by Tim Rees 

In my previous two articles I have discussed the service delivery environments of East Coast Service and Regional. This article is about our third ‘airspace service’ - Upper Airspace Services (UAS).

Our UAS airspace is categorized by long-haul operations; these include flights that spend significant periods crossing our international waters. As a passionate aviation professional, writing this particular article has been very difficult for me. For, as I write, Air France 477 is lost. A flight that was typified by modern avionics, a well trained crew, an established corporate safety culture and an aircraft with a significant track record of reliability used by many of our international operators. Why can we not find this flight? Why do we not know what has happened to this aircraft? Why was communication lost and any concerns of this crew not heard by air traffic control?

I can’t begin to imagine the grief and heartache that has gripped all those personally involved in this tragedy. As an air traffic controller I am in shock that a flight of this magnitude can disappear without notice. I feel for the air traffic controllers involved. Brazilian ATC has only just recovered from a mid air collision with significant international media coverage. This flight, while surrounded by a differing set of circumstances still has a significant affect on the ATC involved. The last known communication with the pilots will have been handled by our colleagues in Brazil.

Investigations of this tragedy will certainly uncover a more factual appreciation of the event; including messages that will have been received automatically from the aircraft via the ACARS system. People will speculate for days as to what may have happened, what event could cause this and what similarities it may have to other A330 issues etc. While I won’t even try to draw similarities or conclusions, I write this article with immense sadness and grief for all those involved with this tragic event - Dominus Vobiscum.

Controlling in the UAS environment  is often a thankless task. It doesn’t have the ritz, pizzazz and finesse associated within the high profile demand/capacity ambiance that a high surveillance, high density radar environment has. Nevertheless, it’s a complex and often intimidating environment that even the bristliest approach controller fears to tread. It is technology central. It uses the latest aviation technology to communicate to aircraft and cooperative surveillance techniques to allow reduced separation standards to achieve optimum flight levels in a heavily constrained climate.

The typical traffic patterns for the UAS controller primarily fall in the hours where most circadian rhythms are demanding sleep. The night shift traffic peaks demand a stellar, post-midnight performance which for most people, with normal demands and family commitments, is a very hard task to achieve.

These guys demand my respect – and get it. Through weary eyes and empty coffee cups they prove how efficiency can be achieved, technology wrestled and bio-rhythm re-alignment managed to output safe air traffic control.

These controllers have only begun sipping from the technology cup. As I wrote a couple of months ago, this environment is about to face an enormous change. The introduction of a conflict probe will change some of the basic functions of ATC. Having a tool that will detect and alert controllers of aircraft in conflict is a significant change. The introduction of this capability is complex and needs to be carefully managed. It is a precursor to the flexibility requirement in the UAS environment.

Tactical safety is an ATC’s core business. Given a certain set of circumstances, constraints and procedures, aircraft must transit airspace operating on a pre-defined ‘business trajectory’ and be managed safely and efficiently by the ATM system. When this tactical safety becomes too complex, the ATM system demands an intrinsic safe solution. The current UAS environment is at that point. Industry is demanding that long-haul operations operate on a flexible route structure. A route structure that allows every flight to fly an optimum wind dependant track that provides the greatest fuel efficiency. Our current ATM system cannot fully support these operations. Automated conflict detection support provides this intrinsic platform for which the industry cannot receive the level of service they require.

The UAS environment is heavily dependant on support structures. These dependencies include third party communication providers, satellite communications, HF networks and dealing with our neighbouring countries’ natural language barriers. In amongst all these constraints they strive for efficiency and improvement. They understand the demands that airlines have for efficient profiles and provide a significantly different (but equally important) level of service to that of the regional and east coast environments.

I have flown several times to Europe and the USA and have had the pleasure to transit our transcontinental airspace and oceans on these occasions. When I arrive back home early in the morning, I often consider the volume of airspace that I have transited and what my ATC mates have done. Through their tired eyes and with the innate ability to manage change, manage technology and manage without radar surveillance- they have safely guided me home.

While the aviation industry has made significant improvements in managing intrinsic and tactical safety, sometimes we can’t. As I conclude my article I can’t yet close my eyes and not think about Air France and that Atlantic crossing. I pray that somehow we learn what we can from this tragic event; that the continual drive to become safer in all of our operations despite any global economic change or any worldwide pandemic will continue to be our personal, corporate and ultimately global challenge.