LONDON, England (CNN)—
When they stare at four people
On the story board glass window of the Heathrow airport control tower, Jason Cooper and his team should be gnawing their nails and sweating from their eyebrows.
On any given day, they control one of the busiest airport runways on the planet, leading thousands of people to and from the ground.
A wrong move can lead to disaster: At most, a valuable runway slot is lost;
Worst of all, there was a real aviation tragedy and massive chaos in European airspace.
That's why, during a recent CNN visit, it was both surprising and comforting to discover that the atmosphere inside the tower of Heathrow Airport, Britain's largest airport, was almost one of Zen. like calm.
"There is pressure, but there is no pressure," said Cooper, who manages the red watch of one of the three groups of air traffic controllers (ATCs)
Staff at the Heathrow airport building kept going day and night.
"I think most of us enjoy the pressure.
"Under his command today, men and women of all ages are clearly a kind mix, and they are all dressed appropriately.
They do their work quietly and efficiently, speak to the radio headphones, and occasionally chat with each other.
However, activities are ruthless outside.
At 87 m above the airport, there is a high-wire-balanced actHeathrow control tower. Marc Forster-
Pert/cnn with five terminals and two runways--
Each airport handles 19 million more passengers per year than any other airport in the world. -
Heathrow Airport is always crowded.
Passenger planes, including the giant Airbus a380, line up on taxiways to take off, while the sky is filled with endless jet parades from all over the world to and from destinations.
Keeping growling is the work of the tower controller-
Minimum ups--
Need a strong focus and an impressive range of Pokemon balancing actions for gadgets.
The tower is located at 87 m above Heathrow Airport and offers stunning views of miles on a flat terrain.
Even on the cloudy days of CNN's visit, it is possible to pick out the Towers of London's financial district, nearly 30 kilometers to the east and Windsor Castle to the West.
Incredible view-
Cooper calls it the "biggest office window" in the area"-
Is an essential part of work.
The controller needs to have a visual confirmation of each takeoff and landing, using radar, radio and computers only when the weather is off.
There are two floors in the tower--
A rising central Daos, where two north and south runway controllers sitto-
Back, a lower ring was occupied by ground controllers who managed the aircraft from the start
Until they glide to the position on the runway and vice versa. (
NATS, an air traffic control company, has 360-
Tower degree panorama on the website: legal controller can only be in 90-
Half-interrupted minutes to stretch
Six to nine hours off. hour shift.
These relatively short jobs help them focus on moving as many aircraft as possible as quickly as possible ---
Take off at most 42 times an hour on a beautiful day.
Use a computerized strip containing flight data to track the mental juggling movements of the aircraft on the ground and on the ground. Marc Forster-
When the controller moves around the computer Bar, Pert/CNNFingers dance on the touch screen (
These were once notes)
Represent the plane and talk to the pilot by radio.
When they figure out how to maximize the take-off slots, there will be tricky mental juggling so that larger aircraft will not be followed by smaller aircraft, which will have to wait longer to clear the turbulence.
In the evening, there will be extra trouble guiding the plane on the busy taxiway at Heathrow Airport.
This is done using the ATCs slide to illuminate the giant touch screen with different extensions of the tarmac--
May be one of the largest lighting control platforms in the world.
There are also tracking monitors that show the position and movement of all aircraft on the ground, as well as screens detailing meteorological elements such as wind direction and speed.
Cooper showed a relatively new kit called TBS--or time-
Based on separation-
It turns out to be critical to Heathrow's traffic.
It takes into account the wind speed and calculates the interval between which they can land safely, rather than approaching the plane by distance.
Everything is fine when everything runs smoothly, but what happens when everything goes wrong?
Most of the calm atmosphere of the control tower seems to depend on the emergency measures when there is a problem.
If a sudden illness runs out of people, it is usually understaffed.
Almost every system has backed up at least two or three times, Cooper said.
Everything from the phone to the power supply is backed up two or three times in the tower. Marc Forster-
In the event of a power outage, there is an emergency generator in the tower.
If there is a fault, there is a battery.
If they do, the staff can quickly transfer to the backup tower facility at the nearby secret location.
The controllers really made their money.
In the UK, more than $150,000 per year, including overtime at premium ATCs)
When the disaster happened, their calm nerves were tested the most.
The touch screen phone in the control tower comes with an oversized "crash" button, which makes the ATCs immediately connect with emergency services and ground personnel they need to coordinate in a major accident.
Cooper recalled a 2013 incident involving a fire on an overhead, parked esse airlines Boeing Dreamliner that closed the airport and led to a scramble
"It was a very stressful day in the office," he said . ".
"Most of the days here are hard, some are harder than others.
You have not found a job with Heathrow Airport controllers and are expected to stand up within a few hours.
"It seems that very few people have been cut off from air traffic control.
The required qualifications are the lowest, but ATCs require a range of innate skills to enable them to perform the psychological acrobatics they need to keep everything normal. (
Try these games on NATS website: one out of every 300 applicants made a cut, but they came from all walks of life.
Cooper said Heathrow hired ATCs in their 20 s, with multiple PhD employees next to it.
The training time must be long for two years.
Even if qualified, ATCs can work under guidance for 18 months before being allowed to operate on their own.
The same is true for experienced controllers moving to the new airport.
It will never stop.
The coolest "xbox" everHeathrow's control tower simulator is equipped with all the same gadgets as real objects. Marc Forster-
Pert/CNNCooper takes us to a non
Description office building a few miles from Heathrow airport, almost full
To help train and prepare ATCs and allow them to conduct road tests on changes in the structure of new aircraft and airports, a control tower simulator of the size has been built.
It's like a huge, awesome $2 million Xbox console, 360-degree screen.
"We use it to put our ATCs in a bad environment," Cooper said . " His fingers instinctively tap the screen to arrange the computer --
Aircraft generated on the runway.
"But it has to be relevant and you can't just come in and light everything just for its hell.
"Sim manager Daniel Johnson puts his virtual tower at its pace, showing us the weather conditions from heavy fog to snow.
Then he took us to a strange stomach. flipping, out-of-
Body experience, sending towers whistling through the airport and over London.
We can also try to clean up some virtual planes in order to take off.
Even though it's not true, talk to the pretend pilot (
Johnson in the next room.
Moving the runway on the computer and leaving a pixelated Virgin Atlantic airline 787 kilometers off the ground proves a nerve --
Experience of wear and tear.
Cooper was not very impressed with the huge gap we allowed between takeoff, but he offered some comfort.
"Even for us, every day is school day, you will learn something about how to do the job in a different way.
"The place is changing every day and you have to stay ahead on the basis of the changes, but I can't imagine having a job you don't have.