ATC and aviation security protocols at KKIA – an AOOA Editorial
The AOOA has learned of concerns expressed among air traffic controllers working at KKIA regarding their experience of pilots becoming highly irritated in response to requests for their compliance with ATC and KKIA security protocols and procedures. These concerns come from thoughtful professionals out of a genuine desire to promote understanding and harmony among the various actors and stakeholders concerned.
Meanwhile, the AOOA feels it is opportune to take a closer look at this issue from the perspectives of the different stakeholders, in this specific case the observation that some pilots at KKIA tend to be overtly displeased when they are requested by the Tower Controller to pass through the main terminal apron for security screening.
The first thing to establish is that with regard to anyone taking exception to such a request (which let’s face it most of us pilots do), it is in fact an accurate perspective of ATC Controllers at KKIA that they are merely carrying out their duties as directed by the requirements of the Civil Aviation Authority and the Zambia Airports Corporation Ltd., and that if pilots feel any such procedures are misapplied or unnecessarily inconvenient, they should engage the promulgator of the directives (namely the CAA or KKIA airport management) rather than react dis-respectfully towards air traffic controllers or security staff.
One can hardly fault this perspective, particularly as it should also be borne in mind that failure of either the controllers, security staff or pilots to comply with such requirements could attract some form of sanction against all parties concerned from the regulators.
However, to get to the heart of the matter, we should also ask the question: “why are pilots often irritable or grumpy with their ATC and security staff counterparts at KKIA?”
Perhaps the most effective way of answering this question is to run through some of the more “generic” material challenges that pilots face in their operating environment on a typical daily basis when working from their fixed base premises at KKIA:
Having to “negotiate” at least two police road-traffic checkpoints en route from home to and from their work-places;
Having to pass through airport security screening checkpoints on up to 8 separate occasions or more;
Having to accommodate delays and associated flight safety consequences due to cumbersome and frequently unreliable aircraft re-fuelling procedures, poor-weather, ATC glitches, additional ramp security checks and CAA spot checks/audits, technical occurrences (break-downs), uncertainty over the status and condition of destination airfields, late arrivals, passenger pressure, expiry of flight-plans and ATL clearances, sunset closures of destination airfields, excessive fees and cumbersome payment procedures for airport taxes, fees and various service charges.
Meanwhile, after navigating all the foregoing challenges, the pilot-in-command is not only ultimately responsible for the safety and welfare of all other crew and passengers aboard his or her aircraft, but must also comply with all the air service operator’s flight preparation, pre-flight, in-flight, and post-flight requirements, checks and procedures, all demanding professional scrutiny and the signing of as many as 10 forms (if not more) related to his or her aircraft’s operations over the course of the day.
On top of all this pilots must then of course physically operate and fly their aircraft comfortably, efficiently and safely from start to finish, preferably with a reassuring smile!
These are not judgemental speculations or pilots looking for sympathy, they are a selection of real-time challenges that pilots must deal with daily from the moment they leave home on duty to the moment they return from work. Make no mistake, working as a pilot is a highly demanding and stressful occupation at the sharpest end of the aviation industry.
In conclusion, we are sincerely grateful to the contributor from ATC highlighting this issue of GPS or “Grumpy Pilots Syndrome”.
For our part, we appeal to all pilots to exercise patience with and understanding of the myriad compliance requirements we face in this ever-more complicated day and age of pandemics and terrorism, and to cooperate accordingly.
And while not for a moment questioning the need for effective aviation safety and security in Zambia, we also hope that by reading this article our ATC colleagues might appreciate the extreme pressures under which pilots are expected to work, and ask that they join us in working to enable pilots and aircraft to fly comfortably, efficiently and safely, while ensuring that the operating environment, however challenging, is managed as seamlessly, effectively and respectfully as possible, improving protocols and procedures wherever they are found to be systemically flawed.
Richard C V Jeffery
AOOA President