Need to learn courses from previous events and proactively operate for safety: AFA Commander
Hyderabad: The graduation ceremony was held Friday at the Air Traffic Control Officer Training Agency (ATCOTE) after successfully completing 150 Air Traffic Surveillance Service (ATSS) candidates and 113 Air Traffic Management and Air Law courses.
Air Marshal S Shrinivas, commander of the Air Force Academy (AFA), provided tribute to the examiners. ATCOTE is the primary training for the Indian Air Force (IAF) located in AFA, Hyderabad.
The six-month ATM and AL (B) courses include the Indian Air Force, Indian Army, Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard and officers from Sri Lanka, while the three-month Intermediate ATSS courses are from the Indian Air Force, Indian Navy and Hindustan Aircraft Corporation Limited (HAL). In his speech, the examiner congratulated the graduate officials and extended his best wishes for future efforts.
He acknowledged the important role ATCOTE played in training military traffic controllers and emphasized the importance of the 150th ATSS course, an important milestone for the institution. He stressed the need for them to be excellent professionals because safe and effective aerial space management is based on effective decisions made by ATC officials.
He reiterated that as more military airports have now been opened for other responsibilities by military air traffic controllers, military airports for civilian use have been opened and, due to the successful assimilation of flexible use of airspace policies, a large number of civilian aircraft have been operated in restricted airspace controlled by the IAF.
He also highlighted the need to learn courses from previous events and proactively ensure operational safety.
