Flying a departure the other day going southbound and one of those random thoughts occured to me, what if for some unexpected reason all the radar screens for the London TMA went blank?
I understand that all aircraft details are duplicated on strips of paper, but surely when your dealing with the volume of traffic that London is that'd be near impossible? It must take a particular type of person to be able to look at scribbled bits of information and mentally place them in 3D space?
Also on the same topic what are the chances of all the screens going blank, or are there several back up generators, back up radar instillations, and if all else fails get the military in with AWACS, or something along those lines?