Confessions of an Air Traffic Controller

“In foggy conditions, if pilots are not trained, we have to put them on hold. But passengers blame the ATC instead of the airline”

At any given time, at least a lakh passengers and crew are airborne in India. It is the air traffic controller’s job to make the airspace safe. We are the eyes and ears of pilots—advising, forewarning and helping them during flights and in emergencies. 

But the biggest challenge we face is while communicating with pilots. Though all of them understand English, we suspect many can’t speak it. We also have to know various accents, especially for pilots from East Europe and the Middle East. There are many flights to the Gulf region and pilots from this region have peculiar accents. After liberalisation, almost a third of the pilots flying domestic carriers are from CIS or East European countries. Not only are their accents terrible, they stubbornly refuse to repeat what we confirm.

Fog is our greatest enemy. Sadly, apart from Air India, other airlines are just not prepared. Pilots need training in advanced instruments to land in severe fog. However, private airlines train only those pilots who have to land in Delhi. If pilots are not trained adequately, we have to put them on hold or divert them to other airports. The passengers blame ATCs instead of the airlines.

The ATC’s job is like that of a traffic policeman. At his command, an entire airport can be closed or opened during emergencies. But the comparison ends there. This is a highly stressful job with just four hours of duty that sometimes stretches to six. There are colleagues who have broken down and never come back on duty. If there is an accident, all fingers first point to ATC personnel and only later towards the pilots. 

The challenging airports are Bangalore (HAL and not the new international airport at Devanahalli), Mumbai, Delhi, Srinagar and Kolkata.

(He has been an air traffic controller for 12 years and has worked at airports of all the metros as well as Coimbatore and Bangalore)

As told to Anil Budur Lulla

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