Squeaker directing air traffic at JFK

[DREDger]

Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing, once all the other options have been exhausted.--Winston Churchill

[Golfer]

What I can say is this...kids are a distraction...in a place of ATC with the amount of traffic that goes through JFK what if the kid fell off a chair and broke his arm? You dont think daddy is going to stop looking at the green tube to help his boy? The kid will most likely be screaming his lungs out from the fall and broken arm...it would be nearly impossible for the other ATControllers to do their job efficently.  For that few minutes hes not looking what if something happened to an airliner? Hundreds dead...how do you explain that?

This time it was all fun and games and it was a break from the rigorious routine of the same thing everyday I get that....ive logged close to 1000 hours of flight time and the same thing over and over again sucks sometimes...but like I said...this time it was fine and nothing happened...but you never know what might happen.

You should have the knowledge to not make statements like this.

Go visit a tower cab because if you think there are green screens and radar positions where the local controllers work (Ground/Tower positions) you have not only misconceptions of what ATC does but what also they are capable of doing for you.

You'll most likely find a BRITE, a light gun, a few radios, phones, binoculars and swivel chairs.  There will be a light board or screen controls for all the airport lights, navaid and approach equipment.  You'll also find regular Joes who are very good at what they do and know what is and isn't safe.  Kennedy is a little more sophisticated with an ASDE for ground controllers.  You see this at airports where the ATIS advertises you to keep your transponder on while on runway/taxiways.

If your idea is what you eluded to you are doing yourself a disservice by not taking a visit to a TRACON and Local ATC facility.

As for the rest of your ideas of how things could go awry with a kid in the cab I think your misconceptions of what ATC does contributes to what you see as a grave danger when such a danger does not exist.

This is from a fairly busy tower cab and is a participant in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program.  If you think a controller would put airplanes and those on them in danger then I don't know what to make of that.  That is not the case and I think you can see the excitement in this kids eyes that he has a chance to be there.

[Casca]

Golfer is right.  This is no big deal.

[Wolfala]

20 or 30 years ago, this would have been lauded as an inspiring moment for a child to participate in. What a great memory for a child to carry into adulthood, and possibly an inspiration for her future! The flying community at large (and us wannabe's) understand. What a sad, morose time we live in today...

[Raptor]

This is ridiculous. I listened to the youtube video.... and the kid did nothing to distract the pilots in any way, Everything was audible and understandable. You hear the ATC guys giving the vital instructions then the kid says go.

At the bottom of the Fox Article:

The episode comes less than seven months after a controller at an airport in nearby Teterboro, N.J., was placed on leave for his actions in the moments leading up to a deadly crash between a helicopter and small plane over the Hudson River.

Gotta leave it to Fox News to take a story about family values and turning it into fear mongering.

[Ruler2]

Golfer, can I be that kid please?
I really hope that Fox making a big whoop out of this dosen't ruin my chances of that... I have always wanted to check out an ATC tower for a day or so.  It's not ok for a kid to say "ok, you can go now" to an airplane, yet it is ok for a kid to drive a car... from what I've seen of other kids driving their teacher coulda been Bin Laden's suicide division!

[Denholm]

The media knows it's not a big deal. They're simply blowing it out of proportion for ratings.

Same as a coffee shops add glaze to their donuts, the media adds lies and irrelevant information to their stories. Why? It makes the story more "attractive."

[Mar]

(T|O) Awards this situation 10,895 KRUSTYs.

[ShyGuy12]

I cant believe the FAA disciplined the controller at JFK for bringing his kid to work. Totally innocent, the kid was doing what he was supposed to be doing because his dad was giving him directions, and the FAA claims to say "This behavior is not acceptable and does not demonstrate the kind of professionalism expected... from all FAA employees". Completely unfair and strict.   

[ebfd11]

Ok I have read all the posts and I only find 1 thing offensive and incorrect...



The title says "Squeaker".... LOL to me that didn't saound as bad as some people flying in AH... So is the title wrong???

[Plawranc]

Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing, once all the other options have been exhausted.--Winston Churchill

The only reason I am not putting that in my sig is that the amount of flame and skuzzification I will get is not worth it. But its close

 

[Bodhi]

Don't get your panties in a bunch over this one.  The kid had a show day, dad had to drag him to work and he like a lot of children at one point under careful scrutiny get to talk on the radio from time to time.  The pilots liked it, the kid used near perfect phraseology and in the good old days was something that happened more frequently than today.

Today everyone has their bellybutton wound so tightly that the controller and supervisor have been relieved of their duties over something the media knows nothing about.  It's not just BS it's the highest order of sweet BS that would cause me to roll into a political/media rant that is best not done on this board.

Well said.

[texasmom]

It's all fun & games with a kid on local until someone pokes their eye out with the landing gear.  I'm not a fan of being cavalier with the safety of others.

[Flipperk]

Its not the fact that this kid did nothing wrong, its what else has been happening if this kid was allowed to talk on the radio, what other kids have been able to talk across the nation...some probably not with departure, but with approach.

With hundreds of thousands of civilans in the air, this is a breach in security.. it does NOT matter whether he had better communication skills than some other ATC or his dad was behind him telling him what to say...that is not the point! The point is if this has happened once how many other times has it happened..maybe not with a 6 year old but older kids as well? Teenagers?

I have came in on approach many times in crowded airspaces around the houston area...im sure as hell glad the ATC told me how close I was to other aircraft, cause there have been many times where I would not have seen some of the smaller aircraft if it was not for the ATC. If I heard a kid on the radio around here in Houston ill find another airport to land at...I will NOT risk my life or other fellow airmen at the expense of a tower turned into a daddy day care.

You could probably put this in the same category as putting a kid as a dispatcher for the police department...




If this incident turned out badly you all would be singing a totally different tune

[Cougar68]

Flipperk, the kid wasn't doing anything at all involving separation of aircraft.  Saying "takeoff" can't go wrong and cause someone to die.  It just doesn't work that way!  Now if the kid was working approach and giving headings/vectors to final then it's a different story.  I can 100% promise you that this country has nothing to fear from prepubescent children taking over the world of ATC. 

Now if you're on approach in conditions where you're able to see and avoid other aircraft and are suprised that an airplane slipped by your scan until ATC told you about it then maybe you need to take a harder look at your scan.  Not keeping up an effective scan for traffic in clear conditions is a much greater danger than a ten year old boy saying "cleared for takeoff."  I will happily have that ten year old tell me to take off under a watchful eye at my airport any day of the week.