z AFRICA & Middle-east
GHATCA INTRODUCES QUARTERLY TECHNICAL WEBINARS z
by Kwamena Agyei Halm, Air Traffic Controller & Member GHATCA Technical Committee
The order to lockdown the country in March 2020, though expected, took the aviation community by surprise. With no commercial aircraft flying into Ghana there suddenly was a gaping hole in the routine lives of aviation practitioners. Marshallers had one or two aircraft to direct in a whole day, dispatchers had no flights to dispatch, same for loaders, maintenance engineers, pilots and Air Traffic Controllers. At the professional ATC level, onthe-job-training came to a halt due to low traffic volumes and national directives to restructure working rosters to reduce human contact due to covid-19. Cost-cutting and safety measures such as the suspension of foreign travels by public and civil servants were announced by the government. On the opening of the airports, some aviation practitioners were faced with issues such as lack of recency and deferment of required refresher training which in some cases were done in foreign countries. The new normal, however, shifted most of these training seminars
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organized by ICAO, IFATCA and CANSO online allowing more people to partake in them. The return to normal operations (RNO) in Ghana required a local industry-wide platform to refresh our knowledge base, to learn new things and to share experiences. It is for these reasons that the Ghana Air Traffic Controllers Association (GHATCA) introduced the quarterly technical webinar series (TWS). According to GHATCA President Mr Francis Armah-Mensah, the Executive Committee decided to introduce the TWS to create an industry wide learning platform
to build capacity of practitioners, exchange ideas and empower the industry through the recovery process and beyond. He also indicated that the long term objective is to enhance the safety consciousness of industry practitioners which include Air Traffic Controllers. He further indicated that GHATCA, a key stakeholder in the aviation industry in Ghana, is creating this platform to rally industry professionals to be able to discuss future developments in the aviation industry in Ghana. Organization The Technical committee, led by Mr Benjamin Assare-Mokwah, was tasked by the GHATCA Executive committee to organize the maiden quarterly webinar. After robust discussions the technical committee settled on the zoom application as the
THE CONTROLLER
