of any security situations that may arise.

Individual air traffic managers will be able

and surveillance system is not an overnight proposition. The Boeing Company has, however, established a phased implementation plan, which we are now executing.

We are working closely with various aviation industry stakeholders throughout the Americas and Europe-including airlines, pilots, NASA, the FAA, and most importantly, the controller communityto establish the detailed performance requirements of the air traffic management system of the future.

The Boeing plan is technically achievable.

If fully implemented, our comprehensive approach will enhance security in the terminal, on the plane and in the air. The company is investing its own financial and intellectual resources into this effort, because we are confident that our approach will strengthen the air transportation system over the long-term.

The Boeing Company shares a common goal with the controller community-to give the flying public the best experience possible every time they trust us to take them where they want to go. Our vision for the air traffic management system of the future will allow us both to be successful in that endeavor.

Delegates attending the Asia Pacific meeting in Kuala Lumpur

32

THE CONTROLLER

THE KUALA LUMPUR ASIA PACIFIC REGIONAL MEETING 2001 Phil Parker, EVP Asia/Pacific The 1sth Asia/Pacific Annual Regional Meeting was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 5 - 8 November and was hosted by the Malaysia Air Traffic Controllers' Association.

Malaysia has twice before deferred to other Associations to host the Regional Meeting and now, at last, they have had their turn.

The theme of the meeting was "Training for the Future", with the meeting being held at the conference hotel, the Regent Kuala Lumpur, which is right in the centre of the city.

Over 70 participants took part in what was a very well organized and enjoyable meeting.

Member Associations attending included Australia, APAC, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, Nepal, New Zealand, Singapore, and ROCATCA Taiwan.

Observers included the Malaysia Civil Aviation Department, Indian Guild of ATC, Vietnam, IFALPA, and Malaysia Airlines.

EVP ASP chaired the meeting along with Remli Mohamid, President of MATCA, also at the head table to help with procedural and local organizational matters.

A welcoming cocktail party and dinner was held on the evening of the sth sponsored by Alenia Marconi Systems & Alenia AIROD Technology.

The morning of the 6th was registration and roll call followed by the arrival of invited guests and opening ceremony. The opening ceremony included welcoming addresses from the President of MATCA and EVP ASP with the opening address being given by the Honourable Dato' Sri Dr. ling liong Sik, Minister for Transport, Malaysia. lunch followed kindly hosted by the Minister of Transport.

Immediately after lunch, we began the first working session. After acceptance of minutes of the 2000 Regional Meeting, the report of the Executive Board was presented. This was followed by a more comprehensive report by myself on IFATCA activities in the Asia/Pacific Region. One of the items in my report was a presentation of the difficulties IFATCA is having in attracting representatives, with the pre-requisite knowledge, to attend meetings on our behalf. Both Australia and New Zealand advised that they would survey their membership for a suitable replacement for Kevin Broome, who after many years of sterling service representing IFATCA at various Asia/Pacific meetings and working

THE CONTROLLER

groups, is retiring environment.

to a quiet

Tower

The day was rounded off with a very pleasant dinner sponsored by Telecom Malaysia Berhad. This was held at a venue outside the hotel and the food available was typical Malaysian. A cultural floorshow was held during the course of the meal consisting of dances from the geographical areas, which make up Malaysia.

Working Session 2 on the morning of the 7th started with technical presentations by Kyotaro Harano on the 3rd IPACG FANS Interoperability Team (FIT/3) meeting and RVSM/TF meetings 9,10 & 11. This was followed by Member Association Activity Reports. Of those Associations who did not attend, written reports were sent by Fiji and Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka regretted its last minute withdrawal from attending, this being due to a restriction placed on travel outside of Sri Lanka of most public employees including ATC. We also had in attendance a representative from the Indian Guild of ATC. He presented a short verbal brief on the state of ATC in India and re-affirmed their intention to join IFATCA, once they had resolved their problems with their employer reference to a number of sacked controllers.

