Skies Above Britain (Just ATC)

except for the birds our skies were empty now they're a crowded place it's like chaos but it's controlled chaos every day 6000 plains my pride and joy there's nothing we can't transport and 600,000 people are in the skies above brick diving every plane is a hidden army of controllers so we've got no option right now but to stop arrivals in Tagalog performing one of the world's greatest juggling acts unlike computer game you can't hit pause they come in a place of adventure wander when you're up there nothing else matters and danger it gives you sense to space freedom and a feeling that you pause something they get every boys little drink [Music] but my operative should be monitored at home can I make three foxtrot leave him alone are heading a three waterfront warm with some time so for example in a remote location in Hampshire far away from any airport or runway is Britain's air traffic nerve center Nats where hundreds of controllers watch over our skies a traffic service reporting level through radio links to pilots they guide thousands of planes in and out of British airports [Music] ten judy fine okay I wanted I want one cancel the whole lessons about one we've gone to 65 degrees this is the absolute part of the invisible motorway network in the skies all traffic that's flying over England and Wales that's receiving an air traffic control surface is getting it from the people in this room and it's some of the busiest and most complex airspace in the world that's also not a 740 my double major almost all the traffic is arriving after departing from an airport from an air traffic controllers perspective that actually gives them a challenge because all the stuff that's coming in is above all the stuff that wants to go out and their job is to make that happen without getting them in the way each other John on 3 November you're heading into London at 1 or 2 1 doesn't 275 each controller is personally responsible for the safety of up to 15 planes at any one time but it's not just radar they rely on to keep passengers safe so we're superstitious bunch and what this is in the middle of the room is a guardian angel guarding the controllers the making sure we're able to look after the skies each commercial plane is meticulously plotted through a tightly regulated network of highways in the sky in an area called controlled airspace outside controlled airspace pilots are free to roam but if they stray into one of the major routes the results could be catastrophic on the radar an unidentified aircraft has been spotted approaching the main Gatwick flight path only control what supervisor attempts to reach the pilot have been unsuccessful so the operational supervisor must decide if it's safe to allow flights in and out of the airport we've stopped what all arrivals and departures at the moment so nobody's got contact with him at the moment and he stayed resolutely at 2007 or 2008 nice so what we've got is we've got an infringer here we've tracked on coming down that was outside controlled airspace unfortunately it's across the extended Gatwick centreline landing on 2/6 so we've got no option right now but to stop arrivals in to Gatwick so the most important thing we have to do is keep all the other aircraft away from the infringer so at the moment the rules are that we have to do our best to achieve five miles laterally or five thousand feet vertically from an infringing unidentified aircraft check Victor hotel climb now factor one three zero the disruption can be quite incredible but for one infringer but everything we do is about making sure that we keep away from the unknown target with the unidentified aircraft still in controlled airspace hundreds of passengers who are about to touch down must circle overhead all we're doing is playing a waiting game with it's chat and I'm waiting for him to leave controlled airspace or we get to where with him so we can have positive control over the aircraft take Victor Hotel time now at level one three zero he's now gone outside as they hello nightly stay hiding so the infringer is now outside controlled airspace two and a half to the southeast of you so we've started reliables again first one it's easy for a extra unikom [Music] air traffic controllers deal with infringes every week everybody today is really focused on security particularly after 9/11 and so making sure that we know who all the aircraft are and where they always William safely this infringer turned out to be an amateur pilot who'd accidentally flown over Gallup but when a threat to the airspace can't be resolved by Nats there's another power guarding the skies for months Russian bombers have been probing Britain's air defenses the RAF typhoons come very close to shadow I think what this episode demonstrates is that we do have the fast jets the pilots the systems in place to protect the United Kingdom morning ok thank you so if threat to the UK at the moment is heightened it's no surprise from the newspaper articles that there is a big threat to to all of us at the moment from particularly Isis RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire is the UK's busiest fighter jet Operating Base home to two squadrons of typhoons one of the most powerful combat planes in the world the typhoon can break the speed of sound in just a second last year after 26 years as a fighter pilot group captain jazz at Ridge was put in charge of the base everyone this is another big week so we've got three squadron out of the door today to the Middle East half the airplanes going today the other half tomorrow on the back of that we've got to prep those jets for North America and of course QRA in every minute of every day so you like everybody Thank You qra stands for quick reaction alert the code name used when a typhoon is launched to intercept unidentified aircraft entering British airspace in 2015 jets were scrambled 12 times a scenario the RAF trained for regularly rushed n55 buzzin sensor on guard furious even came out this great to see it's not just Nats who safeguard our skies a watchful eye is also trained on UK airspace from a nationwide network of hidden RAF bunkers crushed in five five contact London control one three two this one nine at five zero the RF controllers have been working alongside the civil one's been years and years when I first started off as a controller I was in the area if there's an aircraft that nobody knows about which they have reason to believe might be a security threat to the UK then we'll clear our aircraft out of the way [Music] how long's it been a communication civilian air traffic controllers at NAT have spotted an unidentified plane just off the Cornish coast and alert their RAF counterparts a golf swing from Heathrow Eastern West the moment that Heathrow Tel Aviv tracker is chest rusted pipe I've no mode 3 at the moment just approaching Plymouth now they subject their the traffic Astana comes in there pointed out five 1:07 to south and yoky the aircraft which has come across the Atlantic isn't in contact with anybody either civilian or military and now between us we're starting to work out a plan of how we can intercept this aircraft and try and confirm what its identity might be just right you know the continuing to call on watching more climbers repeated attempts to contact the jet have failed so the National Air Defense Operations Center instructs RAF Coningsby to put a typhoon pilot on standby [Music] just minutes after receiving the call the typhoon is ready to launch we'll sit now and wait for the actual call to launch them up in the air it's an important thing to let anybody that might want to penetrate our airspace know that we're able to defend ourselves that were able to be anywhere