Military aircraft, commercial flights, helicopters and other aircraft transit daily through the Guatemalan sky and all communicate with a group of professionals whose work is based on guaranteeing the safety of passengers and crews. Air traffic controllers have the main mission to organize the flow of airports in airports and airspace, ensuring that each flight takes off, sailing and lands without incident.
The Operational Technical Deputy Director of the General Directorate of Civil Aeronautics (DGAC), Tomas Aldecoa, says they take constant measures to guarantee air safety. But who are they? Air controllers are specialists in communication and navigation, trained to monitor and direct air traffic through advanced radar and telecommunications systems. His work is essential in modern aviation, because they allow aircraft to travel with the maximum possible security.
The Manager of the DGAC Air Navigation Department, Héctor Monzón, says that the controllers make up the backbone of a controlled airfield, because providing the control services is essential to comply with the regulations of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The DGAC has two units responsible for preventing collisions between aircraft, through providing instructions, information and alert services, so that the operations are safe, fast and tidy. Monzón explains that in the immediate vicinity of La Aurora International Airport there are aerodrome and approach control services.
Approach control
It is subdivided into the Fly Data area, where the flight information service (AIS) is provided. This is a radiocommunications service that is used in aviation and is better known as Guatemala Radio. According to the DGAC, this broadcast contains weathering reports of aerodrome, aerodrome forecasts and Sigmet messages – meteorologicalavis – for aircraft in flight. From the approach control they provide the service to the flights by instruments (IFR), which are those that are carried out through navigation instruments. These are commonly used when the conditions are given in which it is not safe to fly by external visual reference – all commercial flights.
In addition, they provide the service to flights due to visual references (VFR), in which pilots can fly without flight instruments and are guided by visual references such as land and track. These types of flights are carried out in favorable weather conditions, with good visibility and minimum distances of the clouds. Each control post is in charge of an air controller that works in eight -hour shifts, to ensure that 24 hours a day have a responsible for the operational security of the airport.
Aerodrome control also known as Control Tower, is divided into Aurora Torre and Aurora Terrestrial Control. From this they are responsible for operational security for landings, takeoffs and evolution. The land control is dedicated to ordering and preventing incidents in the area of maneuvers, a landing and takeoff streets, for which it coordinates with other areas such as movement and platform, says Monzón.
All art
One of the most critical aspects of air control is communication between controllers and crew. The dialogue between them is governed by a standardized aeronautical language, based on concise phrases and international protocols. A communication error could cause serious incidents, so precision and clarity are fundamental. When an plane gets ready to take off, the pilot receives instructions from the tower controller. Then, during the flight, the communication passes to the route controllers, who monitor the aircraft trajectory.
Finally, when approaching their destination, the approach controllers guide the aircraft to the landing floor. Each month, La Aurora International Airport receives, on average, 1,445 commercial flights and more than 360 private, which are assisted by air traffic drivers. According to the DGAC data, there is a controller in each position, all the time, which, at the discretion of former aeronautical director Carlos Velásquez Monge, is insufficient.
The former official indicates that with the increase in receiving flights from different countries the workload is increased and that leads to safety levels to be put at risk. He points out that it is a problem that has always existed, due to lack of adequate law that allows increasing the number of controllers and giving them better benefits, since they are hired under line 029, despite the great responsibility they handle to guarantee the safety of air traffic.
The hiring under said line, the low salary that the controllers receive and that this service is classified as essential for the State makes these workers go on strike, despite job instability, said Velásquez Monge.
Requirements to be a controller
This work is regulated by the DGAC and the process to work in this area is met through several requirements. One of them is to take a course at the Central American Institute for Aeronautical Training (ICCAE), located in Ilopango, San Salvador, El Salvador. ˜ According to Héctor Monzón, there is an aviation technical career offered by the Galileo and Mariano Gálvez universities, to enter the aeronautical field, although the controllers receive a basic training in the ICCAE, where they are also trained with simulators of the environment at the La Aurora International Airport – for the case of Guatemala.
Once trained, controllers must return to Guatemala to receive the instruction for the job (IPPT), in which they evaluate people for three months and thus extend the license. During those three months, applicants are subject to theoretical and practical exams. The theoretical part is evaluated through oral questions prepared by the examiner, but based on the documentation and updated references of the Civil Aviation Regulations (RAC) of Guatemala and ICAO documents, according to the guide published on the official website of the DGAC.
The practical exam is carried out in the airport control stalls, always with supervision of the IPPT manager, since, in case of any failure, the instructor must take control of air traffic. The license must be renewed every two years, through the recurring courses, which, for the controllers, are received at the ICCAE, which provides updated training, and they are evaluated again.