Veronica McMahon
Veronica is the niece of Thomas Roberts & sister of Mark Mackenzie-Smith. She is a retired Air Traffic Controller and Aviation Environmental Consultant.
Veronica's Story
Veronica gained her Private Pilot's Licence whilst training as an Air Traffic Controller with NATS at the Air Traffic college in Bournemouth.
Her first post was at Prestwick, where the centre is involved in controlling the North Atlantic Traffic and Domestic flights for Scotland. This included a close working relationship with Military Controllers over the North Sea and special helicopter operations out to the oil rigs.
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Her next post was at the Air Traffic Control Centre in West Drayton controlling flights in and out of London.
​​As concerns about air and noise pollution became more acute within the aviation industry, Veronica left NATS and joined a small team at Eurocontrol who were brought together to address these environmental issues.
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The team consisted of airline pilots, ex-military pilots, air traffic controllers, Boeing engineers, Airbus engineers and Aviation Map specialists. Extra specialists were brought in to give advice on particular aviation environmental issues, even down to the paint to use on aircraft.
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The team travelled to all of the European Aviation Authorities, Air Traffic Control Centres and many Airlines to share new techniques e.g. routing to mitigate noise and air pollution and specific ways of flying on approach to an airfield which could save fuel.
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Many of these techniques are now measured and built into the aviation system as a way for airlines and airports to report their environmental savings and culture.
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