TIL that even though almost all planes were grounded during 9/11, there was one non military plane flying after the FAA ordered all planes to land. This one plane was carrying snake anti venom to Florida to save a snake handler’s life after he had gotten bit by a Taipan snake

Former usaf radar atc:

I never worked in the tower.

Ok, so atc positions all have two jacks for headsets. Every controller has their own headset that they must keep with them, even the lowly apprentices. During training, you can have an apprentice plugged in on the left, while his trainer can "overkey" them and correct them if need be from the rightside plug.

The two plugs are also helpful when being relieved at your position.

Handing off stuff between shifts: when the new controller comes on, they get a brief on local conditions: weather, any pertinent notices to their airport or airspace, traffic patterns, etc. from the crew chief. When one controller goes to relieve another, they receive a brief from the active controller on "the picture" -- what's going on in your airspace. This guy is already talking to tower, this guy is on an 80 heading to Scottsdale, this guy is flying vfr but hes talking to us, etc, etc

the relieving controller will watch and listen beforehand so they should have a good idea of the picture as well.

/r/todayilearned Thread Link - brokensecrets.com