FAA Investigates Child Directing Planes at Airport

[anamaniac]

[citation][nom]maigo[/nom]No one can have fun at all anymore[/citation]
I know.
So I merely want to participate (or instigate) an amusing event at work, and they threaten to fire me! Last time I try to bring a smile to someone's face (if only my own).

If I was the supervisor, I'd laugh and tell them to never do it again.

 

[belardo]

While its good to take kids to work, it does depend on the job or what they have access too. Such as an observation deck, or a type that is not life threating. There are lots of jobs that are good for kids to check out. Some that are not: Torture expert, prison guard, septic tank cleaner, daughter to full stripper club, bomb expert, hostage negotiator and anything to do with the FOX network.

Yeah, I was going to post about the Aeroflot flight.

Now... if this happened at a small airport, where you don't have Jetliner passenger planes, this would be pretty much non issue. But this happened at a big air port, and not just ANY airport - JFK?! The perhaps the most complex messy busy airport in the world?!

Common sense was out the window.

 

[sceen311]

That's an Epic Memory for the Kid though, Directing a plane for takeoff would likely leave an impression.

 

[Guest]

Comparing this to Aeroflot Flight 593 is kind of ridiculous--they're totally different situations. As other commentators have said here and on the linked article, this was done in a very safe and controlled way. What I find most interesting is that none of the pilots were bothered, in fact, they seemed to approve. If anyone is going to have a problem, it should have been the pilots.

While this is not the same situation, are you guys aware that there is no age limit to fly private aircraft? While you have to be sixteen to get a license, you can start training at any age. At ten years old I was flying. The only help I needed from the instructor was controlling the foot pedals because I couldn't reach them. I could use the radio, take off, fly, and land. Have you ever heard of a child crashing a Cessna into a passenger jet? Thats because the instructor can take control at anytime. Just as the dad could in the story above.

 

[r3t4rd]

Why are you guys all complaining about this measley incident? Like others have stated, this would have been a non-factor 20-50 yrs ago. And always leave it up to the news outlets to make a big fuss about nothing. News Outlets such as MSNBC, CBS, CNN, etc are all just in it for the $$$ - not to mention thier political bias-ness.

In my opinion, people and the news outlets should be all up in arms about what our kid president Obama is doing vs this air traffic kid. When you look at it this kid and the No-Bama have pretty much the same experience, difference is, this kid made decisions that were in a conrolled environment and will not impact millions of people. On the other hand, No-Bama makes decisions that affect every person in the US. At least No-Bama made one good decision - Nuclear Power.

 

[Pailin]

The New World Nazi SS eherm - Media Police State...

...inform on family, neighbours, work colleagues and strangers! Fantastic cash prizes available for your stories! We will even print your story for the "caring" world to see. Help us stamp out these dangerous free thinking free spirited radicals who endanger us all!!

Remember:
Others excessive freedoms can lead to "your" downfall.

Work hard, buy more than you need, live by the rules. It will lead to a happy life.

 

[elbert]

Sounds to me like the FAA is at fault for not having a daycare. People have children and must take care of them.

 

[kyzar]

Having heard the tapes and how happy everyone is to be directed by a kid that sounds about 10 - it's pretty scary that no-one thought this was an UTTERLY STUPID thing to do...

 

[ssddx]

to all the people that think this is serious...

If the kid was acting under supervision, and with the father confirming the decision, where is the issue? The only thing I would have done is to ask the higher ups for clearance, confirming that it would be supervised.

The only reason this became an issue is because they are afraid of repercussions from people like kyzar, pooflinger1 and the like. Also, I agree, 50 years ago this would be a non-issue. People nowdays have nothing better to do than be a worry-wort and to complain about events that have absolutely no impact on them.

 

[nebun]

this is bull crap, do you really think that the kid was not supervised by his father while he was making these calls? the calls were correct and on point. like i said, it's bull, leave the parent and the supervisors alone and worry about things that really matter to our country.

 

[jojesa]

Look at the bright side: Flight control is so easy a seven-year child can do it.

