(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) As the alarm clock goes off at 5am, Alawi al Busaidi considers hitting the snooze button, but changes his mind. A senior controller at the air traffic controller (ATC) at Muscat International Airport, Busaidi's shift begins at 7am.
busaidi reaches the control tower greets his comrade, grabs his headset and sits in front of a couple of screens spread across him. these screens hold the latest weather updates and keep them abreast of all the activities happening up in the air and on ground at the airport . at 7am the muscat international airport does not look quite busy.with only seven aircrafts preparing for take-off, the first shift seems to be a smooth one so far. he spends the next two hours on radio, guiding pilots through their take-offs and landings. thankfully the weather seems to be holding up and there are no delays. the control tower is a hotbed of activities and mainly divided into three working stations. the clearance delivery station is responsible for noting the in-flight details and identification number of the aircrafts, outlining the air routes, and the flight path to the destination. ground control is responsible for scanning the airport 'movement' areas tower control is an extremely important station in the control tower as it manages the runway and the altitude up to 2000ft. this station also monitors the activities of trainee flights and special flights. local control clears aircrafts for take-offs and landings .if any unsafe conditions are detected, an aircraft scheduled to land will be re-sequenced to the landing pattern by the terminal area controller. busaidi, with his 13 years of experience, explains the general terminologies of the runway. 'the aprons (where aircrafts are parked, unloaded or loaded, refueled, or boarded) are divided into various segments. there are designated points for the police, royal flight, rafo, and civil aviations.' khamis al zadjali, the head of the team said, 'the exact schedule depends on the airport, but a typical work week consists of eight hours duty per person for six continuous days. early mornings and evenings tend to be the busiest times while the shifts between 7am to 11am is sluggish.' hussam juma al busaidi, who has been working since 3 years at the atc, guides pilots from the ground control station. he says, 'my job is to guide the aircraft till they take off. this is also risky as we need to precisely tell the pilots when to enter or move.' he is not particularly fond of late night shifts as the fatigue is immense after covering those hours. another traffic controller, yousef al jahwary is also an instructor who has 12 years of experience in the aviation industry. he talks about his role as he handles departures and landings of aircrafts at the airport. 'at this stage we mostly handle 18 to 20 flights per hour. it is a crucial point and stressful too as you need to correctly time the flights for landing and while taking off. it can get very stressful if pilots do not maintain the exact distance we calculate. even an error of 0.5m can make my task more daunting as one calculation is invariably dependent on the other.' but jahwary also says that his job is equally thrilling. 'it is on the spot and on-the-go'. he says that a traffic controller must always have multiple back-up plans in case of an emergency. 'we always have plan a, b, c ready and planned way ahead of interaction with the aircraft,' says jahwary.these plans stem from experience and expertise. 'in case there is a situation that needs to be addressed we take suggestions from others. even the most experienced person on the team does not refrain from taking suggestions from peers to arrive at the best decision,' he adds. busaidi has been training young omanis who have ventured into the field of air traffic control .'we need extremely passionate, responsible and committed people for this job. an air traffic controller's job is considered as one of the most stressful jobs and we would want individuals to be prepared for it.' the air traffic control team handles 1400 flights per day from a gleamy new tower that is 106.7m high.