Description

Understanding the type and quantity of tasks an air traffic controller is required to carry out at any one time can reveal the influences on the operator’s ability to safely and efficiently complete their activities.

The Air Traffic Control Task

On the basis of different information sources (e.g., radar screen, paper or electronic flight progress strips, radio and interphone communication), air traffic controllers have to control complex, dynamic, and time-constrained traffic situations in order to identify potential conflicts and risky relationships between aircraft and to be able to resolve them. Therefore, they have to perceive, comprehend, and anticipate multiple characteristics and flight paths of many aircraft while new incoming aircraft create new traffic relationships for evaluation. Diagnosis, decisions on future cognitive activities, and actions are based on these insights into current and anticipated structures of the changing situation.