Editing Air traffic control (section)

==Call signs==
A prerequisite to safe air traffic separation is the assignment and use of distinctive [[call sign]]s.  These are permanently allocated by [[ICAO]] on request, usually to [[Scheduled air transport|scheduled flights]], and some air forces and other military services for [[Military aviation|military flights]].  There are written call signs with a two or three&nbsp;letter combination followed by the flight number such as AAL872 or VLG1011.  As such, they appear on flight plans and ATC radar labels.  There are also the ''audio'' or ''radio-telephony'' call signs used on the radio contact between pilots and air traffic control.  These are not always identical to their written counterparts.  An example of an audio call sign would be 'Speedbird 832', instead of the written 'BAW832'.  This is used to reduce the chance of confusion between ATC and the aircraft.  By default, the call sign for any other flight is the [[Aircraft registration|registration number]] (or tail number in US parlance) of the aircraft, such as 'N12345', 'C-GABC', or 'EC-IZD'.  The short ''radio-telephony'' call signs for these tail numbers is the last three letters using the [[NATO phonetic alphabet]] (e.g. ABC, spoken ''alpha-bravo-charlie'' for C-GABC), or the last three numbers (e.g. ''three-four-five'' for N12345).  In the United States, the prefix may be an aircraft type, model, or manufacturer in place of the first registration character, for example, 'N11842' could become 'Cessna 842'.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://atccommunication.com/what-is-an-abbreviated-aircraft-call-sign|title=What is an abbreviated aircraft call sign?|work=ATC Communication|access-date=3 July 2015|archive-date=20 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181020165819/http://atccommunication.com/what-is-an-abbreviated-aircraft-call-sign|url-status=dead}}</ref>