MARINE CORPS AIR STATION MIRAMAR, Calif. -- A Marine standing on the flight line at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar looks into the sky and wonders how can all of these planes fly around in the air and not hit each other.
A Marine flight planner is responsible for monitoring and controlling the incoming and outgoing flights from base aircraft as well as transient aircraft.
“It is our job to ensure the safety of the pilots and their aircraft by making sure there are no conflicting plans as well as safe incoming and outgoing flights,” said Lance Cpl. Kyle Jones, flight planning dispatcher, MCAS Miramar.
“My job is to track incoming and outgoing flights,” said Sgt. Christopher D. Elstun, the flight planning watch supervisor for MCAS Miramar. “Keeping track of over 500 aircraft, not counting transient, or non-base aircraft, is no easy task.
“Once in a while we get (medical evacuation) flights from Operation Iraqi Freedom with a service member who was wounded in the war,” said Elstun.
Elstun has been doing this job for 4 years and has been working long hours to ensure the safety on the flight line.
“We work directly with the tower to ensure aircraft are arriving and departing on time,” said Jones.
“If we are unable to locate a pilot, we begin search and rescue procedures which include notifying a SAR team,” said Jones.
“We must also keep up flight publications, which are books on the aircraft, especially for transient or non-base aircraft,” said Jones. “It is important to know all the facts about the incoming and outgoing aircraft.”
In the work area, there is a control board where all incoming and outgoing air traffic is logged, said Elstun.
If a pilot and his crew have a flight plan, which involves flying near other civilian or military airfields, it is the job of the flight planning team to ensure these airfields are notified.
The flight planners must review the flight plan for pilots to ensure they have correctly filed the paperwork for the day or they will be grounded, said Elstun.
“If a pilot does not file the correct flight plan, he cannot fly,” said Elstun, who also reviews the daily log, which is paperwork filled out by the pilot.
It is important to know where each aircraft is, as well as its scheduled flight plans for the day. This ensures safe arrival and departures of each aircraft leaving the airfield, said Jones.