BEHIND THE SCENES AT SUVARNABHUMI
On Tuesday I had a fantastic insight into the work of air traffic controllers at Suvarnabhumi, Bangkok's main airport.
The British Chamber of Commerce organised a tour of what is the tallest control tower in the world. The amount of access we had was amazing; we had a presentation from a senior air traffic controller followed by a visit to the radar control room, and then to the very top where controllers look after arriving and departing aircraft and all ground movements. Standing next to controllers while they worked is one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences, much the same as the time I spend ten minutes in the cockpit of a Malaysian Airlines 747 somewhere over Turkmenistan.
4 comments:
I hope you were able to meet singer/guitarist Thee Chaiyadej while you were there. He works as an air traffic controller, when he is not performing.
Lucky bugger! Any photos?
There are about 120 controllers in four shifts. I hate to admit it but I wouldn't know whether I met Khun Thee or not.
One thing that did surprise me was the fact that the majority of the controllers were young and female. I'd guess 75% were female and under 35.
When I flew into Bangladesh many years ago, a Bangledeshi businessman stood behind me in the customs line and gave me quite an education into his culture. One of the things he pointed out was that at any computer, the operator would be female, because it is the females who are willing to learn something new and difficult, while the men will only go for those jobs that have high visibility.
I wonder how true that is for Thailand?
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