within the UK in a matter of minutes the threat the challenge the pressure is clear and present and that's why we have these airplanes ready every minute of every day okay we might have had some information about potential aggressive passengers though you are to scramble quick reaction alert College beacuse scrambling since 9/11 the potential hijack of a passenger plane is considered a serious threat as the typhoon launches nats air traffic controllers clear everything out of its path Coningsby and we'll be looking in from Connecticut and news reaches the top the fighters are in the air please can you update the Prime Minister 30,000 feet above Bristol the typhoon reaches its target a commercial plane still not compliant next the pilot execute a series of warnings you are to conduct a show of presence maneuver there are a number of recognized signals and a key one is they'll pull up alongside waggle their wings and then they'll turn towards the direction they want the airliner to go to they might drop flares as well so it's a lot of recognized signals to say we're here you need to follow us now [Music] you are to conduct an exercise show of force as a final warning the pilot reveals his air-to-air missiles before issuing an order from the Prime Minister the Prime Minister can order a typhoon pilot to shoot down a passenger plane the nightmare scenario for us would be that we would engage an airplane and be given that order but our pilots they will execute the order given by the Prime Minister they might think about it on the ground afterwards but at the time that's what we're trying to do [Music] okay it's compliant Mike well done thank you very much see you later qra simulations take place regularly this was an exercise those involved would not usually know whether or not the sortie was real [Applause] [Music] the maintain that speed descend for everyone 5c remember being a flipping [Music] 9:7 Remy November turn right heading three to five degrees so two on picked him at 91 five in the southeast all major airports are shrouded in thick fog it's going to be a difficult day for a lot of air travelers around the country today with major disruption Delta tango alpha contact berman approach on the way through you can't run a full schedule when there's fog not because the aircraft can't land they can land perfectly normally the aircraft can land itself they can do an auto land it's when they get on the ground that everything slows down you're normally controlled by the visual guys in the tower and they're looking out and they can see everything they don't have that luxury when there's ground fog each plane must move further away from the runway before another can land and with visibility less than a hundred meters nothing's moving fast shall mark on Friday presented flight level 100 so golf joy Foxtrot - did Charlie remain outside in the air planes are circling in stacks above the airport Heathrow normally lands 40 planes an hour today that's down to 27 it doesn't take long before pilots start looking and seeing more fuel reserves they've got left and whether or not they need to divert if we have say 30 aircraft from Heathrow want to divert we then add 20 aeroplanes from Gatwick and 20 airplanes from Stansted in Luton all of a sudden we've got 70 aircraft in the in the sky that need to divert and there aren't really any airfields for them to go to because everywhere is covered in fog we're balanced on a knife age air traffic controllers have to land all planes already airborne but Brian can reduce the number of new planes heading for the stacks by lowering the flow rate the number of planes allowed to enter British airspace so 18 until 1300 and the problem is this is going to just crucify him Brian a 6-4-3 tank over to Redford cuts at London one three three dust online courses I want to go up a bit I'm gonna go 20 let's go 20 my risk 20 until 1330 let's see what that does I'm having palpitations right Heathrow with immediate effect 20 until 1330 Brian's decision to cut the number of claims allowed to enter he throws airspace to 20 an hour will cause the delay or cancellation of 40 domestic and European flights so to try and get it back under control we've had to hit it hard but for a short period of time and the disruption is going to cause it's a nightmare for the airlines but it's a nightmare in here [Applause] at Nats fog is still causing havoc with the plane schedules forecast color as per back and then we'll make a decision late delaying flights around the world has reduced the amount of air traffic but the effect will take several hours to ripple through to the stacks above Heathrow so we're still gonna get 26 aircraft arrived in this hour where we've only requested 20 so when we're landing more than we're getting that's obviously when the delay will start to come down quite dramatically and it's at that point that we start to turn the tap on again and bring airplanes back to go off tunnel to 145 degrees report heading in speed to London we are coming out of low vis and we will not go back in there until 2100 folks just played they tower controllers can see pretty much the whole length of the runway now so just agreed to up their rate to 38 arrivals which is getting somewhere near normality tango alpha Roger maintaining with visibility returning to normal the team can increase the flow rate but Heathrow has had to cancel 180 flights in one day has a huge impact if this was the only flight that you were going on for your yearly holiday and it gets canceled the pain for you person he is quite big and so we don't make these decisions lightly we take them with the big strap line of safety we have to maintain the integrity of the airspace 36 project [Applause] [Music] three three five there's something about the sky something adventurous and escapist the skies over Britain now used by scores of different people who want different things out of them there are private pilots who fly there are drones there are hot air balloon assess their are gliders that the military there's any number of people who want to use the airspace and trying to make all of that work safely and well is the most important thing for us but you never quite know what's going to happen at the national air traffic control center Nats a team of controllers thread thousands of planes through us guys each day with eight six Papo reduce speed to to2015 a larger continually heading addition for everyone but there are always unexpected challenges it's lost his number-one hydraulic system he's got no fluid left in it no nose wheel steering shortly after taking off a passenger jet is reporting a fault lines are uniforms of power-mad a hydraulic failure one system is completely drained so we've got a British Airways aircraft that was left Heathrow about probably half an hour ago now they've got about 10 minutes into the flight and discovery of the hydraulic leak decided that the best course of action was not to continue to gibraltar but to come back to Heathrow unfortunately across too heavy to land and the risk if they land too heavy is they might burst the tires that the brakes might fail or lock and they might damage the aircraft by doing that so in order to get to the correct way to land he needs to burn off fuel it's a waiting game really for us Cheers controllers direct the jet to a clear patch of air space where it can use up fuel by circling overhead so there is he's over there over the channel at 13,000 feet after 25 minutes the plane has burned off enough fuel to land but the hydraulic fault means it may not be able to steer once its wheels hit the tarmac the gap behind him would normally be through three to four miles we're putting a 10-mile gap in just to give us a little bit