Life as an Air Traffic Controller Essay Example

dangerous situation.

I mostly work in shifts which can either be in the morning or afternoons. In the morning I report to work at seven and in the afternoon at around two o’clock am assigned different position and typically work for one hour or two and then take a break .After the break I am rotated to a different position.

An air controller is usually briefed before taking over on a shift; this is usually done by the off going controller who must inform the on coming controller of all the aircraft that were under his or her control at the moment. It is the job of the air controller to ensure that at all the time the planes are safely separated both horizontally and vertically.

To do this one must be alert at all the time, when faced with a difficult situation a quick decision has to be made to bring it under control, failure to do this might lead to a nasty situation. One has to be able to think fast and offer the best solution to a situation.

The problems faced by the air traffic controllers are mostly related to the weather and the volume of the air traffic. There are times when the weather is not good or the volume of the aircrafts landing on a given airport is large such that extra work is unavoidable.

This requires the controller to work extra harder while at the same time maintaining his or her cool coupled with patience and alertness. These are qualities that every controller must portray to enable him or her perform the duties effectively.