A presentation was made by Mr. Noordin bin Hj. Saad, Director of Air Traffic Services, Department of Civil Aviation, Malaysia on the "Malaysian Air Traffic Services Modernization Program, Its Achievement and Future". This was a very comprehensive presentation showing not only past achievements. but the future of RVSM, CNS/ATM, Radar systems and coverage, and Flow Management. lunch was sponsored

by SAPURA Technologies SDN. BHD and was followed by the last working session of the meeting.

During the next session, the Chairman presented the "Information Paper for Member Associations with Regard to the Current Economical Situation in the ATM Business" and then discussed its content.

One of the results of the downturn in the industry is that Malaysia has deferred the privatisation of ATC to a later date not yet determined.

This was followed by two papers by Indonesia, one of which was on RVSM Implementation. Two papers by Malaysia

both included the theme of the Regional Meeting in that they discussed training for the South China Sea restructuring and the training of Approach Controllers to look after the traffic during LIMA' 01, a large biennial air-show held in Langkawi, a tourist island off the North West coast of Malaysia.

The last presentation was by Ted Lang and was on the subject of training controllers for the TAAAST advanced ATC system used in Australia.

The Singapore Association kindly offered themselves as hosts for the next Regional Meeting in 2002 and I'm sure I speak for all Asia/Pacific Member Associations when I say that I am greatly looking forward to their hospitality. There being no other business, the meeting was over after closing remarks by the President of MATCA and EVP ASP. The Farewell Dinner was hosted by Malaysia Airlines and an enjoyable evening was had by all. Many delegates took the opportunity to stay a little longer in Malaysia and experience the hospitality of the country. I can highly recommend Malaysia as a holiday destination. Many also took advantage of a Kuala Lumpur City Tour on the morning of the 8th courtesy of the Malaysian Tourism Promotion Board.

This was a rewarding and productive meeting. The organization was first class and I would like to thank the Organizing Committee and other MATCA members for their enthusiasm and help during this very successful meeting.

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33

THE ACCRA AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST REGIONAL MEETING 2001 Henry P. Nkondokaya The 12th Africa and Middle East (AFM) Regional Meeting was held at the famous Accra International Conference Centre on 2s th and 26th October under the indisputably able chairmanship of the EVP-AFM, Mr. Albert Taylor.

Twenty-two Member Associations attended. This is a record attendance for the region and came as a total surprise to the hosts, bearing in mind that concessionary air travel was extremely difficult to arrange, due to the airline business crisis following the 11th September events in the USA. Four non-MAs - Congo Brazaville, Gabon, Sao Tome and Principe and Roberts FIR (Guinea) attended for the first time. Senior officials of Civil Aviation Authorities and A TS providers from Africa and Middle East including Jordan, Iran and Saudi Arabia also attended. The total number of participants was 220, including 126 foreign delegates.

Member of AFM Regional Support Group

available more resources for the development aviation and associated air traffic services.

Recognising efforts by some African States to improve ATC infrastructure, he applauded steps geared to co-ordinating a regional approach to ATM service provision.

The EVPAFM pleaded with authorities to adopt a fast-track approach towards the development of human resources; address human factor issues that were impeding the efficient ATC service delivery and abandon the culture of blaming and punishing those committing human errors.

Instead they should endeavour to reward outstanding performers, as the 12th Regional Meeting was poised to do.

The Acting Director of Ghana CAA expressed his

The opening ceremony was officiated by the Ghanaian Minister for Roads and Transport.

Before the meeting began, a one-minute silence was observed in honour of victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington; for the death of former IFATCA Executive Board member and Editor of "The Controller", Terry Crowhurst; and in honour of the untimely death of the father of the Director of Air Traffic Services from Gabon.

During the opening plenary, the EVP AFM gave his state of the Region address in which he warned that the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington would have a far reaching impact on the aviation industry.