more room in case anything does happen and that allows us to take the aircraft behind and send it around if anything else he's on this line here is known as the extended centerline so he's landing on two seven right [Music] okay so he's disappeared off the radar now which means that very shortly his wheels will be hitting the tarmac just set ports okay thank you there's vacated the runway to waiting for the runway to be inspected and handed back the runways back it's all clear problem an issue the demands placed on Matt's go far beyond commercial traffic right next to Heathrow the British leg of the International Red Bull Air Race is taking place at Ascot Racecourse [Music] [Applause] people to operate Canaries in one of the busiest air traffic control zones in the world is Ponder's if you said oh look that suffered a massive arias next to this incredibly busy International Airport you probably wouldn't do it so we've said they're not above 1,500 feet and that enables us to then jump over the top of them with our outbound traffic touchwood they managed to keep in their own little part of the Essbase they keep to their bit we keep to our bit everybody's happy even larger drones designed for aerial filming are too small to be detected by radars yesterday we had a aircraft out of Heathrow report a close encounter with a drone he estimated it 20 foot away and suggested it was in the region of about six foot and so we're not talking a little pathetic helicopter you might get down the gadget shot we're talking a big proper drone up there at 10,000 feet another aircraft reported seeing a little higher if you're going to hit something at 265 miles an hour it's gonna do some damage isn't it I'm the judge jury and executioner but if I ruled the world they should be so lock and key job away because it's again endangerment of aircraft to zero not to my bark way descent that of a one two three everyday air traffic controllers guide a relentless flow of planes through their patch of sky second-by-second they must plot safe routes keeping all planes perfectly separated you could have ten twelve different aircraft all under your control and where you have to rely on all the information there we're not just looking on radar picture the Papists computer generates trips that tell us the callsign of the aircraft where it's going at 11:00 it's gonna be out we use four full let's plan so it's like a 3d picture in our heads Ryanair eight zero called Charlie we're deploying 295 controller needs to be common pressure what's a perfectionist you want to do everything you do to the best of your ability to the optimum level eighty nine four zero zero three turn left on two one one five degrees climb up to 6,000 feet controllers are a nightmare to live with honestly I feel so sorry for the other house we are all very similar people you know we are OCD most controls have to tie just immaculate houses you live a thing we are control freaks five degrees as much as they strive to impose order controllers must always be ready for the unexpected you get all kinds of things crap window screens pressurization problem knows bird strikes medical emergencies pilots will report they had a laser shot at them the one thing you don't want is fire smoke in the cockpit or any kind of fire that's the one thing you do need to know and we straight away contact tower now for so any one two three my perfect knowledge is computer games you can't lose I think if you sat there and thought that's two hundred people that's three hundred people I think we go crazy sit on two one go squawk ident and flown now altitude 5,000 feet the only time it ever hits me is if you go to a big Airport channel 9-1-1 continue present having then the reality is going to get this me and how many lives you've got on your hand on somebody they say when you sit there from the radar it really hits then [Music] faint moaning shernay chimes and I want to wrinkle ever been deadly when emergencies happen it's vital that air traffic controllers respond quickly tell me Anthony here they're tested to see if they can handle unpredictable and time critical situations from another room an ex-pilot simulates a range of real-life scenarios a slight turn to the right to make sure my aircraft that's one of them potentially could be maybe two or three emergencies a day but they could be anything from a sick passenger to something seriously wrong with an aircraft that's good we'll start again and we'll do something else I tried to make it as realistic as possible by using an American aircraft and using an American accent well if I were stuck alien pilot I would put on a Dutch accent of course we fly to Newcastle and have a landing if I was a South African pilot then I'd be going down to Durban and I would fly from Heathrow dented up and at about 40,000 feet easy 1/3 in London one of the rarer situations they may have to deal with is a pilot losing consciousness through lack of oxygen let's say for example has happened some years ago in the States there was a business jet and it developed a very tiny hole or crack in the windscreen and so air was coming in but so quietly that the pilot didn't hear it he started slurring his words and taking wrong turns the aircraft went over a large body of water and unfortunately and there was nothing anybody could do Wow at 2:06 turn left heading over zero five zero degrees should be to a french accent okay let's do that Bravo rumors 0 1 6 3 9 4 6 3 9 pass message the air traffic controllers have no idea what they will be faced with flight level 1 reason 3 1 0 1 vs. 3 things just dropping in there and I'm still going to simulate turning the aircraft to the right because I'm really not in control of this air obtain 469 that is understood it will be bestest to the controller guides the pilot down to a safe height because of the fresh air I've introduced into the content I'm gradually getting all my faculties back and and there we are it should be a happy landing hopefully this training is massively important because it gives them the ability in the simulator in a safe environment to practice the skills that they've learned and it helps everybody to sort of refocus on what they could have done included on better air traffic controllers never know when their training will be put to the test ect Charlie Bravo thank you number 2 context and cetera now of course that only one to three decimal a gigabyte amanda is in charge of flights in and out of Stansted Oh friend Jocasta an unidentified flying object an infringer has been spotted close to the Stansted flight path that's the airport there that square and this is the return there which is quite faint but there's some doubt as to whether that's an aeroplane I can hear the controller speaking to the tower controllers to see whether or not that is a you know an actual return of an aeroplane or not if the object is real there's a risk of collision the mystery infringer remains unresponsive she's not sure she's taken the safest option though we know one departures from standard until this contact either disappears afraid or all we establish that it is an aircraft and get it out the way [Music] it vanished vanished about a mile west of the airfield and never reappeared it's a judgment call if there's any part of you that thinks it could be real stop your traffic because you don't want to be the one person responsible the day it is real leave him alone Hanna three thunderstorm thunderstorm very very bright today severe thunderstorms are forecast to hit the crowded airspace around the South of England [Music] the weather is the real killer today for us we're going to see bad weather hitting Gatwick probably in the next hour and then moving its way up to Heathrow and then