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3. Air traffic control scenario
The air space around a large airport such as Heathrow is extremely busy, with aircraft taking off and landing every few moments. All this traffic is controlled by a group of air traffic controllers who rely entirely on electronic systems such as radar and radio transmissions to plot the course of every aircraft in their sky. Discuss the implications of accuracy and timeliness of the information.
| Importance of accurate and timely information exchange: |
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| The role of the air traffic controller is to guide their aircraft for safe take off and landing. In order to do this, information on location and speed of all nearby aircraft must be in real time. Delayed readings are unacceptable. |
| If the location and speed information is inaccurate, then plotting the future path of each aircraft is equally inaccurate, making collisions more likely. |
| If the information is delayed, then this also would lead to air collisions. |
| All systems, such as radar, have a known inaccuracy due to their design. For example, location may only be known to within 10 metres. Effectively this reduces the capacity of the airport as aircraft have to maintain a safe distance from each other. A more accurate system would allow more aircraft to take off and land. |
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Click on this link: Role of an air traffic controller