Mr. Taylor lamented the inadequate development of air transport, a vital element of which is the airspace resource, as compared with other modes of transport. He called on stakeholders to make

34

The Minister declared his support for the development of civil aviation in the country. This was evidenced by his government's endorsement of the rehabilitation programme of air navigation services and facilities now underway.

The chief guest emphasised the need for proper training and welfare of ATCOs in order to enhance the efficiency of air traffic services.

Ghana supported the Yamoussoukro Decision on a new liberalization of air transport policy. In fact, he said, Ghana had started to implement some of the provisions of the policy. In this regard, Ghana Airways, the national carrier, was to be privatised; while Ghana Civil Aviation Authority was being restructured to make it even more efficient. The Minister reported that Ghana had been audited through the ICAO Universal Safety Oversight Assessment Programme and found to be in compliance with ICAO SARPs.

The Regional Meeting, whose theme was "Enhancing the human factor needs of air traffic control operations in Africa and Middle East" attracted a number of top class resource persons, including: Bert Ruitenberg • IFATCA's Human Factors Specialist; Professor Sidney Dekker HFA, IKP institute of Technology (Sweden); Dr. Jim Wallace of Transport Canada; Ms Janet Firminger - Alenia Marconi/UK GATCO; and representatives from Swedish ATS Academy, Aviation Training Academy (South Africa), ICAO, Ghana Airline Pilots Association and IFALPA. For the first time in the region's history, there was a formal technical exhibition by companies, which deal in ATC products and support services.

SATSA (SWEDAVIA), Cell ITS AB, INTERTEC Contracting and Alenia Marconi were the pioneer exhibitors. The exhibitors, especially Alenia Marconi and INTERTECContracting, sponsored a substantial part of the meeting events.

Minister for Roads and Transport welcomed foreign delegates to Ghana. He said that while air transport was still the safest, most rapid and convenient mode of transportation, the 11th September attacks in the USA had posed a completely new challenge to the aviation world.

He therefore called on A TCOs to seriously include in their discussions strategies to sensitise their members on safety and security issues as well.

Captain Boachie, DG Ghana CAA presenting the sculpture to Gratis Rwenyagira admiration of the excellent service provided by air traffic controllers and acknowledged that the ATC system, however sophisticated, would be useless without adequately trained and motivated staff to man it. He therefore supported measures to address the human factor issues and praised the choice of the meeting theme.

The Director General outlined the Ghana CAA efforts to balance the need to have modern equipment, training and motivation of its personnel. GCAA was rehabilitating Kotoka International Airport in a project that also involves implementation of V-SAT network, installations of DVOR/DMEs and a modern radar system.

WGS/84 survey has now been completed.

The Ghana Civil Aviation authority appreciated the role of IFATCA towards the development of a global ATM system and supported activities of the Ghana Air Traffic Controllers Association (GHATCA). His organisation took pride in having one of its employees, Mr. Albert Taylor, occupying the prestigious Executive VicePresidency, Africa and Middle East, for another term.

In his official opening speech, the Ghanaian

Lastly the Minister welcomed IFATCA's suggestions on ways to improve the provision of air traffic control service for the benefit of the aviation community in the continent.

The agenda and programme was compact but educative and informative. The first working day session was a seminar on human factors in incidents/accidents, human errors and blamefree ATS incidents reporting culture. This was followed by a presentation on medical and human factors in air traffic control.

Participants heard how consideration of human factors played a key role in determining the cause of ATS incidents/accidents and contributed to the formulation of preventive measures against possible future occurrences.

It was interesting to learn how the study of human error in cockpit decks had provided valuable clues on causes and prevention of aircraft accidents.

Professor Dekker ridiculed the common presumption that automation was the solution for all the technical woes in the aviation industry. In fact, he said, despite some obvious advantages, automation could be a source of its own list of problems.

A presentation on blame-free ATS incident reporting culture reinforced the conviction that authorities should not penalise ATCOs who report incidents but should actually encourage them to do so in the interest of flight safety.

