Child Directs Air Traffic At JFK

[crokett]

Linky-Doo:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_483559.html

Audio is at the end of the article. No, this is not a stunt.

[natausch]

I wonder if there's an operation to give America back our sense of humor.

[Shep]

I would hire the kid. Sounds like he know's what he's doing.

[Uncle Cracker]

I'm certain there was no malicious intent, but a control tower is no place for any kind of shenanigans. This can absolutely not be condoned.

[cabinetman]

Probably the son of a now out of work ATC.
.

[LCHIEN]

just saw that on the evening news. they said the ATC and his supervisor were suspended.

Sounded like the kid did an OK job he took it seriously and enunciated clearly what he was obviously told to say - just made four short insturctions on the radio over a span of 2 minutes - It was not a steady chatter, the pilot acknowledged the command by repeating it, and there was clearly a chance for the dad to correct it if he said something wrong. i think it was good for the kid and good for the father and those kinds of things are good for their future and our future when he might grow up and be in holding a job of responsibility.

I just don't know how to balance that against the pretty remote possibility of something bad happening. Hard thing to call.

[BobSch]

Even the controller's union said this was a bad idea!

[Uncle Cracker]

i think it was good for the kid and good for the father and those kinds of things are good for their future and our future when he might grow up and be in holding a job of responsibility.

I don't know if teaching the kid to ignore the rules is good for him or us at all... There clearly must be a place to draw the line, and they're on the wrong side of it. I would suspect that all control towers are now high-security areas, particularly in New York, so how do we justify somebody just taking their kids in there, much less putting them on the radio? Or maybe you want your surgeon's kids helping with your next procedure? No way this was a smart idea, so it wasn't a good idea, either.

[Cubsfan]

I'm a bit shocked at the 'outrage' over this. People are acting like the kid was doing it all by himself. He was simply saying the exact things his dad told him to say, and did a pretty good job. If there was a problem, there were trained people right there (he probably was sitting on his father's lap). And I'd wager to say that this was probably done at a relatively short time.

The fact that everyone is upset about this makes me very sad for our country.

[crokett]

I'm shocked that anyone would condone this. It isn't that the kid was there giving instructions to planes. I agree the danger there was minimal. It is that the judgement of the persons involved who thought this was a good idea was, at best, questionable.

I have a question, if you were a passenger on one of those planes that he directed, and you knew the pilots were following the instructions of a child, would you feel comfortable with either the child or whoever the ATC crew was in the tower?

[jussi]

I guess he had a different interpretation of bring your kid to work day. Didn't they used (or maybe they still do) let kids go into the cockpit during a flight. That seemed much worse.

The kid's father was right there so I doubt anything serious would have happened but just from a liability point of view it was pretty dumb of him to do so. What if an accident would have happened totally unrelated to the kid. I'm sure the father would have still been blamed. Again I don't think it was all that dangerous, but I wouldn't have taken the liability risk.

[Woodwerker]

I'm a bit shocked at the 'outrage' over this. People are acting like the kid was doing it all by himself. He was simply saying the exact things his dad told him to say, and did a pretty good job. If there was a problem, there were trained people right there (he probably was sitting on his father's lap). And I'd wager to say that this was probably done at a relatively short time.

The fact that everyone is upset about this makes me very sad for our country.

You know what we lost in this country? We lost our sense of tollerance for others ideas or thoughts. Even on this site (no offense great site) when is the last time you read someone say "I see your point, that makes some sense"? Never, today it's I will type what I think and wont even think about what others may think. Sorry for the rant but it fit well here

[cgallery]

Not too concerned about an isolated incident.

I sure wouldn't want it to become commonplace.

I'd give every adult involved a dope slap and put them back to work.

Perhaps the FAA could figure out a way where ATC's could have "bring your son [or daughter] to work" days, where the kids could see what their parent does as a career, even try it themselves, while taking steps to minimize risks.

[cwsmith]

I certainly don't condone it, but I think that way too much is being made of it. The kid was't "controlling" or doing anything in the way of "managing" air or ground traffic. It appeared that the little guy was just the voice, the traffic was on the ground and sitting, and the father, as well as the rest of the tower was in control. None of the answerng pilots appeared to be alarmed or even questioning in their response.

But obviously an air traffic control tower is no place to put your kid on the air.

CWS

[Black wallnut]

I simply think folks are getting way too carried away about this. I say no harm leave it be and even perhaps encourage the same in the future! Repeating the exact words he was told is not much different than all of the electronics on board that keep the thing in the air. It is not like he was looking at a screen and making the decision about which plane should do what. There simply is not enough information in the news story to know the important details such as how old etc. I also think the suspension is real knee jerk.