Stansted looting of course because we deal with all those airports here thunderstorms make life very difficult for Nets as pilots can swerve suddenly off their flight paths to avoid flying through storm clouds so the calm before the storm pretty much to make matters worse during bad weather fewer planes can land which means a traffic jam can build up in the sky my concern is it's going to get worse we're going to get multiple weather avoidance so I think the rate needs to come down otherwise we're going to end up with counties everywhere to limit potential disruption Steve decides to reduce the number of flights allowed into London's airspace but this will lead to delays and cancellations all over Europe I'm the one who holds the accountability for the safety of the operation in this ops room so I'm the only person that can make the decision on the traffic numbers in I've got lots of source of information but ultimately if it's wrong it's my fault just decrease the Heathrow right when the weather hits in the next hour and a half we don't end up with planes all over the place no one knows exactly when the storm will hit or how long it will last so Steve has to constantly re-evaluate his decision as updates come in is there any way you could sort on a timeframe do you think but this is battening down the hatches before it all hits I think it feels the righteousness I know where it's burnt just warning a bit okay when that band is coming through it's due to hit in the next half hour there's Heathrow there's a nice big cell there's the bad weather as it was drifted up to the loss the Luton Stansted he won't know if he's made the right call until the storm arrives the storm in hell warnings begin our London 60 farm time we've all been on planes where you know I'm sorry for the late departure this flight is air traffic it's never air traffic just because we're being miserable you know there's only so much concrete in the southeast of the country and an awful lot of airplanes that want to land on those bits of concrete and physically you can only get so many down so sometimes when the demand is really high or like we have when there's bad weather we just have to reduce them out coming in the weather front has reached London's airspace so it looks like it's dissipating but the storms have eased [Music] it's not been as bad as it was forecast so what we've done is obviously lifted the regulations as soon as we can we've made sure that as fewer delays possible have been incurred by everyone along the way weather is so unpredictable we even have the Met Office forecaster here with us today but even they can't be a hundred percent accurate with the ferocity if you like of the thunderstorm type activity if we'd hit bad weather we've got all those cranes potentially 25 planes in the sky that would meet the diverting it's just not a pretty place to be at all I still stand by all the decisions that they've made so far Sainsbury's here I come to it [Music] after dark a skeleton staff are still at nasse keeping watch over the remaining planes and passengers in the skies hello good morning it's the tea co-op supervisor his lap seven nine to inbound yourself he would like some policemen to meet him on arrival he's got a disruptive passenger on board I know no more details yet I'll get back to you when I do these out of Spain so he looks like a bucket and spade like coming back his holidaymakers on board I'm so entirely possible that someone's been drinking all day long and just getting a bit Larry or could be something entirely different heavily intoxicated air traffic speak for pissed as a fart at night one danger to pilots and passengers is at its greatest laser pointers are tech toys that can be bought for a few pounds on any High Street two hours into the shift it's a lovely clear evening and we've had four reports of laser attacks on aircraft obviously the pilots deal with that make sure they're flying the airplane safely they'll let us know that they've been targeted by laser and will contact the local police the danger is fairly significant clearly the immediate danger to the pilots eyes you know you've sent something flashing here the natural human instinct must be to look at it police have tracked down some of the culprits over a hundred and fifty people in the UK have been prosecuted for directing lasers at aircraft [Music] yesterday we had a Virgin Atlantic aircraft leave Heathrow and it was attacked I think is probably the right word by laser which got one of the pilots in the eye the crew decided they weren't prepared to continue with one of them having potential damage to their eyes and so the aircraft turned back it back and came back into Heathrow it's a very serious thing laser strikes at aircraft pretty much idiots on the ground firing these things about I guess they may think is a jokey fun thing to do well it certainly isn't it's very very dangerous and it's illegal as well and you can be charged prosecuted and thrown into jail [Music] United Nations from 87 left to clear for takeoff later probably sub left to think the skies above Britain's airports are the most congested in the world inside the tower air traffic controllers faced a monumental task of shepherding all flights safely on and off the runway we are sitting beneath the busiest patch of sky on the planet for hunting for three and a half thousand flights in this very very small patch of sky every day they're portable three six three behind the departing British Airways it was through 20 lane of the new to seven left behind in air traffic control we're trying to avoid the airplane teasing each other which is kind of the goal Turkish three Romeo Alfa khan tami control one to zero decimal five to five once a flight departs it's handed over to Britain's air traffic control center gnats where a 200 strong team of controllers direct commercial aircraft through the complex network of highways in the skies above 10,000 feet but away from controlled airspace it's a different story everything from small light aircraft to hot-air balloons and skydivers are free to roam in what's known as uncontrolled airspace this chaotic layer of the sky is filled with the widest variety of aircraft and is overseen by just one desk at Nan's flight information services I mean it probably doesn't look as high-tech in the writing on paper strips you know we've got a map we've been stuck in it but it's the best way that we found to work you know as quickly as we can and efficiently as we can but there is one type of aircraft which has always been difficult to keep track of hot air balloons they and they can move very fast and they're very unpredictable as to where they're going to go under the rules of the air everything has to give way to balloon there we go an information good afternoon pass your message 23 tainted routine this afternoon fire being in control of the real thing is what drives air traffic controller ad Dolan I remember talking to the first air of plane that I'd supporting to it Heathrow Airport and I thought it was amazing hate to make a one it's loud normally to some right and and that was it and that was it that was the first transmission I even printed out the little strip and took it home it was an a jamaica flight from Montego Bay at Heathrow after 15 years of early starts the first red-eye arrival still holds a thrill for Haiti he throws rush hour starts at 6 o'clock c'mon and finishes at 11 p.m. it's nonstop 5 to 6 plug in sit there don't say anything for a bit and then suddenly in the murk you see those first pair of lights coming down the approach and then a bang on 6 o'clock both approaches are filled with aircrafts and the thing is unlike the computer game you can't hit pause they come and