Design implications for teamwork in ATC.

In air traffic control (ATC), teamwork is a key component among air traffic control operators (ATCOs) to safely direct the aircraft through the sky and on the ground. To be able to design for future ATC systems, we must understand how ATCOs work together, their teamwork, and how they experience and perceive teamwork, in different ATC environments. We conducted interviews with 16 ATCOs working in four different ATC environments (en-route control, terminal area control, tower control for a small airport and tower control for a large airport in Sweden) and analysed the results in the light of the "Big Five" model of teamwork. The main contributions of this paper are to show: (1) how eight teamwork factors are differently manifested by the ATCOs in the different ATC environments, (2) that teamwork in ATC is important during routine operations, during stressful work, and during abnormal situations, and (3) that the design of the organisation, the environment, and the tools, affects teamwork and the importance of different teamwork factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]