Thread: JFK tower allowed a kid to direct air traffic

This was a very intresting read.

I understand where the FAA is coming from but man they need to relax the kid was under adults supervision.

Man what happened to the good old day's when you could ride your dirtbike into town cops wouldn't say anything. Now you can't cross the street without getting a jaywalking ticket. LoL

NEW YORK - A child apparently directed pilots last month from the air traffic control center at John F. Kennedy Airport, one of the nation's busiest airports, according to audio clips. The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday that it was investigating.

"Pending the outcome of our investigation, the employees involved in this incident are not controlling air traffic," the FAA said in a statement. "This behavior is not acceptable and does not demonstrate the kind of professionalism expected from all FAA employees." The agency declined to comment beyond the statement.

Recordings from mid-February — during a weeklong winter break for many New York schoolchildren — were posted last month on a Web site for air traffic control-listening aficionados.

The child can be heard on the tape making five transmissions to pilots preparing for takeoff.

In one exchange, the child can be heard saying, "JetBlue 171 contact departure." The pilot responds: "Over to departure JetBlue 171, awesome job."

The child appears to be under an adult's supervision, because a male voice then comes on and says with a laugh, "That's what you get, guys, when the kids are out of school."

In another exchange, the youngster clears another plane for takeoff, and says, "Adios, amigo." The pilot responds in kind.

The FAA said the control tower is a highly secure area for air traffic controllers, supervisory staff and airport employees with a need to be there. FAA spokesman Jim Peters said children of the tower's employees are allowed to visit but would need to get approval from the FAA first.

The union representing air traffic controllers condemned the workers' behavior.

"It is not indicative of the highest professional standards that controllers set for themselves and exceed each and everyday in the advancement of aviation safety," the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said in a statement.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35683779/?GT1=43001

Respectfully,
=PHX=h7g6f5

Father seemed to have taught the kid well from listening to him. Job shadow day, come on, the pilots weren't concerned. My father was a truck driver and at ages less than 5 I was in his lap steering. Sounds to me like the kid really looked up to the dad, no harm in letting him say a couple lines. No worse than some of the stuff adults say/do on the fire radio....

Haha kid's got balls
"Adios amigo" haaha

We (engineers for a system that air traffic controllers use) were cracking up when this happened.

"Get on CNN" is a phrase we use for "fucking up incredibly." To have air traffic controllers get on CNN by screwing around is fantastic.

These are the guys who file forms for 45 days off on medical leave if the system "tones" them (makes a loud noise in their ear)... through headsets designed such that they can't go to levels that will damage human hearing. They still complain about it distracting them, even if it's a normal, non-feedback/squeal tone from some dumbass tech forgetting to close out a frequency before doing a test. As if a kid running around or sitting on someone's lap won't potentially distract someone.

A controller was KNITTING while supposedly watching air traffic one day and almost had a coworker escorted out of the facility because he had to step over her long trail of yarn. This was before I joined, so it's second hand. Three planes in the air and they'll want to stop any work on any system until they're comfortable that traffic levels are low enough that the distractions won't effect safety. And a kid running around is fine?!

This kind of crap is in the en route environment, where planes are usually many miles part and have plenty of room to maneuver. The incident in the paper was in terminal, where many planes are actively taking off or landing with multiple runways in use at any given time and any mishap involves tons of coordination (i.e. unscheduled deviations are made in the presence of many other landing/departing planes controlled by other people).

It's even better that this wasn't at a "low traffic time period" but in the evening before traffic levels have started to bottom out. Babysitting/playing with your kid while controller air traffic impacts situational awareness (necessary in the case of a split second decision needed due to emergency conditions, which might just happen in the TERMINAL environment at one of the busiest airports in the USA) and focus on the job. It should not be allowed and you saw that NATCA, the controllers union who had recently won a considerable victory with the negotiated settlement between FAA management and air traffic controllers, "condemned the worker's behavior.

"It is not indicative of the highest professional standards that controllers set for themselves and exceed each and everyday in the advancement of aviation safety," the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said in a statement." They don't just roll over for nothing but they didn't stick their necks out at all for this dumbass.

Comments sections on forums with this article are generally favorable towards the controller but considering that momentary lack of controller focus has led to deaths in the past, trust me, it's a bad thing to babysit/let Johnny play on the radio. Controllers have very high stress levels and burnout rates because they can't make mistakes. Making an operational error (like letting two planes get too close) that results in zero damage/fatalities/delays can still get you fired. Distracting a coworker could cost someone their job or cost him his job. Let alone if the little guy shouts something when someone listening to aircraft audio... the controller could miss a critical word, or heaven forbid even suffer hearing damage and file a CA-1! Lord knows they've pulled that stunt often enough with things that couldn't possibly damage their hearing.

Also, if I brought a kid with me to do the most minor possible modification on a subsystem that had almost no chance of even being used by controllers, they would go completely apeshit, let alone if I brought him on the control floor.

Ahhhh, this was a great news day.

I dont see the big deal if the kid was just parroting lines his dad was feeding him. It isnt like he was calling shots and dealing with crises.

I also understand the sensitivity of the environment, traveling as much as I do for business...I can see the humor, but the delicacy of the situation as well...

at the end of the day, it was wrong...but funny...but wrong...and funny.