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Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Child Heard On Tape Directing Planes At JFK

(March 3) -- At New York's JFK airport, directing planes is mere child's play. At least, that's what some air traffic controllers must have been thinking when they allegedly allowed a child to give instructions to pilots from the control tower.

A Boston news station uncovered an audio clip of what is clearly a child's voice giving the all-clear to pilots as they take off and land commercial airplanes on some of the country's busiest runways.

"Jet Blue 171, cleared for takeoff!" the child can be heard telling one pilot.

The boy seems to have made at least five transmissions from the control tower. Adults can be heard on the tape as well, laughing with the under-aged air controller in their midst.

A pilot tells the youngster he's doing an "awesome job." From the air control tower, a male voice suggests a snow day may be to blame. "That's what you get, guys, when the kids are out of school," he says, sounding bemused.

GO HERE to read more.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

wonder if he was from brooklyn?

Darth Hurley said...

Is it really so bad, as long as he's not just making stuff up but is simply saying what he is told to say?

Anonymous said...

3:19 are you talking about Obama or the kid?

Anonymous said...

Heard it on TV news this morning. Clearly overblown. I don't think a tower is a good place to have a kid with you, but it's being blown out of proportion.

Anonymous said...

yeah..it's really "so bad"...FAA claims that ground incursions are the most frequent hazard in commercial flying.Seconds matter.

Anonymous said...

wow people cant we get a "ha ha" out of this story....do we always have to be looking to bitch about something? ......find something else to do if all ur gonna do is cry on here.

Anonymous said...

maybe it was bring your child to work day, whatever the case he was just saying what was supposed to be said. Nothing out of the ordinary, stop blowing things out of context.

Anonymous said...

Here is the problem Guys. If you hear the audio tape the child is hard to understand. I would not want to be on a plane with a child in charge.

Anonymous said...

Don't know what you were listening to, the kids were more clear in speech that the pilots in the four transmissions I heard. It was obvious they were told what to say and the directions were for takeoff clearance. It's not like they were putting the planes in holding patterns or directing them to land on runways in severe weather. Get over it.

THE Pilot said...

The controller that let the kid visitor talk on the mike (tower gets visitors ALL THE TIME) is a good guy and was in complete control at all times. There was no deviation, the weather was clear and a million, and there was at no time a loss of separation.

The MSM needs to drop this. This is BS-

Anonymous said...

The job of an air traffic controller is a very serious and high stress job. Having a child make announcements was completely out of line, unprofessional, and dangerous, and I'm sure illegal. Whoever got that bright idea needs to be fired or severely disciplined. Air traffic control is not a laughing matter. This kid could have said the wrong thing and put someone in harm's way. Where is your common sense people?

Anonymous said...

and now the rest of the story....

The pilots KNEW about it! The adult communicated with the pilots about the situation first. They knew what was going on, and were fine with it.

Hence, NO surprise from the pilots when a child cleared them for takeoff.

Totally blown out of proportion & not all the facts were presented by the media.

Anonymous said...

i thought it was cute!! Its not like the kid was running the show by his self