Abstract
In air traffic control (ATC), teamwork is a key component among air traffic control operators (ATCOs) to safely direct the aircraft through the sky and on the ground. To be able to design for future ATC systems, we must understand how ATCOs work together, their teamwork, and how they experience and perceive teamwork, in different ATC environments. We conducted interviews with 16 ATCOs working in four different ATC environments (en-route control, terminal area control, tower control for a small airport and tower control for a large airport in Sweden) and analysed the results in the light of the “Big Five” model of teamwork. The main contributions of this paper are to show: (1) how eight teamwork factors are differently manifested by the ATCOs in the different ATC environments, (2) that teamwork in ATC is important during routine operations, during stressful work, and during abnormal situations, and (3) that the design of the organisation, the environment, and the tools, affects teamwork and the importance of different teamwork factors.
Highlights
Air traffic control operators (ATCOs) work closely together to deliver the service of safely directing aircraft through the sky and on the ground
The main contributions of this paper are to show: (1) how eight teamwork factors are differently manifested by the ATCOs in different air traffic control (ATC) environments, (2) that teamwork in ATC is important during routine operations, during stressful work and during abnormal situations, and (3) that the design of the organisation, the environment, and the tools affect teamwork and the need for different teamwork factors
This study is based on interviews with 16 ATCOs in four air traffic control environments: en-route control, terminal area control, tower control for a small airport, and tower control for a large airport in Sweden
Summary
Air traffic control operators (ATCOs) work closely together to deliver the service of safely directing aircraft through the sky and on the ground. The ATCOs coordinate traffic between sectors, to make the route optimal and as smooth as possible for each aircraft, and for aircraft in the sectors around them, since traffic flows through several sectors This requires teamwork between the ATCOs, the pilots, the ground service personnel and other stakeholders (such as airports, airlines, the military, etc.) to maintain an efficient and safe environment. We present an overview of the air traffic control environments included in this study, followed by a description of the “Big Five” model (Salas et al 2005) of teamwork This model uses five core factors: team leadership, mutual performance monitoring, backup behaviour, adaptability and team orientation, and three coordinating mechanisms: shared mental models, mutual trust, and closed-loop communication to analyse the teamwork. In Sweden, there are, to simplify, three types of air traffic control environments: en-route control, terminal area control and tower control (Fig. 1)
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