The very first air traffic controller was Archie League at Saint Louis Airport in Missouri. His control tower was a wheelbarrow with an umbrella for shade during the summer heat, a notepad and flags. He was instructing the pilot to proceed by raising a checkered flag and was requesting the pilot to wait before being cleared to land or take off by waiving a red flag.1 At that time aviation was an infant industry but flights across the United States and across European countries started to operate.2 In the thirties runways were extended and Air Traffic Controllers (ATCO’s) were now stationed on top of the terminal building. Additional visual signals, markings on the ground and lights were installed on runways to facilitate operations. The introduction of radio communications enabled the ground to have basic and short communications with the pilots.3 During the Second World Ward radars of acceptable quality were introduced and were able to detect aircrafts and to determine their altitude, speed and registration. This new technology was soon implemented in the field of civil aviation. At that time air traffic control operations were relatively easy because there were few models of aircrafts and all were flying at approximately the same speed. The airspace was then divided into several flight information regions but at the end of the 1960s the introduction of supersonic jets like the Concorde or wide body commercial airliners like the Boeing 747 rendered operations more complex.4 The international aviation community soon realized that air traffic controllers are indispensable in order to ensure the safe operation of flights. The liability of the air carrier was defined long ago by the Warsaw Convention of 1929 and consolidated in 1999 by the Montreal Convention6. Similarly the liability to Third Parties on the Ground was established by the Rome Convention of 19527. These instruments provide legal certainty. However there is still no universal convention regulating the liability of air traffic controllers. This delicate question touching upon the sovereignty of States was not examined by the drafters of the Chicago Convention8 in 1944 and was left to national law. The aim of this paper is to analyze the various current rules that govern the liability of air traffic controllers and highlight their inconsistency across several jurisdictions. First, the main duties of States relating to the provision of air navigation services deriving from the Convention on International Civil Aviation is examined. Next, an enumeration and analysis of the core duties of air traffic controllers is undertaken. This paper explores the possible defendants in a claim against air traffic controllers for alleged negligence in the event of a serious incident or accident by analyzing the basis and form of ATCO’s liability in different States, followed by a discussion of the jurisdictional issues which highlight the remaining future challenges in relation to a possible unification of the rules regulating the liability of air traffic controllers.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Jul 2013 15:10:29 +0000
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