regardless whether you stopped or not they're landing American seven-30 lifter and follow the greens got a green one as well have 6th or 7th o'clock it's all heavy traffic is 747s a 3/8 is big heavy jets and they're landing constantly for an hour one day one there one here one there every three miles but it looks absolutely fabulous and it still gives me a buzz about coming to work it's great kellen one zero zero one two left follow the greens contact ground one to one decimal 7 speed about two four six weekend left follow the greens dr. grant what - oneness when he finds out five to 3:30 left for the greens got a grounder one to wonderful a load Charlie basic service there were nine light aircraft crashes in 2015 with 16 fatalities on board Nats controllers are often the last person a pilot in trouble will talk to last year there was a crash and it was an aircraft that we used to speak to almost daily and it was used to fly from from the Norfolk area over to Ireland and back and he'd do that every evening and it would be you know we were we don't know the pilots but you get used to particular call signs and you know oh hello how are you sort of thing if it's quiet but he crashed and everybody was like oh that's no it's we didn't know the people so it's not you know sort of sad that way but it's sad in that what we used to talk to him almost every day America 3 5 3 you better start straight for zero daily dedication to precision is critical for 80 it took two and a half years of training for him to become an air traffic control belaying don't uniform continue on taxiway alpha hold short of echo Arab planes still expect me now just as they did when at Wells are kiddin and and seeing the Aero planes flying around this fantastic almost like a choreographic and and dance where the aircraft come in beautifully together and all just kind of it works the bird 6:04 turn left on taxpayer yankee left on length five two and half the whole short of echo it's kind of like playing on a mass of kids playset you've got all of these aircraft which actually looked tiny we're talking about 747 here which is a huge huge aeroplane and it looks like a toy and you feel that you can just pick the aircraft up and move them about [Music] the weather makes life very interesting for airplanes brilliant even see freedom hill there all the boulders I usually do on a clear day you'll be on see outdoor burning and they're uneven see burning there's a lot of fog around had somebody that was going to go via Bristol earlier and the visibility in Bristol was 40 meters we've had two reports of the winter for four thousand to one for 3 knots 3 to 0 after weeks of overcast skies the day of the Bristol Balloon Fiesta Dawn's and with it a forecast of Sun sandbox it's the first opportunity Pete's had to test his Solar hybrid balloon and he's doing it in front of half a million people Pete's experimental solar balloon is one of 500 balloons taking off making sure they don't hit each other or anything else is priority you all know this is particularly busy this weekend and so they're happy to help things okay however if I may say thank you if the wind blows any balloons close to the controlled airspace around Bristol Airport they will be forced to land the airport is just five miles from the launch site and air traffic controllers manage over 200 flights a day one stray balloon would ground all commercial flights and cause lengthy delays but they're all inflating that was starting to inflate so she get any help over the next five minutes or so hopefully only just hosts on the corners yes my dear it's a terrible truth that they're all going to be taking three nine o'clock by the ones - sorry - 6000 speak the looting connection at once three two one five three Julia don't do a three committees not one information another one thirty thirty-one there is full baby don't like II don't see you know what is your ETA from an empire boundary one three five decimal two sixes [Music] speedbird 7/9 a hotel behind aquatic company 320 line up runway to Sun right behind at London Heathrow ad is reaching the end of his 8-hour shift the wrong way is called ghost island but the airport is still very much alive because at a place like heated or you can't really afford to do essential maintenance work during the day when aircraft are landing and taking off so there's a huge works party will come into the airport and they'll work on one of the wrong ways every night even if there's no work to do on that on that runway they will clean all of the light fittings they'll repin all of the markings and get everything ready for the next day I don't mind getting up at half on the morning then coming here I really enjoy it it's hard it's tough it's a lot of aeroplanes it's nonstop but just get the job done and and that's what happens every day and it's brilliant to be a part of it in the booming business of civil aviation speed and precision everything's more crucial to this then Britain's air traffic control center known as Nats burn airline fuel is really expensive and we must be efficient we have a 97 one son left having once to zero degrees it's really important whether the airline is a commercial passenger one or a cargo one that it runs to every 75 seconds a plane is scheduled to touch down at one of London's major airports for Nats to manage it all every plane in the sky must follow a carefully plotted course anything that disrupts this can quickly unravel the finely balanced flow of traffic and what's the weather like out the window okay that's not normal is it okay it's today in the southeast high winds are heading for Nats busiest airspace the Delta 3-0 just carry into the on route hold and Cathy there and what we got coming behind my first thought for safety is actually the aircraft in the sky the ones on the ground which is I want to get airborne least that on the ground the ones in the sky the ones that I'm more interested right now 118 stacks what does me the bombing them so thirsty how many behind 30 of what we got with bad visibility and gusts slowing down the rate planes can land a backlog is building we're just putting restrictions on Heathrow just so that we can regulate the planes going into that sector 15 minutes just as it's getting busy as the weather's coming through to ease congestion Steve cuts the number of incoming planes allowed to enter he throws airspace now his priority is to get the planes that are airborne onto the tarmac he said it's just gone through as a wall and that's it and that alarm has just gone off as a plane going around at Heathrow which is yes another one we got to put back into I don't like hearing that noise on a day like today particularly heading for Heathrow a pilot has aborted his landing due to dangerous wind shear wind shear is when you have a sudden dramatic loss or gain of wind speed due to variation in the wind direction which can be quite dangerous weather phenomena for aircraft on final approach to the place decided to port the landing and to go around not an everyday event but it happens fairly regularly that's why the delay is rocketed up so no control just airport today so called down burst driven wind shear used to be a major cause of accidents then in 1985 it was pinpointed as the cause of a Delta Airlines crash killing 137 people since then whether science and pilot training has been improved removing most of the danger from wind shear sent them down and we'll take whatever we can just to clear this through thank you black extra air traffic controllers should help Steve get on top of the growing number of planes waiting to land just because of the unusual ferocity of the weather we've requested if the staff will use them in here and as we need to that should see