I am still surprised that air traffic control is mostly managed by human operators. Seems odd that this cannot be fully automatised and managed through an algorithm.
Like so many things in the world, it's a legacy system that "works", therefore it's extremely difficult to dislodge.
It's pretty clear that ATC at all levels would work far better if fully automated, with staff around to manage emergencies and older aircraft. It's one of those tasks which is very stressful for humans but basically trivial for a computer given the correct parameters (including weather, etc).
Thank you. The parent comment screamed of software engineer elitism. Situations change ALL the time in aviation, sometimes in seconds, there are so many externalities. Language is by far the best way to handle them (something computers are terrible at). You don't want the pilot having to read a text output in the middle of a landing approach in bad weather, much less have to type to ask for clarification from ATC or ground.
I saw a video the other day of a student pilot that had very light experience (I think this was his second lesson or something like that) and had to perform an emergency landing on his own because his instructor passed out. He would’ve not been able to do a guided landing without ATC. Really short sighted to think that a software based automated system could replace controllers.
