JFK air traffic control tower allowed kids to direct air traffic
 

Just heard the recording on Team1040, it's pretty funny hearing the pilots reaction to it, they were pretty easygoing about it.

Obviously the employees were suspended; I wonder what the passengers would feel if they had known a 10 year old was directing their plane for landing.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35683779/ns/travel-news/

And the recording:

The parent took "Take Your Kids to Work Day" a little too seriously :)

LOL that's exactly what I thought :haha: At least the kid are gonna have something awesome to say the next day.:thumbsup:

Damn I feel bad for the parent and the supervisor that were laid off, even the Pilots seems to be pretty cool with the kid making a few transmissions =/

Crazy I saw it on tv..even the other ppl in the background n pilots are making a joke out of it

I've been up the yvr one..prettty cool workplace I must say.
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after all this is a serious position, i think that employee deserved to be suspended.

I don't think he should be suspended at all. It's not like the kid was saying random things, or screwing anything up. He was saying exactly what he was telling him to say, and I would say PROPS to the dad to actually take his kid to his job and allow him to experience it which probably would've been very cool.

IMO, although there was no danger in terms of directing traffic the fact is that this job is extremely important in terms of raw human lives.

Although this might be an erronious comparision but it is like letting a child drive a bus for a few minutes.

At the very least, it shows a lack of on the job professionalism.

man that kid is so fly.

Parents should be fired/sued . like wtf is that ? guess they never heard about that airbus that was controled by 15yo...dada thought he left it on autopilot ...74 people never landed in Japan that day including idiot pilot and his son. Things like this can get dirty fast , and after all it's wasn't some small airfield in Yukon , f-ing JFK is huge

you wouldn't be saying that if you had a neurosurgeon who brought his teenage kid in and perform surgery under his direct supervision. Yes making precise invasive procedures is not a fair comparsion with radio transimissions, but you get the point.

Too much at stake. Unprofessional.

My friend from the US said the oral surgeon she was shadowing let her perform removing patients teeth, but had to made sure they were unconcious under anesthetia. If he was caught he would lose his license and never be able to practise again.

i think the parent being suspended is reasonable. he may have put the lives of all the people on the planes at a slight risk but at least he kept it controlled. i'd say their punishment was already more than lenient considering what could've happened if the kid started goofing around and mouthing off random orders to the pilots or screwed up on the script he was told to read. imagine how much havoc couldve been caused on the airfield...

wow, this guy is an idiot. ATC requires extreme precision and clarity - one fuck up could mean disaster (ie: if the tower gave the wrong squak code, or falsely cleared a takeoff/landing). Why would ANYTHING think that a child with no training can handle the task? Sure, the dad is giving instructions in the background, but i mean... really?

DAD FAIL
Air Traffic Controller FAIL


On the other hand, the kid got a glimpse of one of the coolest places you can work at an Airport. I've been to the tower at Comox as a cadet and WOW. It's something to behold

I'm sorta split on this.
From what I've read it was most likely that the kid was just sorta patched in. If he said something wrong the dad would be able to correct him right aways.
I think suspension is fair cuz like Jsunu said it shows a lack of professionalism.. If they dont do anything every parent will start bringing their kid to work and that could cause some issues. Its not like they could let this one go and then turn around and suspend the next parent that does it.

What's going on in this world? I remember when a time when flight attendants were young and air flight controllers were old :D:D

Hahahahah, I just realised that on my last flight - where did all the young flight attendants go?! :(

ATC communications are just words, no use comparing it to a neuro sergeon where the utmost precision and skill is required with ones hands. If you can speak and think properly for the job you're good.

The reason he got suspended was for the principle of the matter and the legality issues he caused.

As for the kid being able to create havoc, it was pretty obvious the dad was right there and would have corrected him right away. ATC guys screw up transmissions too ya know.

On a personal level does the dad deserve to be suspended? No. Moreover, it is simply due to the fact that what he did was illegal and the principal of the matter is that what he did was wrong.

If I was calling ground or tower and heard that, and got "proper" info, i'd be pretty stoked for the kid.

After hearing it, I don't see too much wrong here. Sure, he's a moron for doing it but does he deserve to get fired? No. The kid is saying the correct shit. Not like he's yelling DEEERRRRPP DERP DERP DERP.

somebody is gona get fired

so it'll be ok if the pilot took his kid to work on a flight you are on?

Yeh sure why not? If the dad is not drunk the kid could sit on daddy's lap all he wants and pretend fly. And again, comparing flying and the controller is just not the same because daddy just clicks a button and says words, and not manovering an airplane. That is not to say that his job isn't important, I just feel that he created a "controlled enough enviroment"

Best response in this thread. :thumbsup:

Thanks man:thumbsup:

Didn't they used to do that in the days before 9/11? I remember seeing tons of pics of kids in the cockpit with the captain.

Back on the topic of the OP I guess they need to set a precedent here. While we all know that the kid wasn't actually directing the traffic himself (as in what he was saying was scripted by his dad or mom) so there's no actual danger here, they don't want another scenario where someone's kid does come in and screws something up by accident. I don't think there's really any big legal issue (as in it's illegal to bring your kid into work) - it's probably more of a liability thing. I'm sure they're insured for any "accidents" they might cause. If it's the kid that's giving the directions, they may not have any coverage in this case and puts them in a bad position.

Hopefully they were only suspended and not fired. It was an error in judgement by the parent and I'm sure they won't do it again. I'm thinking everyone involved got a nice little chuckle out of it and perhaps even put a smile on a few people's faces.

The only thing done wrong here was letting the media get wind of it.

The issue here is OPTICS. Most people have no fucking clue how it really works and what is going on there, so of course they think the worst. I've been flying for 15 years (commercial/multi/ifr/etc) and have many friends in the airlines and atc. The exchanges took place during non-critical phases of flight. There was never any danger of anything going wrong. Fear and Ignorance trump common sense and reason.

Again, the issue is optics and perception. 9/11 has turned aviation into a prision, everything is ridiculously strict these days. What is perfectly safe and would have been normal 20 years ago, is now dangerous and unprofessional, simply because of a few completely unrelated tragedies.