THE CONTROLLER

ll Due to the great interest shown by participants on the subject of human factors, extra presentations

by Bert Ruitenberg (More on Human Factors) and Professor Sidney Dekker (Automation) and Janet Firminger (A General Overview) were arranged for day two.

Ms J. Firminger (former ATCO), Principal ATM Consultant for Alenia Marconi Systems and Senior Manager, UK National Air Traffic Services Ltd. gave yet another insight into aspects of human factors in ATC, reinforcing the basic concepts on human-machine interface ((HMI), humancomputer interface (HCI) and man-machine interface (MMI). Her presentation also discussed the human factors implications of increasing automation, controller selection and ATC training.

Delegates were enlightened on the various health problems faced by pilots and air traffic controllers in Canada. A surprise observation by Dr. Wallace was the fact that eight pilots in Canada were HIV positive. However, there were no registered cases for ATCOs - so far! A probable explanation came in terms of a joke (unfit to print!) by the IFALPA delegate.

The later part of the programme dealt with routine IFATCA agenda items. On behalf of the Executive Board, Bert Ruitenberg presented the report on EBactivities since Conference in Geneva.

On day two, a symposium was held on effective financing of ATS operations in Africa and Middle East. ICAO and IFALPA provided valuable inputs on the subject. The ICAO representative gave an overview of challenges his organisation faced in financing ATS provision, especially in west and central Africa. He said that ICAO encouraged States to form autonomous civil aviation bodies, which would have the freedom to oversee or provide ATS in a more efficient way. ICAO also encouraged CNS/ATM development and implementation on a regional or sub-regional basis.

IFALPA strongly supported initiatives by ATS providers to reinvest revenue generated from aeronautical fees into improvement of services, facilities and personnel welfare.

A representative of the Banjul Accord Group presented an information paper on the group's activities. The Banjul Accord was formalised in 1997 by a group of 7 West African Sates: Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Its main objective is to accelerate the implementation of the Yamoussoukro Declaration for the liberalisation and integration of the air transport market in Africa.

The Accord brings together 10 airport/aeronautical authorities and 18 airlines within the ECOWAS (an economic grouping of West African States) region. The organisation is, therefore, supportive of efforts to implement CNS/ATM programmes on a regional basis.

There were more presentations by the Swedish Air Traffic Services Academy (SATSA). Located in Malmo and established as part of the Swedish CAA, it provides training and simulation for Swedish and foreign clients. The Academy is working in accordance with the Total Quality Management Module and complies with the ICAO and Eurocontrol standards.

THE CONTROLLER

The South African ATNS College, which officially opened in 1995 focussing mainly on internal training, has for the past 3 years enrolled foreign students averaging 1SO per annum in numbers.

The college joined forces with ACSA College in 1999 to form the Aviation Training Academy (ATA). The institution co-operates with the FAA, is a member of TRAINAIR and is ISO 9001 rated.

Its external clients include 13 SADC Statesand 15 other African States.

INTERTEC, one of three partners in an international consortium gave a presentation on its involvement in the rehabilitation of ATC services and facilities at Kotoka International Airport, Ghana. The Company, based in Denmark, is present in 19 countries of Europe, Africa and South East Asia. Its Airport Division has more than 25 years of experience in designing and integrating airside systems related to air traffic control.

In between presentations, formal IFATCA AFM working sessions were conducted. Further steps to establish and operate a Regional Fund were taken with the presentation of a draft constitution for the Fund.

One of the most significant events of the 12th Regional Meeting was the inaugural issue of AFM

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The Minister opening the Regional Meeting Regional Awards after their formal establishment at the 11th Regional Meeting in Addis Ababa in 2000.

