Southern California TRACON (SoCal TRACON or SCT) is a terminal radar approach control (TRACON) facility in San Diego, California, that serves the Southern California region. It is a unit of the Air Traffic Organization (ATO) of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It is the busiest air traffic control facility in the world.[1]
SCT serves the following major Southern California airports (in order of volume, Class B & C), in addition to many surrounding satellite airports.
SCT is broken down into six areas and a Traffic Management Unit:
Each area has five or six individual sectors that are worked by controllers. SoCal TRACON is responsible for the handling of aircraft departing and arriving these airports, generally below 16,000 feet (4,900 m). SCT is responsible for sequencing inbound, separating from crossing and VFR traffic, and departing traffic. Separation is achieved by vectoring traffic and assigning altitudes.[citation needed]