1969/04 - First operational control unit

The SADC took over Seletar Aerodrome, where Seletar Tower became the first operational control unit in 1971. Seletar Air Base was later handed over to the Department of Civil Aviation for general aviation development.

The first Air Traffic Control training section was set up at Seletar West Camp in 1970 before it was moved to Tengah Air Base in 1971.

Trainees in class at Tengah Control Tower.

LTA Tan Boh See was one of the trainers who instructed the trainees on radio equipment for air traffic control.

While the pioneer Air Traffic Controller officers were trained at the Royal Air Force in Britain, non-commissioned officers were trained locally to become assistant Air Traffic Controllers.

An overview of Seletar Control Tower in 1969.

“The challenge was to have sufficiently trained and qualified ATC officers and men to manage the three airfields at Tengah, Changi, and Sembawang, as well as the joint military-civil air traffic control centre, then located at Paya Lebar, by the time the Royal Air Force left. But we did it all, so that by the end of 1971, all ATC units on the island were functioning under the SADC, albeit with the assistance of some seconded and contracted British officers.”

LTC (Ret) Prasad Kumar Menon, Airspace Consultant, Air Operations Department, 2008 who was one of the SADC's first Air Traffic Controllers