Mr. Gratis Rwenyagira, an ATCO from Tanzania was presented with an Award of Honour for his excellent handling of a hijack incident of an Air Tanzania Boeing 737 aircraft on a domestic flight from Dar Es Salaamto Kilimanjaro airport on 13th February 1988. For Mr. Rwenyagira's timely actions which greatly contributed to the successful termination of the hijack, The President of the United Republic of Tanzania had bestowed on him the "Medal of Gallantry" during celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of the union between Tanganyika (mainland) and Zanzibar (islands). That ceremony took place on 26th April 1989. Further references to the hijack story appear in "The Controller", issue no. 3/89 and the IFATCA Anniversary book "UNDER CONTROL". Additionally, Gratis received a special sculpture that was sponsored by Captain Joseph Afriyie Boachie, the Director General of Ghana Civil Aviation Authority. He will also receive a computer from US NA TCA through the initiative of Mr. James Ferguson, Deputy President of IFATCA.

There were other distinguished personalities who received awards. The regional Award of Excellence was presented to Dr. E. R. K. Dwemoh- the first Ghanaian air traffic control officer who had held several senior posts in the civil aviation administration in Ghana and ICAO Western and Central Africa Regional Office. Dr. Dwemoh had won the ICAO Edward Warner Award for his excellent research work that debunked the myth surrounding the effect of sickle cells on black pilots.

Certificates of Distinction were issued, in absentia, to: the Swiss ATCA for arranging for free tickets (from Swissair) for many AFM MAs which enabled them send delegates to the Conference in Geneva and for waiving the penalty for late registrations; to Mr. Abou El Seoud El Karirmy (of Egypt) and Oliver T. Farirayi (from Zimbabwe) for their distinguished service performance when they were EVPsfor Africa and Middle East Region.

The awards were presented to the recipients at a colourful closing ceremony of the 12th Regional Meting at the elegant Banquet Hall. State House, Accra, on 26th October.

The first list of prominent personalities to form a consortium of Statesmen from the region, with ATC background, was announced. The nominees were: Mr. Abou El Seoud El Karimy (former EVPAFM); Mr. Steve K. Mworia of Tanzania (former Regional Vice President - Africa/East in the old IFATCA structure); Dr. E. R. K. Dwemoh (former aviation administrator and aviation medicine researcher); and Alhaji Ibrahim Auyo (former Managing Director of Nigerian Airspace Management Agency and now ATM Officer of ICAO office in Dakar).

A number of interesting recommendations were made. At the outset, the Regional Meeting unanimously condemned the 11th September terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, which were carried out by the use of civilian aircraft. Other resolutions and recommendations to be forwarded to the relevant authorities and other parties include the following: A regional approach to Air Traffic Management development should be tabled on the Africa Union and Arab Civil Aviation Commission agenda; Safety regulation units should establish policy on the manning of ATC positions including, working hours, relief personnel and rest breaks and to ensure that A TC service providers comply with such policy guidelines; ATS service providers should take measures that are appropriate to facilitate the mental fitness of A TCOs to enable them to assess their own physical and mental health before reporting for duty; CAAs are to ensure that national legislation on bird control is enacted in order to reduce the danger of bird strikes on aircraft. Authorities responsible for bird control should take positive steps to remove the hazard instead of just issuing NOTAM warning of the problem; CAAs should ensure high level of medical care for air traffic controllers to enable them to maintain good health and validity of their ATC licences;

35

The 41 st IFATCA Conference Cancun, Mexico

15 th to 19 th April 2002

We recommend you that if you are coming into the conference not to work but, for relax, take the accompanying persons program, very cheap planed complete tours, first of all we are going to make on Monday a sightseeing tour around Cancun, on Tuesday we are going to Tulum and Xel-Ha, on Wednesday to Xcaret Eco-Archaeological Park and on Thursday on to Chichen Itza. For those who want a little more explanation of what are this places, check this:

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11

CANCUN IS A MAGIC WORD

Cancun, Technically, it's an island in the Caribbean -- but in many ways Cancun is in a class by itself. As the 1970s started, a group of innovative Mexican investors chose the site on their country's Yucatan peninsula for its endless white beaches, excellent climate, unique historical attractions, welcoming people, and perfect location.

The focal point was a long, narrow offshore island, which could be linked to the mainland by bridges at both ends. It was to be the world's first comprehensively planned destination.

