Loss of Separation - ATCO - induced Situations.

DOWNLOAD I
DOWNLOAD II
Before listening, read these questions first:

* What is Loss of Separation?
* When does it occur?
* What may be the results of it?
* Describe some of the typical scenarios of loss of separation.
* What are the possible solutions for that?

Description
Loss of separation between aircraft sometimes occurs as a result of action taken (or not taken) by the ATCO.

Effects
Loss of separation from other aircraft may result in collision or the need for flight crew to take visual avoiding action at close range to avoid one.
* Injury, especially to cabin crew or passengers, may result from any unusual manoeuvres to avoid a collision.
* Injury to the occupants of an aircraft, especially Cabin Crew, may also result from wake vortex turbulence encounter.

Defences
* Standard Operating Procedures, in the ATSU, which detail procedures to be followed to reduce the chance of loss of separation.
* Onboard aircraft equipment designed to warn of potential collision with other aircraft (ACAS/TCAS).
* Ground-based equipment designed to warn of potential collision with other aircraft: Short Term Conflict Alert (STCA).
* ATC Screen
For ABC123 - the controller spots both PQR265 and XYZ312 but overlooks DEF763


Typical Scenarios
* Flight clearance does not provide adequate separation from other traffic.
* ATCO does not detect developing potential conflict.
* Avoiding action issued is too late or inadequate to provide safe separation.
* Instruction not received or not understood by intended recipient due to breakdown in air-ground communications.


Contributory Factors
* Volume of traffic;
* Military traffic operating out of area in civil airspace and unfamiliar with the applicable airspace rules;
* Failure to pass an IFR aircraft timely traffic information on a VFR aircraft in its vicinity;
* Issue of a VFR clearance in airspace where the only prescribed traffic separation is IFR against IFR when the ability of the VFR aircraft to comply with its clearance and maintain an effective visual lookout may be compromised by weather conditions;
* ATCO Workload.

Solutions
*Improve standard of ATCO training, especially in:
Air-ground communications safety;
Loss of situation awareness;
*Provide more and improved ATC safety nets, e.g. STCA.

Now let`s check these USEFUL PHRASES:
* as a result of - Loss of separation between aircraft sometimes occurs as a result of action taken (or not taken) by the ATCO.
* may result in - "Loss of separation from other aircraft may result in collision."
* may result from - "Loss of separation may result from any unusual manoeuvres to avoid a collision".
* the need for - "...the need for flight crew to take visual avoiding action."
* to be followed to - "...detail procedures to be followed to reduce the chance of loss of separation."

Now it`s your turn to give us some examples for phraseshttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif below (post them here):

* to warn of................................
* does not provide................................
* does not detect.................................
* inadequate to provide...........................
* may be compromised by...........................



SOURCE: SKYBRARY