us through to the afternoon shift we're still holding off the sound got another two four six with people we can good thank you GSF what's though okay um I shall not I saw not tinker with the rate for the time being then I'm just concerned about the recovery period now but okay good news thanks a lot the tower I've just found saying they think it will improve very quickly and it might not be for many more minutes so we're just holding off drop in the rate on the basis that he records is going to get better the rate is the number of planes allowed into the airspace as the weather front passes through Steve and his team can begin to reduce the gaps between the approaching planes but it will be several hours before Nats is back to normal British and the Met Office recently right now for when I go back to about ten miles from touchdown he's got maybe two five three six climb flat level one Niner zero in my expectation is that is going to if we're not careful wiper sat across the south side and if the small red stuff is causing us problems this is certainly gonna cause us problems but Nats operational supervisor Steve is dealing with more bad weather over the south set 40 minutes is gonna start affecting the tearling in summer after periods of high pressure patches of thunder and lightning can suddenly erupt but their precise location is impossible to predict so he's gonna go now it's gonna just give us an artificial delay isn't it to avoid today's storms planes are veering off their planned routes wrecking the landing and takeoff schedule the weather the departures that want to go out to the the west or the south and then will normally come this way and are going off on phony routes to avoid the weather so this aircraft got airborne instead of coming out like this and flying just an awesome Luton he's come out got airborne from Stansted turn out to the east and ended up way off track 30 40 miles north of the weather we've been looking at all day 12 coming in in this hour to make sure the number of planes being rerouted doesn't reach dangerous levels Steve cuts the number of aircraft allowed into the airspace they're phoning adversity south he's under pressure to get everything on track before the end of his shift so we've got six more behind him to come in through Aachen it's gonna keep us quite busy on three and a half hours to handover we'd like to hand over an average of 15 minutes delay as a maximum but that's very much down to the weather and clearly what you don't want to be doing is handing over and massive delays loads of outbound restrictions the only way we'll end up with that is if this weather deepens and becomes more of a problem than is predicted to do so the weather sis coming to start over here at the moment and then when it comes to hand over time that's passed over Heathrow Gatwick City everything at a wet East Midlands Airport cargo pilot mark is starting a new shift outside the window he's Midlands I believe the Isle of Man is going to be rather windy and even wetter than it is it might be one of those light works a little bit bumpy with a schedule to keep mark and his little twin-engine plane face a stormy flight Midlands Jersey six parameters by Bell egg like 2 and 0 please call Nate thanks weather effects all aircraft if phone aircrafts is going to top the clouds vibrates a lot so they will often asked with extra thousand feet up or thousand feet down or water it may be called way q10 one clear takeoff from we zero nine lift a couple ways he wrote night cause wake you want to commercial airlines what they don't wanna do is vibrate their passengers because passengers at the front of British Airways flight and they have a really bad flight nothing to do the airline it's just the conditions of weather around them they're flooded virgin it's time now with a cargo aircraft has just gotten a cabin the local pilots and a lot of boxes in the back they don't have that commercial pressure from the back so they go close to the thunderstorms [Music] straight into clouds mama they got much of a good of the other would never anything clearly visibility is pretty much zero but right now all I thought they gave me because the weather is very very visible outside weighing just over three tons marks Piper twin is a hundred times lighter than a jumbo making it much more susceptible to turbulence The Annoying Thing frizz is on this particular airplane we've got tonight we don't have a weather radar so I can't see any bad weather sub relying on reports of other aircraft and for backup to control to you to help us out with that I love being on my own when it's nice and sunny and light outside but when you're on your own and is this yeah I've just an extra adrenaline kick nothing as long as it's not the kind of turbulence I was gonna throw me how I see about my head uh pursuing an aqua your conscience as he crosses the Irish Sea mark stays in contact with air traffic controllers at nats updating them with his position and heading but flying solo means the risks are always greater they went rocky one of these aircraft there's somebody who cares about you to think about the possibility of that could be probably quite horrible problem is you know if you've got friends and loved ones they they kind of have to put up with you doing this job now go 1-0 like before joe high speed to East Midlands approach on 134 decimal 175 we've got one outs standing in the enroute hold off the south coast still what just involved is there there was an issue with the name of cos theta it wasn't to take them the way so about just about the actual money I see in the run is just a very boat but there are systems or something wrong Nats a new storm has suddenly bubbled up and is now visible on radar basically this whole line thank you over there as we're finding now the weather's worse than we'd anticipated worse the Met Office had a briefing and it remains like that then we're gonna be looking at increased delays beyond my plan for the handover it's over the top of Heathrow so there's nothing we can do about that is that okay okay thank you it's the end of Steve shift the weather is easy but planes still aren't landing at the normal rate so we've got 20 minutes to handover as predicted and we're not handing over where we'd like to be with 15 minutes delay in the weather through the delays are now average 20 to 25 minutes there's a lot of people I need a bar point and so thank you too but yeah it's one okay thanks Ronnie see you next time enjoy next week London one of the busiest cities on earth and a magnet for business and tours [Music] it pulls three and a half thousand planes a day into its five major airports all bursting at the seams [Music] orchestrating this daily rush is the job of Nats Swannack the uk's air traffic control hub here controllers cram the growing number of flights into southeast england's limited airspace we are a small island and we have five major airfields right in one little corner it's a lot of planes to get into a very small space with limited amounts of tarmac adding to today's workload cloud bursts of heavy rain what's the weather looking like out your window them Heathrow just going to piss to holidays yeah because the weather is now dr. Heath sir and the rain has got to Heathrow and we've had to increase the spacing for all arrivals and because the tower having difficulty seeing parts of the rowing there's a part of the procedure is before you get into really low visibility procedures we're going to something called visit ooh we've just got in visit too which gives us a minimum of four mile spacing increasing the distance between aircraft from three miles to four has a domino effect slowing traffic at other airports even if there's no local rain