And the plan worked. Now, 30 years later, Cancun ranks with the world's top destinations for sun, fun and good times. There is a vast menu of attractions, whether for fanciers of land and water sports, history, culture, eco-tourism, shopping, dining or nightlife, or for those who just want to sample them all. Cancun is safe, healthy, and hospitable.

Getting around is easy. Good values abound. It's easy to see why more than two million visitors from around the world arrive each year to experience it.

Sun-worshipers stretched out on long white beaches.

Because Cancun draws visitors from around the world, a range of international cuisines are represented: Italian, French, Chinese, Japanese -- and of course, the traditional milder Yucatecan fare of this region of Mexico. And after dinner Cancun is renowned for its nightlife.

Those seeking the hottest spots need only take a cab down Kukulcan Boulevard at around 10 pm, to see the large crowds waiting for the clubs to open, partiers dancing the night away in exciting discos. This is how most people picture Cane· n. But it would be just as accurate to think of the strange and powerful god Kukulcan, whose snake headed visage graces the pyramid that bears its name at the legendary Chichen Itza. Or the massive walled city of Tulum, which had, one theory goes, the world's first lighthouses, designed to guide home residents who regularly set to sea in canoes.

For this is Cane· n as well.

Cancun's clear blue-green water, and the varied coral reefs off its southern tip, makes it a popular destination among divers, snorkelers and fishermen.

Diving lessons and equipment are available from a number of outfitters throughout the island, while most hotels and resorts can make arrangeme'nts for guests to explore the underwater world.

Sailfish, marlin, bluefish, barracuda and red snapper are top targets for the sporting angler; charters are available at more than 30 marinas.

These days, Cancun is opening new doors for its visitors, to the archaeological and natural treasures

Reserve Mujeres.

and the coves and caves of Xcaret.

of the region surrounding it. To the south and west, tours take vacationers to explore the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza and Tulum, to the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Frequent ferries make trips to the islands of Cozumel and Isla

The region it's well-developed infrastructure combine with a key geographic location (just a few hours travel to the world's great Mayan centers) to make Cane· n truly the "gateway to the Mayan world." archaeological remains.

It includes the Mexican state of Quintana Roo - which contains Cane· n, Yu cat n, Campeche, Tabasco and Chiapas, -- but also spills over into Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

At hundreds of points around the region stand majestic ruins which speak eloquently of the grandeur of this imposing culture.

The most frequently visited sites (with the exception of Tikal in Guatemala) are all in Mexico, and can be reached by air from Cane· n. Some, including Tulum and Chichen Itza, (two of largest Mayan sites ever uncovered), are also connected to Cane· n by road and highway.

36

THE CONTROLLER

Cha1lie' C INTRODUCTION: What to write humorous after September 11 ? Difficult, but life must go on.

Possibly, what did the low cost UK airline Easy Jet do : they booked a clown on some flights in order to keep their passengers morale up . Red nose, big painted smile on his face and over-sized shoes. Jokes all around ; ; "who's afraid of flying hey ? " .. "Come on, give us a biiiiiig smile!. .."

The story does not tell if it worked ..

Another way of making a joke is to run through security check at an airport, like some bloke did in Atlanta last November ; Instead of running after the guy to stop him ( the security checkers apparently cannot legally do this in the US) the extra hundred policemen present did something better ; they closed down the place and evacuated the entire airport. Close to 100.000 people out on the street while we spot the weirdo .. Close to 200 flights were cancelled or diverted. 4 hours later the guy is finally caught and said he did not want to miss his flight, for which he was late, in order not to miss a football game !

But nobody laughed there neither ....

DELAYS Anyway back to business you know what a delay is? Yes, this is when you have to wait ... No? Well in the US of A it is more complicated than that.

Recently the DOT ( US Dept of Transport) secretary, Mr Norman Mineta said the USA created some years ago a task force called National Civil Aviation Review Commission (NCARC) grouping experts from all sides of the aviation industry, with the goal of reviewing and eliminating DELAYS...

