ATC
ADS-B making life easier for Gulf helicopter pilots
Think working at New York Tracon is a tough job? Try heading down to the Gulf of Mexico, where controllers handle between 5,000 and 9,000 helicopter flight

Think working at New York Tracon is a tough job? Try heading down to the Gulf of Mexico, where controllers handle between 5,000 and 9,000 helicopter flights a day, all without the aid of surveillance radar.

The waters off the coasts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida might be an oasis of calm, but thanks to the oil business the activity in the skies above rivals the busiest terminal airspace in the world. Officials estimate helicopters transport more than 10,000 workers a day to and from about 3,800 offshore oil rigs. For controllers, keeping track of all those helicopters is as hard a job as there is.