Behind-the-scenes with air traffic controllers at the Ottawa International Airport
CTV
Friday is the International Day of the Air Traffic Controller. Nav Canada invited CTV News Ottawa to look at how it operates air navigation at the Ottawa International Airport.
At this moment, thousands of airplanes are flying in the air and across the country, en route to various global destinations. The complex tasks and coordination to ensure each plane moves safely, on the ground and into the sky, belongs to air traffic controllers.
From taxi to take off, final approach and touchdown, any plane in motion at the Ottawa International Airport must first receive clearance from crewmembers in the Nav Canada air traffic control tower.
Perched high above the runways at the Ottawa International Airport, and with a 360 degree view of the airfield and sky, air traffic controllers must track, verify and prioritize each aircraft's flight plan, which includes some of the smaller airports within the national capital region.
"The biggest part of our job is coordination," Ryan Lloyd, air traffic controller supervisor, says. "We are in charge of keeping the airplanes separated and safe here at the Ottawa Airport and everything that you see here for seven miles (11 km) up to 3,000 feet (912 metres) is our responsibility. Planes taking off, landing and anybody overflying the airport."
Air traffic controllers direct planes and work with pilots, operating all types of aircraft, to climb, turn, descend and move safely, whether on the ground of in the sky.
In addition, any vehicle rolling along an active tarmac, must contact ATC for approval.
Lloyd, with more than two decades of experience in air traffic control, points to some of the various 'stations' in the control centre, each with as many as four different displays. The stations provide necessary information on aircraft location, weather, flight plans, airspeed, cargo weights and radio communication frequencies.
