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• Air traffic controller: Sarah

Air traffic controller: Sarah

This Case Study belongs to Air traffic controller.

I work as an air traffic controller at the London Terminal Control Centre (LTCC), based at Swanwick, near Heathrow Airport. When I tell people what I do for a living, their first reaction is to say, 'Are you the person who stands at the airport waving the bats?' The answer to that is no. I have nothing to do with any airport, and my day certainly does not involve waving bats around.

I'm part of a team of 70 controllers on my particular watch. There are five watches in all, and we're responsible for all aircraft below 25,000ft flying over an area from Birmingham in the North, down to Clacton and Bournemouth along the South Coast. This area encompasses all the major UK airports and we're responsible for all arrivals and departures into these airports. No two days are ever the same, but I will try to give you an insight into a ‘typical’ shift.

A morning shift starts at 0700hrs, which is when I ‘take over’ from the off-going night shift controller, who's already begun to tell me about all the aircraft currently under his control. Once I'm happy, I sit down and take over controlling the aircraft. I have 15 aircraft on the radio frequency, some English, the majority foreign, many of whom have been flying through the night and are keen to land as quickly as possible. My aim is to keep them safely separated; both vertically and horizontally, descend them all by 10,000ft and then pass them over to the controller on my left who will control them for the next stage of their flight. As soon as I've got rid of one aircraft, another two or three might call me, and this intensity is maintained throughout until another controller relieves me 45 minutes later. I then have a break of 30 minutes before taking over again at the radar. All is going according to plan, until ten minutes into this new stint when an aircraft declares that he has a medical emergency on board. I ask what the problem is and he explains that one of the passengers has suffered a heart attack and the pilot now requires a priority approach to land at Heathrow. A quick phone call to the next sector (who forward the information on) and the aircraft is on the ground eight minutes later and the passenger is on the way to hospital. I'm relieved after an hour's work and have another 30 minutes' break before I sit down at the radar again.

This time, the weather is causing problems. There's thick fog at Luton and all the inbound aircraft are having to divert. Some go to Stansted, some to Gatwick, others to Birmingham and Manchester. As you can see, things can change so quickly, from hour to hour, which is why the job can never be described as boring. How do you get into it? Firstly you need to have five GCSEs or equivalent, have studied to A-level standard or above and be aged between 18 and 29. You should have the ability to remain calm under pressure, think logically and be able to do more than one thing at a time.

Shift work is another big aspect of the job. We work two morning shifts (0700-1400), followed by two afternoon shifts (1400-2200) then two night shifts (2200-0700), and we then have four days off, before repeating the cycle. The job is well paid. You earn £48,000 whilst you train and have the opportunity to earn up to £88,000 once qualified. Obviously, air traffic control is not limited to Swanwick. National Air Traffic Services (NATS) provides air traffic control services all around the country, from Aberdeen to Southampton, Cardiff to London City airport, and you may find yourself working at any of these places.

This job is unlike any other in terms of its variety, and coupled with good pay and a lot of time off, it's an excellent job if you have hobbies that you like to pursue. It certainly beats waving bats around!!

Case Study sourced by Andrew Whitmore of University of Manchester, 28 March 2008.