Scott
Its quite simplistic really, the Automatan is monitoring every aspect of your flight whether it be at the holding point or on final approach. The process works similar to TCAS RA transmissions ie the pilot is expect to follow what has been said and if that doesnt happen Automatan redefines the situation and acts accordingly.
On final approach, if an aircraft that is observed to climb more than six hundred feet instead of the correct descent profile, it initiates the alarm. At this point contingency controller steps in an has the option to overide instructions to "X" amount of particular flights by typing in callsigns on a pc based system in the tower. This system works quite well, but like I said before, so some stranger reasons the software has bugs which is not getting MDI orders perfect yet.
If the Automatan issues the instruction " Falcon 487 Line UP 32 Left"...... and the pilot responds "I need 2 minutes more before departure" If the Automatan hasn't voice recognised the words "Line-UP" It issues the instruction "Falcon 487 Line UP 32 Left or Hold Position, say again message" The Automatan automatically selects loud speaker on the Contingency desk to which the CONTCON can input in the pc where the Falcon can rejoin the flow of traffic. It does work, especially when all pilots are aware of the automated system and standard phraseology is paramount.
No one has answered my question about whether jobs will be lost in England or whether people will be redeployed ?
Reggie