Air traffic control (ATC) separation responsibilities are divided among four types of controllers who work at three different kinds of facilities. This article reports on a study that focused on en route controllers, who are responsible for the high-altitude, high-speed components of the flights. The authors first briefly explain how the ATC system works, including the use of paper flight progress strips, which are small pieces of paper that contain pertinent information from the pilot's flight plan. The authors then describe their study that used naturalistic observation of paper flight progress strip interactions during operational use. The authors found the strip use was similar in a variety of situations, but some uses varied as a function of altitude, staffing, or the cooperative style used by controller teams. Most air traffic controllers using paper strips used a series of notations to add information to that already on the paper strips. The authors then discuss how the ongoing implementation of more automation in ATC settings should incorporate an effective method of interacting with flight information (including that found on the paper strips). The authors stress that information about the frequency of use and importance of currently used strip annotations must be considered as the ATC system evolves into a paperless one.
Abstract