Confidence in Air Traffic Control

Air Traffic Control is the work done by various personnel to make sure that airplanes arrive and leave safely. Air traffic control prevents airplanes from coming too close to each other either horizontally or vertically. As more and more people begin to afford to board planes, air traffic increases.

Air traffic control is a big and busy job at some of the busiest airports in the world. Most airports can take up about 30 airplanes per hour. Air traffic control officials are responsible for communicating with the pilots on the airplanes and letting them know whether or not it is safe to land.

Serious problems rarely occur with air traffic control. Although there have been crashes, collisions, and deaths, the biggest problem with air traffic control is being delayed. It's easier to get delayed especially during busy seasons such as the summer.

There's really no particular reason you shouldn't have confidence in air traffic control unless your time is very tight and you have to be where you have to be at that particular time. Even then, not all flights are delayed.

Problems with air traffic control will often involve the weather. There's little to do if your airplane can't land at a particular airport due to bad weather. Air traffic control just have to tell the pilot to either wait and come back later or go land at another airport.

Other problems that have occurred with air traffic control involve miscommunication between air traffic control and the pilot, and the pilot and the airplane's onboard computer which has a Traffic Collision Avoidance System.

Most airplanes have onboard computer which can tell the pilot that it is fine to land and the airplane would start descending. If, however, there happens to be a problem which the airplane's onboard computer has not detected, the pilot has to know about it through air traffic control and disregard the computer's suggestions.

Crashes and collisions due to poor air traffic control are rare. The biggest thing you have to worry about today is being delayed. But you can always counter that by preparing well and leaving enough time before you get to your destination. You might want to arrive at your destination a day or two before so that even if you get delayed, you'll still be on time.