According to Mr Mineta, it took 3 years for this task force to reach their first conclusion : The definition of what is a delay . And what does this major Continued from page35 Human error should not be the conclusion of incident/ accident investigation but rather a starting point of the investigationto determine causesand possibleremedies;

achievement look like ?

"A delay is 15 minutes after the schedule departure time . " That must be one of the most expensive definitions in the world "3 years to produce 9 words ... " The next 3 years will probably be spent trying to define what is an ATC delay .......

CAVOK Talking about definitions, recently it was discovered that one of the most used terms in aviation - CAVOK - did not have an official definition and was not in the ICAO Doc 9713 .. Horror !.

A working group with a fancy name called MAPCOG ( for Multi-Agency ATS Procedures Co-ordination Group ) aimed at harmonising the definitions between Europe and the USA (Personal Note : well done, long overdue, good luck ) discovered the problem.

They did not take 3 years to work out a definition but wait : In my training days many years ago , I was told CAVOK was when ceiling and visibility was OK That is more than 10 Km visibility, no clouds below 5000ft and no significant weather. It was so simple I still remember it 30 years later. But why make it simple when you can make it complicated > The proposed new ICAO definition is hold your breath - as follows: CAVOK: an abbreviation indicating the simultaneous occurrence of the following meteorological conditions : the visibility is 10Km or more no cloud below 1500m (5000ft) or below the highest minimum sector altitude, whichever is higher and no cumulonimbus and no weather of significance. Weather of significance includes drizzle, rain. snow, snow grains, ice pellets, ice cristals (diamond dust), hail , small hail and/or

snow pellets, fog, ( Personal note : How on earth can you get Fog with 1OKm visibility ???) mist , sand , dust (widespread ) haze, smoke, volcanic ash, dust/sand whirlds (dust devils) squall, funnel cloud (tornado or watersprout ) dust storm and sand storm.

Note : the following characteristics of the weather of significance listed above shall be given as appropriate : thunderstorm, shower, freezing, blowing, low drifting, shallow, patches, and partial.

Now imagine the following dialogue between the Tower and the Met office an a beautiful sunny summer day : TWR contacting the MET office : can I have the latest weather, please?

MET office : Do you have any dust ?

TWR: Yes but ...

MET: Is it widespread ?

TWR: No but...

MET: Any dust devils hey ?

TWR: Not in the last 50 years no ...

MET: I guess we can call it CAVOK then ....

I am glad I do not have to pass a met exam again .....

OVERHEARD ON THE FREQUENCY : On a stormy winter day at Amsterdam Schiphol , the QNH is 971 ..

APP : KLM 124 descent to 3000ft QNH 971.

Pilot : Hey, that is low ! ....

APP: Can you still set it on your Altimeter?

Pilot: Wait a minute , I'll look ...

Yes, it even goes down to 955 ...

APP : You see, it can always get worse! .... (thanks to the Guildebrief, the Dutch controllers magazine )

ensure their suitability for acceptable training standards;

should initiate studies on medicationdrugs and their possibleeffects on ATC performance.

Reports of incident investigation should be written in a manner that will cause corrective measuresto be taken rather than making the humans involved to be liable for prosecution or punishment:

National ATM providers should consider using services of Joint Charges Collection Agencies such as the IATA ATC Enhancement billing system or EuropeanJoint Collection Agency for air navigationchargesin caseswhere the national ATM provider is unable to collect appreciable returns on investment;

Air traffic managementand MAs should conduct a study on substanceabuse and put in place programmesto help drug addicts;

Independent regulatory bodies should be establishedand empoweredto exerciseeffective supervisionover ATS providers;

CAAsshould be madeawareof the serioushealth risk posed by the use of single microphonefor more than one air traffic controller at a control position;

ATS providers should take the necessary measuresto de-infest operationalcontrol rooms of mosquitoes and other pests and insects. especiallywhere ATC serviceis provided on a 24hour basis;

Despite the gruelling RM work programme, participants did not go back to their home countries totally exhausted. The Organising Committee did a superb job to ensure that delegateshad an enjoyableand comfortablestay in Accra. Delegateswere treatedto a relaxinggettogether party, graced with Ghanaiantraditional dances.The conferencefacilitieswere first class.

