Dr Alan McEwen, Air Traffic Controller
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Alan McEwen was an air traffic controller for 36 Officer 25 years in some of the most complicated and congested airspace in the world but more importantly was a leading light in the creation of ATC resilience engineering. This delivered year on year safety improvements that have helped NATS significantly improve aviation safety whilst European and Global aviation expanded by 3-4% pa. Alan re designed and delivered a competency scheme based on the principles of Resilience Engineering that was fit for purpose for the increase in traffic levels and created a safety culture that was by, for and of the operation. Through this he implemented 5 essential protocols by which ATCOs are now trained and assessed;
Def Con (flexing beyond and returning safely to normal ops) , Visual Scanning, Challenge, Active Listening, Situation Awareness.
This work delivered unheard of improvements in Airspace Safety; year on year reduction in safety incidents of 25% and his team were awarded the National Safety award in 2006. Alan and his team subsequently developed 25-30 training modules that delivered a step change in response times and effectiveness to emergencies and overload situations to make the NATS the leading ATC in risk management. In recognition of this Eurocontrol asked Alan to deliver a Safety Culture assessment program for all 30 European member states. This was completed in 2014 for which the team won the Ergonomics and Human Factors Presidents Medal for their contribution to Airspace Safety. Alan has worked with a number of hôpital trusts as well as a number of health care specialist colleges, societies and associations.
Alan loves to ski and as a result a number of you will recognise him from when you’ve been in the operating room.
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