Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airspace. The primary purpose of ATC is to prevent collisions, organize and expedite the flow of traffic in the air, and provide information and other support for pilots.
24 is an American action drama television series created by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran for Fox. The series features an ensemble cast, with Kiefer Sutherland starring as American counter-terrorist federal agent Jack Bauer. Each season covers 24 consecutive hours using the real time method of narration, which is emphasized by the display of split screens and a digital clock. Multiple ongoing plot lines of intersecting relevance are covered, with Bauer's plot line serving as the link throughout. The show premiered on November 6, 2001, and spanned 204 episodes over nine seasons, with the series finale broadcast on July 14, 2014. In addition, the television film 24: Redemption aired between seasons six and seven, on November 23, 2008. 24 is a joint production by Imagine Television and 20th Century Fox Television.
Air traffic control specialists, abbreviated ATCs, are personnel responsible for the safe, orderly, and expeditious flow of air traffic in the global air traffic control system. Usually stationed in air traffic control centers and control towers on the ground, they monitor the position, speed, and altitude of aircraft in their assigned airspace visually and by radar, and give directions to the pilots by radio. Controllers apply separation rules to keep aircraft at a safe distance from each other and within proper airspace in their area of responsibility and move all aircraft safely and efficiently through their assigned sector of airspace, as well as on the ground. Because controllers have an incredibly large responsibility while on duty and make countless real-time decisions on a daily basis, the ATC profession is consistently regarded around the world as one of the most mentally challenging careers, and can be notoriously stressful depending on many variables. Many controllers, however, cite high salaries, and a large, unique, and privileged degree of autonomy as major advantages of their jobs.
Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland is a Canadian actor. He is best known for his starring role as Jack Bauer in the Fox drama series 24, for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award.
Continental Airlines Flight 1713 was a commercial airline flight that crashed while taking off in a snowstorm from Stapleton International Airport in Denver, Colorado, on November 15, 1987. The Douglas DC-9 airliner, operated by Continental Airlines, was making a scheduled flight to Boise, Idaho. Twenty-five passengers and three crew members died in the crash.
United 93 is a 2006 film written and directed by British filmmaker Paul Greengrass. The film largely chronicles the events aboard United Airlines Flight 93, one of the four hijacked flights during the September 11 attacks on America. Flight 93 was the only plane to not hit its intended target due to the intervention of passengers and crew. The film also covers the experiences of government officials and air traffic controllers, many of whom are played by themselves, as they witness the other events of the attacks unfold that day.
Flight 93 is a 2006 American drama television film directed by Peter Markle and written by Nevin Schreiner, which chronicles the events onboard United Airlines Flight 93 during the September 11 attacks in 2001. It premiered on January 30, 2006, on A&E, and was re-broadcast several times throughout 2006.
A transponder is an electronic device that produces a response when it receives a radio-frequency interrogation. Aircraft have transponders to assist in identifying them on air traffic control radar. Collision avoidance systems have been developed to use transponder transmissions as a means of detecting aircraft at risk of colliding with each other.
The Grand Canyon mid-air collision occurred in the western United States on June 30, 1956, when a United Airlines Douglas DC-7 struck a Trans World Airlines Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation over Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. The first plane fell into the canyon while the other slammed into a rock face. All 128 on board both airplanes perished, making it the first commercial airline incident to exceed one hundred fatalities. The airplanes had departed Los Angeles International Airport minutes apart from each other and headed for Chicago and Kansas City, respectively. The collision took place in uncontrolled airspace, where it was the pilots' responsibility to maintain separation. This highlighted the antiquated state of air traffic control, which became the focus of major aviation reforms.
Atlasjet Flight 4203 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Istanbul Atatürk Airport in Istanbul to Isparta Süleyman Demirel Airport in Isparta Province, Turkey. On 30 November 2007, the aircraft operating the flight – a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 which Atlasjet had leased from World Focus Airlines just five months before – crashed in the vicinity of Keçiborlu between the villages of Yenitepe and Çukurören while on approach, approximately 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) west of the destination airport. The flight had taken off from Istanbul at 00:51 EET with 50 passengers and 7 crew members on board. All 57 occupants perished in the accident.