Meals and snacks in between working sessions were very deliciousindeed.The farewelldinner at the BanquetHall was fit for Kingsor other similar VIPs!Forthosewho stayedon after the RM, there was a memorabletour of Elminaand CapeCoast Castles- historicalsightsdating backto the slavetrade era. There was also a planned visit to the KakunPark,to the west of Accra,for a hair-raising canopywalk!

Competent authorities should conduct quality assuranceassessmentof ATC training schoolsto

THECONTROLLER

CAAs, in collaborationwith medical authorities

37

Appreciatio •··••-··-·····-

..-··-·---

TRIBUTETO TERRYCROWHURST Albert Taylor To think that Terry is no more is something very difficult to comprehend. He was a pleasant companion who radiated so much inner beauty, was very energetic in everything he does and the epitome of selfless devotion to duty. I first met Terry in 1992 during the IFATCA annual conference in Bournemouth, UK. In 1995, he approached me during the annual conference in Jerusalem and persuaded me to be the Sub-regional editor of "The Controller". As I gave excuses for my inability to meet the high standard required, he encouragingly told me that he saw a potential in me and urged me to accept the challenge. He was able to gently talk me into accepting the job of writing articles.

Africa has its traditions and unique difficulties that scare many potential friends away. I wish to say however, "that if you are able to enter the heart of a lion, you will discover the most hospitable abode". Between 1995 and 1999, Terry represented the IFATCA Executive Board at all Africa and Middle East Regional Meetings and cheerfully accepted any tasks he had to undertake for the deprived ATCOs of the region. He was very much at home with the protocols of Africa and was a good mixer. It was therefore sad to learn that his ailment commenced after he and Mr Martyn Cooper, former EVPPhad attended the AFM Regional Meeting in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania in 1999.

In the year 2000 he still expressed interest to attend the AFM Regional Meeting in Addis Ababa. When I tried to persuade him to rest, he reluctantly thanked me for barring him from visiting "his home".

Many a time, it becomes very difficult to find people who genuinely understand Africans. Terry was one of the very few who openly identified themselves with Africa. TC! we will miss you. On behalf of Africa and Middle East ATCOs and on my own behalf, I wish to thank God for your life and also for your desire to identify with the deprived. " If you feel the heat of the scorching sun and hear the cries of the wildlife or beating of drums", then it is Africa thanking you for your support.

Terry! Rest in peace! TC!! Fare thee well!!

HARRYCOLE It is with deep sadness that his many friends learned of Harry Cole's recent passing at too young an age.

Harry's participation and pivotal role in the IFATCA family goes back decades. The "old-timers" among us remember him as the representative at IFATCA of companies he worked for, but more particularly as the Corporate Members' Co-ordinator.

In that capacity, Harry was a tireless worker on behalf of IFATCA's Corporate Members, and of the Federation as a whole, always aiming at achieving his ideal of close co-operation between industry and the controllers who use that industry's products in their daily working life. His enthusiasm in this voluntary - although elective - position greatly contributed to bringing the goal of close co-operation within reach.

But, it is not only this enthusiasm which will be missed - Harry's sense of humour, his reasoned and open approach to challenges, will forever be remembered.

Many controllers, and many others in the international aviation community, who may never have met Harry, will have read his book "Understanding Radar" which could be considered the standard work on the subject. It explains, in language which people who are not radar engineers can easily understand, the history, development, use and future possibilities of a major tool of the controller profession.

Having had the privilege of working with Harry for years, I feel that I can say - speaking for all who knew him - that Harry Cole will be sadly missed, and not forgotten.

Harri Henschler

President, Charles Stuart Presen· in Harry Cole with an award

38

THE CONTROLLER

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