I'm just a punter, who discovered these boards a while ago through a link from another site. I don't come here often, but saw the programme and thought I'd pop in to see what you guys who do the job thought of it.
I'll take all of your collective words on the factual inacurracies. However, from a punter's point of view, I thought that Air Traffic Controllers came across incredibly sympathetically. It seemed to me that you were portrayed as hard-working, conscientous people doing a very difficult job to the best of your considerable abilities. The fictional incident came about due to a number of reasons, not least a controller working too long hours as there was not enough cover, with too many aircraft.
Obviously this is incorrect. Obviously there is a surplus of controllers under NATS, relief is always there and sectors are never combined. Obviously no-one is ever expected to do a demanding job for too long a time. Obviously there is no commercial pressure to reduce delays, and this is never in any conflict with safety concerns. You should be complaining to the BBC about this gross misportrayal, and not about whether some alarm should have gone off in the tower or not.
