Tucson Citizen Article Story by Nicole Greason, Citizen Business Writer. A Tucson business trains students to be commercial aircraft dispatchers.
Dispatchers help pilots get off to a safe start.
But everyone who's ever been a passenger on a commercial airline has been affected by the decisions of a aircraft dispatcher. Coleman and his business partner, Ed Patterson, opened the academy two years ago to train students in the little-known field of aircraft dispatching. Coleman and Patterson have about 72 years of aircraft dispatching experience between them. The two worked together at Viscount Air Service, a local and now-defunct small airline that specialized in transporting celebrities and sports teams. Working with the captain of a plane, a aircraft dispatcher is responsible for the safety of each flight.