24: Redemption is a 2008 American television film based on the series 24. Redemption takes place almost four years after the sixth season and two months before the seventh season in real time between 3:00 pm and 5:00 pm on Inauguration Day in the United States. The main setting is Sangala, a fictional African country, where ex-Counter Terrorist Unit Agent Jack Bauer tries to find peace with himself, and works as a missionary with Carl Benton, who built the Okavango school to aid war orphans. Bauer is served a subpoena to appear before the United States Senate regarding human rights violations, but refuses to go, and a shadow organization among the United States government aids General Benjamin Juma and his militia in a coup d'état. Juma's militia attempts to kidnap the children from the school and Jack has to decide whether or not to give himself up to American authorities in order to keep the children safe.
On August 8, 2009, at 11:53 a.m. (15:53 UTC), nine people died when a tour helicopter and a small private airplane collided over the Hudson River near Frank Sinatra Park in Hoboken, New Jersey, United States. The aircraft were in an area known as the "Hudson River VFR Corridor", which extends from the surface of the river to altitudes of 800 to 1,500 ft at various locations along the Hudson River in the immediate area of New York City. Within this corridor, aircraft operate under visual flight rules (VFR), under which the responsibility to see and avoid other air traffic rests with the individual pilots rather than with the air traffic controller (ATC).
Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 705 was a scheduled passenger flight operated on February 12, 1963, that broke up in midair and crashed into the Florida Everglades shortly after takeoff from Miami International Airport in a severe thunderstorm. The plane was destined for Portland, Oregon, via Chicago, Spokane, and Seattle.
Flight is a 2012 American drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by John Gatins and produced by Walter F. Parkes, Laurie MacDonald, Steve Starkey, Zemeckis, and Jack Rapke. The film stars Denzel Washington as William "Whip" Whitaker Sr., an alcoholic airline pilot who miraculously crash-lands his plane after a mechanical failure, saving nearly everyone on board. Although hailed a hero, an investigation soon begins to cast the captain in a different light.
"12:00 a.m. – 1:00 a.m." is the pilot episode and the first episode of the first season of the American action drama television series 24. It was written by series creators Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran and directed by Stephen Hopkins, and originally aired in the United States on Fox at 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 6, 2001.
The Crowded Sky is a 1960 Technicolor drama film distributed by Warner Bros., produced by Michael Garrison, directed by Joseph Pevney and starring Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. The film is based on the 1960 novel of the same name by Hank Searls.
The 1973 Nantes mid-air collision occurred when two airliners travelling to London Heathrow airport hit each other over Nantes, France, on 5 March 1973. They were an Iberia McDonnell Douglas DC-9 flying from Palma de Mallorca and a Spantax Convair 990 from Madrid. All 68 people on board the DC-9 were killed. The CV-990 was able to make a successful emergency landing at Cognac – Châteaubernard Air Base.
Mayday is a 2005 American made-for-television thriller film based on the 1979 novel by American author Thomas Block. The novel was updated in 1998 by authors Thomas Block and Nelson DeMille and re-released as a paperback. The film was directed by T. J. Scott and stars Aidan Quinn, Dean Cain, Kelly Hu, Michael Murphy, Charles S. Dutton and Gail O'Grady. It aired on CBS in the United States on October 2, 2005.
On 12 May 2021, Key Lime Air Flight 970, a Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner operating a chartered cargo flight from Salida to Centennial, Colorado collided in mid-air with a private Cirrus SR22. Despite having sustained severe damage, the Swearingen Metroliner managed to land safely while the Cirrus SR22 deployed its CAPS system and safely parachuted to the ground. All three occupants on board both aircraft survived uninjured.
Ozark Air Lines Flight 965 was a scheduled commercial flight from Chicago, Illinois, to Lambert Field in St. Louis, Missouri, with a scheduled intermediate stopover at Greater Peoria Regional Airport in Peoria, Illinois. On March 27, 1968, the Douglas DC-9-15 jetliner operating the flight, carrying 44 passengers and five crew, collided in mid-air with a single-engined Cessna 150F while both aircraft were on approach to the same runway at Lambert Field. The DC-9 landed safely with no injuries to any of its 49 occupants, while both pilots in the two-person Cessna died in the collision and subsequent ground impact.