because of the weather that we've had in the airspace we've had to under strict the departures and so the knock-on effect of all of this is that actually they're close to running out of stands at Gatwick now the space on the ground the tarmac is becoming full [Music] the motivation of a of 16 percent of sex disease that based upon ex-wife state of yours says I know they're not gonna get 16 for at least an hour an hour yeah general control only speaking to prevent a jam on the ground Steve cuts the number of planes allowed into gap which airspace from 27 an hour to 16 battening down the hatches now until we can get through to the handover staffing it's good for this afternoon the weather should be through just after the handover so fingers crossed my colleague and his team will have a lovely afternoon and while we gonna have my cup of tea that's still long the wait is from 8 o'clock this morning [Music] it's the job with the highest pressure at Nats keeping everyone safe entering or leaving London's airspace one of the busiest patches of sky in the world planes are threaded through a Spaghetti Junction of invisible highways into stacks above the five main airports manned by up to five controllers the biggest Heathrow has four stacks each filled with up to ten circling planes all carrying an average of 200 passengers this can put up to four thousand people in the hands of just one controller they're on a missile stretch come out climbing hands sometimes your hearts racing a bit redder than you would normally be but you start thinking of you says aircrafts hundreds of people which then adds up to thousands a big wheel keeping safe alive ultimately I think you just lose the property go crazy so none of us really think I'm attending is hoping it's little wonder the path to becoming a controller is so tough each year just half a percent of the thousands who apply are accepted making getting into nets harder than winning a place at Oxford or Cambridge [Music] today after passing a series of aptitude tests five applicants have arrived to start a three year course Jane looks after new trainees at Nats this is our aerodrome simulator which is emulates looking out of a tower 23 year old Tom Finch recently graduated with a maths degree it's ridiculous and really like amazing the whole building is comfortable if you just wanted to introduce yourself to me and maybe something interesting about yourself I'm Tom I'm from Warrington in the northwest and I cycled from Land's End to John O'Groats for charity and from Warrenton to Paris as I graduated I applied for this cuz I saw no Careers Fair I was just working at my local McDonald's just trying to earn some money while I waited now I'm here I mean I don't really have like an aviation background I'm Tim I'm from London I used to do Road Cycling quite often having for a while because injury from skateboarding must be reckless finish younger 20 year old Tim Kristoff gave up his place at University and has left home for the first time to be here I've got the job she just sort of screamed and they hugged me she was like I said I'm leaving home is I've never moved away before and now it's like moving away for good but she was so happy about it you've probably heard it from all sorts of people I will just there again there is a tremendous amount of study and the first four weeks is quite tough after a month of basic training they'll be plunged into a series of tests fail anyone and it's off the course it is the level of study the complexity of what they study that puts a lot of pressure on them from point they leave here which hopefully been nine months time they'll actually start working with live traffic but with a valid controller by their side its massive it's a huge responsibility historically had one guy that was doing fabulously well and he came in one day and said I can't take the responsibility and so we've drew from the course at seventy-five eighty four climb to altitude six thousand level studies some of the control up supervisor hello but Nats the routine of keeping thousands of passengers safe continues sector Roger and training to become a next generation air traffic controller it's Tim's turn on the simulator welcome to era I know it's your first one so no worries we'll get you confident and everything else all right are you happy about how to look around the airfield if you had to look at the apron do the that makes me feel dizzy I know yeah alright that's all I play golf our seaman Sierra Lima Victor taxi to stand 3-3 crossing runway one seven so where's it going from he can do that one in his way and he doesn't get across a runway or anything he must show the instructor he understands the unique controller to cockpit language can you shorten this course I know you can now you've established two-way communication just like I'm basic yeah and nothing's changed is there a speed limit on the apron I don't you know that he won't he won't do 100 miles now and come back alright so you could just follow him so when you've got a lot of aircraft landing yep how will you manage to fit ones crossing the wrong way it's all about sort of keywords that mean really important things to the pilots happy yeah it's not difficult is it it's just new when you first get into is daunting but no I know what to say it seems really fun great and tell everybody else how much you enjoyed I thought it's gonna be really scary because I'm got a clue what to say because the phraseology is different to what we were doing before but when you've done about two three sentences worth of stuff it's all just repeats it sort of clicks and you know what to say and it's so much less scary than I was thinking it wasn't scary at all once I actually got into it staying calmly confident in life and death situations is something each trainee must master but right now there's a huge amount of new information to remember okay eighty minutes good luck four weeks in there sitting there first exam the stakes so high you know you've got to have people that have got that you know they've got the tenacity they've got to really want to do it because you're talking about 40 aircraft an hour in a sector we surrender people on each aircraft that's a lot of people it's quite definite if you don't pass at this stage then this is probably not the right job for you the wind is just picking up and it's 42 I don't think it's gonna be tenable I think we're gonna need to go down 38 my course started with 23 people on it from memory I think six are still in that some left to go to work in other climates after qualifying but pretty much I think we were slayed by 50% before we left the coverage an hour later the test is over it was they leave any questions no even if you don't know just just fill out with something which is why there's a few of them you feel like you might have passed okay yes yeah well let's get him up to hopefully will be closed for now all right I think I knew enough problem is now we'll like compare each other's answers for the rest of the day until we get the results to pass the trainees need a mark of 75% or higher all right cut to the chase four of you did pretty well two of you we're not so good Kiran yeah know anybody particularly surprised obviously a little bit disappointed maybe I got 73% neither 75% of us didn't pass the exam with 73% Tim is in danger of failing I'm quite shocked that that really a few of the questions went straight over my head didn't know them at all I call my mom after every exam I'll have to call her and tell her I didn't pass Tim and Matt must reset the exam I have to be a bit worried because if I fail Oh No [Music] the number of passengers flying through London has more than doubled in the last 40 years to 165 million