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Child directs airplanes from JFK air traffic control tower - FAA not amused
Bring your child to work day usually involves showing the little ones how your office looks, and letting them play with the water cooler. At New York JFK Airport, someone took things a little too far by letting a child issue commands to aircraft. In the video above, you can clearly hear the kid, with someone in the background telling him what to say.
Thankfully, the pilots all seem to find it rather funny, and I assume it brightened up their otherwise boring day. Sadly, the FAA doesn't share their sense of humor, as a full investigation is underway to determine who did what, and why. The FAA had this to say:
" Pending the outcome of our investigation, the employees involved in this incident are not controlling air traffic. This behavior is not acceptable and does not demonstrate the kind of professionalism expected from all FAA employees."
Even though rules were broken, I doubt airplanes were in any kind of danger during the short burst of entertainment from the tower.
Filed under: North America, United States, Airlines, Airports
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Benson Mar 3rd 2010 11:58AM
It's not funny or light-hearted. Air traffic controllers aren't moving toy planes across a toy airport. There are people in those planes. People who would like to get home alive and safe today, myself included.
Chris Taylor Mar 3rd 2010 1:22PM
The kid wasn't issuing radar vectors, he was handing off the aircraft from JFK Tower's airspace to New York Departure's airspace as they climbed out on a pre-planned standard instrument departure (SID). Assuming your pilot still remembers how to change VHF frequencies on his/her own, there's not much danger.
Creditable job, but the kid should have included the name and frequency of the next facility, i.e. "JetBlue 171, contact New York Departure on one-three-five decimal niner."
Nicholas Mar 6th 2010 8:01PM
Actually the departure frequency would be on his SID (standard instrument departure) and or in his initial clearance. Tower doesn't have to give the frequency. So the only fault was not identifying the one aircraft by his call-sign but it is pretty obvious when you it's your turn to switch over.
K Mar 3rd 2010 2:33PM
The kid did a great job , but the father should have not let the child talk over the air. I don’t feel the father should be fired for it.
Phil Mar 3rd 2010 3:48PM
I'm an airline pilot who frequents the NYC area and many of the other busy parts of the country. I see nothing at all wrong with this for one simple fact - controllers at the major airports like JFK are the best in the business and know when things are too busy for a little fun. Having worked with ATC on the receiving end, I have utmost faith that this guy letting his kid "work" the radio for a couple of minutes was 100% safe and didn't put anyone in any jeopardy. Due to public perception, I understand the FAA has to investigate, but I hope the controllers and supervisors involved get off scott-free. No doubt that brought smiles to many faces around the JFK airport that day - something this business is too often without.
SkipperT6 Mar 3rd 2010 4:07PM
I love Babbitt's comment that this doesn't represent the quality of our work: that would be why there's an FAA maintenance inspector in the Southern region that thinks a 1954 Harvard Mk IV has a jet engine on it; maybe his kid knows better.
The FAA is SO worried about safety, what could have happened here... but yet NOTHING has been done for how many decades on crew fatigue and duty time? It took how many years to get the Whitlow interpretation that at least gets us, kinda, 8 hours rest in any 24 (assuming the hotel van is running, since "travel of a local nature" doesn't count as duty).
What happend to Colgan's POI, the one that blew the whistle and was relieved of his position, before the BUF accident?
Ken Apr 12th 2010 5:59PM
Just you wait. The kid will be given media praise for doing such a "good job," and the whole thing will be a sensational circus, like the balloon boy of last year, or the boy who floated into Florida from Cuba 10 years ago.
nerd1337 Mar 4th 2010 12:12AM
I think the FAA has to relax a bit. Okay, so he broke rules - write him up and be done with it. Apparently, no one else involved thus far thought it was an endangerment. Only the FAA, which quite frankly are hypocritical to say the least, have reason to be that nervous about a child relaying air traffic with an adult right there. If the pilot's didn't get it, they would asked to repeat. How can people that uptight sleep at night? Lighten up.
Anyone's worry that they won't get home alive is a little overboard. Paranoid, even. I thought it was amusing and if 9/11 never happened, everyone would be laughing at how "cute that was".
I'm not saying there shouldn't be some sort of reprimand, but for the FAA to be that uptight is completely unnecessary. I'd be much more worried about the things the FAA misses and messes up that causes deaths, not a supervised child. The FAA needs to tend to matters so many times more important than this event, it boggles the mind that they're looking to fire/demote anyone involved.
Dan @ Airships.net Mar 4th 2010 8:03AM
Some controller’s kid, for a few days, got to think his dad was the best guy in the world.
And a few pilots got to remember the cute kids waiting for them back home.
And then the FAA has to go and ruin it all.
What jerks.
Chris Taylor Mar 6th 2010 9:21PM
@Nicholas: Tower has to do whatever the LOA between JFK TWR and NY TRACON requires it to do. The frequencies *are* on the approach plates, but good radio discpline involves identifying the next facility and their frequency. The exact requirements, though, are guided by letters of agreement hammered out by the facilities themselves.