There are various of planes, approximately 30,000 flights, flying everyday in tokyo haneda airport, including jumbojet, helicopter. During peak time, the separation between preceeding a/c is 2 mins, when the airspace is crowed, holding will also be instructed to wait until space is available. After the establishment of new terminal in haneda, the flights to and from haneda increased to 33,000. To prevent air and ground collision, “Air Traffic Controller” must instruct pilots with precise command (ATC phrase). This occupation is responsible of thousands of life aboard the plane and mistakes cannot be tolerated, it is been said to be the stressful job in the world.
In Japan, there basically 2 types of controllers, Terminal (GND, TWR, APP) and Enroute ( CTR).
Terminal control around the aerdrome, while enroute covers the invislbe high way. For enroute, there are 4 area centre, predefined as Sapporo, Tokyo, Fukuoka, and Naha. The widest airspace is “To/kyo Control” whereas the story take place. This is a drama the is based on reconstructing major accidents due to human error in controlling, and how do controllers cope with the “incident”.Watch drama online for free.
Watch Tokyo Control - Episode 10 