Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Child's Play at JFK

A kid play-acted at being an air-traffic controller at one of the U.S.'s busiest airports--for real. Authorities are investigating:
(CBS) The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating how a child was allowed to direct air traffic at the nation's sixth-busiest airport - New York's JFK International.
As CBS News Correspondent Kelly Wallace reports, the Feb. 17 incident involved a child on the radio to pilots of planes awaiting takeoff. The boy was allowed to make at least five transmissions to commercial jets.

In tapes obtained by CBS News, the boy is clearly heard:

Boy: AMX 403, Contact departures. Adios.

Pilot: Contact departures. Aeromexico 403. Adios.

An adult -- reportedly a controller -- made sure the pilots were in on the joke, Wallace says.

"That's what you get guys when the kids are out of school!" the adult says on the tapes.

Another transmission from the tape:

Boy: Jet Blue 171 cleared for takeoff.

Pilot: Cleared for takeoff. Jet blue 171.

Boy: Jet Blue 171 -- contact departures.

Pilot: Over to departures. Jet blue 171. Awesome job. (chuckle)
Yeah, what a hoot! Who's in charge of airport safety these days? Big Bird?

1 comment:

Michele said...

I'm a bit scared to think about a surgeon and "take your kid to work" day.