The controller, aviation medicine and air safety

Aviation medicine has researched many important facts on pilots, but little on direct relationships between controllers, aviation medicine and air safety. The unsuspecting flying public accepts a 'blind faith' in aircraft and pilots, unaware that aircraft are controlled within 'suspect' ATC systems. The deceptive simplicity of controlling air traffic in apparently limitless skies belies the complexity of man-machine ATC systems operated in ever-crowded airspace, sometimes with antiquated equipment and indifferent communications. The indivisible operational controller/pilot team strives to meet similar ICAO medical standards and operate within the limitations of non-standardised recorded air traffic. Despite controllers' intensive stress at air disasters and 'almost' air disasters, air traffic must continually be controlled for air safety; but, countless human lives (and insurance dollars) saved are possibly camouflaged within the smoke screen of ATC. In New Zealand aviation, the Accident Compensation Corporation is statutorily responsible for air-safety, but accident investigators need controllers' expertise. Has a climate of complacency evolved towards air safety such that New Zealand's Erebus and other air disasters could have been avoided? Controllers are that crucial link in aviation with personal medical fitness vital to the air safety of the unsuspecting flying public. Controllers' dedicated aim for complete air safety in ATC shall benefit from greater understanding within aviation medicine and in-depth medical research.