Document Preview:

SECTION 2 – Case Study [Total = 40 marks]
Write the answers for this section in the answer booklet provided. Attempt ALL questions. There are 4 questions. Questions are worth ten (10) marks each. For each question, provide a response of approximately three-quarters (¾) to one (1) A4 page.
Air traffic control: a world-class juggling act
Air traffic controllers have one of the most stressful jobs in the world. They are responsible for the lives of thousands of passengers who fly every day in and out of the world’s airports. Over the last 15 years, the number of planes in the sky has doubled, leading to congestion at many airports and putting air traffic controllers under increasing pressure. The controllers battle to maintain “separation standards” that set the distance between planes as they land and take off. Sheer volume pushes the air traffic controllers’ skills to the limit. Jim Courtney, an air traffic controller at LaGuardia Airport in New York, says: “There are half a dozen moments of sheer terror in each year when you wish you did something else for a living”.
New York – the world’s busiest airspace
The busiest airspace in the world is above New York. Around 7500 planes arrive and depart each day at New York’s three airports, John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark. The three airports form a triangle around New York and are just 15 miles from each other. This requires careful coordination of traffic patterns, approach and take-off routes, using predetermined corridors in the sky to keep the planes away from each other. If the wind changes, all three airports work together to change the flight paths. Sophisticated technology fitted to most of the bigger planes creates a safety zone around the aircraft so that when two aircraft get near to each other their computers negotiate which is going to take action to avoid the other and then alert the pilot who changes course. Smaller aircraft, without radar, rely upon vision and the notion of “little plane, big…