you're looking at the busiest patch of sky on the planet the airspace is congested there's no getting away from that and whether we can expand anymore I'm not sure this explosion in air traffic is meeting increasingly strong opposition and that Heathrow we're passenger numbers are at bursting point the airport has become a target for pressure groups we arrived for a morning shift that starts at 7 o'clock and we found out that there was a polar bear on the runway as the Sun came up we could clearly make out there's a group of people who were on runway two-seven right which at that time the day is normally being landed on with the 7 for 7 so probably one of the weirdest things that I've ever seen here over two five eight four climb to altitude 636 three nine cancel hold turned after bumble bird strike on departure airplane out of London City had a multiple bird strike on departure the aircraft just called us up and is quite happy to continue so this smell of roast duck or something down there Thames so in the week 18 questions at Nats trainees Matt and Tim have one chance to retake the test they failed last week right good luck this is actually a job I really really won there's a whole career not just a job it's about my life from the how and if I get it it's good one free to continue on the heading in the speed delay is about five to ten it's a fantastic job it's different everyday talking to different planes you're working in different sectors but the thing that makes it a really great job is the people that you work with rigid segregation one two three why'd you continue on the radar heading why did you want to become another control go to sponsor the money how much do you think about 110,000 pounds a year hello mom uh-huh I've got the mockers I've got the recent results I've got 99 and a half percent felt good saying that we have to say not in the office and tell my parents so fast they know how much it means to me so it means a lot to them of course we just lost contact with this outbound eye last we heard from him he was climbing towards Tama going to 5,000 feet how far apart those two aircraft gonna be yeah it depends on the qfe was the cure fee give you it gives you the energy which is it the runway elevation of the aerodrome elevation the Nats trainees are facing one crucial test after another the next is in two days time remember have you passed in the shovel or what this is this is basic stuff guys really is basic stuff I think that's a bit rickety ours like kicking a puppy at the end just just sayin either got one shot but they have if they don't pass this they're off the course you know that potentially looking at the p45 it feels really important now the after explaining that you understand all the pages and pages and pages we've had throwing out those over the last seven weeks if they see anything that they don't like then you know there's a chance that you'll be gone pressures also mounting in the operations room what's the latest weather map the winds just picking up and it's quarter to I think is gonna be terrible yeah we could be into runway change in it within the next hour a small change in weather is set to disrupt the landing patterns of every plane coming in and out of Heathrow aircraft need to land into wind so they need to land with the wind pointing at them so that they can land slower because the last thing you want to do is land at a higher speed than necessary because obviously you want to stop on the tarmac so when the winds change direction we have to respond to that so the operations can continue safely operational supervisor Steve must pick the right moment to change the direction of takeoff and landing of every incoming and outgoing plane you put the change in yeah yeah that's to change it that's with the change just communicate the plan around the room there is Swiss fire on your trans two eight seven three turn left heading three two zero degrees the change affects 150 planes so the switch must be precisely synchronized North runs to 873 descent like level 1 1 0 as the first re-routed planes touched down a reminder of which direction aircraft are landing is moved into place a miniature concorde finally balance juggling act everyone has an opinion and wants to express it to me you listen to everyone's opinion and you juggle them in the air and you think which one actually match the situation because ultimately the airfield will have a view and the customers will have a views of British Airways for example will have a view easyJet whomever else and of course my overriding thought is the safety and the capabilities I have for the service provision of this room [Music] but Nats the trainees face their verbal test each air traffic scenario must be answered correctly morning voice looking nice and smart very good burgers today's their final assessment for the basic course and this is their final chance passing the course basically comes down to saying the right words today just relax as long as you've done all the work all you got to do is talk their plans the hopes the dreams to their career all depend on the makes 30 minutes I'm a little worried I'd panic even if I've got every single thing right so it's just the same either way hopefully they'll be nice if you got flat at 2400 you've lost a little flatter but that's level 2 5 you're not set V it's a bit of a way because it's the U key is the only place which doesn't provide the separation with the lowest level I can come as ready as I can be really very much yes just I mean every single thing I can find in my head just reading through the book over and over through my notes over and over writing them out about 10 times each to make them stick in I'm just really really nervous to be honest but I think I'll barks I'm confident [Music] by more pressure now just slightly like please pass me just staring at those doors like come on surely compassed me haven't done enough hopefully I got a knock right for six other sections I'm thinking yeah nailed up think anything wrong one of the sections on my ark God have got two things wrong what if that failed me classroom core okay so there is good news and there is lots of news for those that has been successful Tom well done you can go and all of them see you on Wednesday Tom is on to the next stage of the course I like walked out and did a lot this one no believe it so happy I'm so really pure joy walking out that room I can go home and have a day off tomorrow like for the first time in nine weeks like actually feel like I deserve a day off that's quite nice there is a process that keeps into place now for you guys but at the moment your training is suspended at this point until we go through the formal process Tim and Kieran haven't been so lucky [Music] disappointed at impasse this bloody sucks yeah a sinking feeling you open it and look at three like s for satisfactory yes a satisfactory you have seen that first you just crap your heart sinks because you get one they're all gone I don't want to get a normal job that's what I wanted to do and my future so I don't know no idea while dunno Tim is going back to university you see there's two boxes at the bottom that got levels running up there called ESL's tom is on course to becoming an air traffic controller you

Channel: Clarky Aviation

Views: 246,285

Rating: 4.8297377 out of 5

Keywords: skies, above, britain, atc, air, traffic, control, controller, approach, radar, aps, terminal, tc, ac, area, london, centre, swanwick, nats, national, services, uk, great, england, united, kingdom, bbc, british, broadcasting, corporation, 2016, acs, clarky, aviation, behind, the, scenes

Id: sGADIXhJje8

Length: 82min 37sec (4957 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 11 2018