 

[kyzar]

[citation][nom]ssddx[/nom]to all the people that think this is serious...If the kid was acting under supervision, and with the father confirming the decision, where is the issue? The only thing I would have done is to ask the higher ups for clearance, confirming that it would be supervised.The only reason this became an issue is because they are afraid of repercussions from people like kyzar, pooflinger1 and the like. Also, I agree, 50 years ago this would be a non-issue. People nowdays have nothing better to do than be a worry-wort and to complain about events that have absolutely no impact on them.[/citation]

Well I'm sorry, but if the announcement came over the tannoy on a flight I was on that my flight was being directed by a 10 year old, supervised or not I'd be pretty stressed. Say there was an emergency - the seconds it took to remove the child and get back to the proper operator might make all the difference.

As a kid, I once spent 40 minutes on the flight deck of a 747 mid-flight. I stood in the corner trying to be as inconspicuous as possible and gaped at everything and it was great fun - terrorism stops that these days of course. Had I been sat in one of the pilots seats, been given the controls and told to press that button or this one, that would have been wrong.

 

[conanstwin]

This is what inspires the Take Our Daughters and Sons to work day. There was no foul and a child experienced a valuable part of the real world with a parent. I hope that there is an encore appearance on April 22nd.

 

[r3t4rd]

[citation][nom]conanstwin[/nom]This is what inspires the Take Our Daughters and Sons to work day. There was no foul and a child experienced a valuable part of the real world with a parent. I hope that there is an encore appearance on April 22nd.[/citation]
Exactly!
[citation][nom]kyzar[/nom]Well I'm sorry, but if the announcement came over the tannoy on a flight I was on that my flight was being directed by a 10 year old, supervised or not I'd be pretty stressed. Say there was an emergency - the seconds it took to remove the child and get back to the proper operator might make all the difference.As a kid, I once spent 40 minutes on the flight deck of a 747 mid-flight. I stood in the corner trying to be as inconspicuous as possible and gaped at everything and it was great fun - terrorism stops that these days of course. Had I been sat in one of the pilots seats, been given the controls and told to press that button or this one, that would have been wrong.[/citation]
Ur completely off. *Rolls eyes* His/Her Dad would have stepped in and taken control if there was a real emergency. Its people fearmongering like you that makes things complicated for the rest of us people who just want to enjoy life.

Again, this is not even a big deal. Its the press that made it a big deal (like all other things). The real issue should be, how our tax money is used for other more important issues at hand and how our chidl equivilent President makes decisions that will affect us. What a waste of tax money to investigate this.

 

[slaphappy]

I havent seen this mentioned yet, but to anyone worried about emergencies and such, this kid was only directing ground control traffic. An entirely different group of people take over once you are in the air, so it's not like this kid was going to cause a collision or anything. Plus, pilots are very well familiar with the song and dance of taxing and takeoff, and all of these radio commands are really just procedure. There's hardly anything of value or danger the kid said at all.

 

[datawrecker]

This is just a bad situation for all parties involved.

1. Even though the father supervised the child he should have known this would have been looked down upon.

2. The Tower Supervisor should not allowed this to happen. Even with his supervison any number of things could go wrong and that would leave him accountable.

3. The investigation has become too public, now the child will be under the impression that it is his fault that his father will be disciplined or fired. Awesome job FAA...lets scar a kid for life because he actually got to do something nearly every boy his age would love to do.

The Federal Aviation Administration...not really giving a shit about your family since day one.

 

[Ryric]

Most awake those air traffic controllers were all day...

 

[thusske]

I love the people who compare this to the Russian crash of Aeroflot flight 593 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroflot_Flight_593 ). The kid is going to crash the plane from the control tower while it is sitting on the tarmac waiting to takeoff. Come on people, I would bet that the controller was being more cautious and careful than he would be if he was doing the departures by himself. This is a matter of nothing better to report in the news and looking for something to blow out of proportion.
adios amigos... still makes me chuckle a little bit.

 

[duzcizgi]

[citation][nom]kyzar[/nom]Well I'm sorry, but if the announcement came over the tannoy on a flight I was on that my flight was being directed by a 10 year old, supervised or not I'd be pretty stressed. Say there was an emergency - the seconds it took to remove the child and get back to the proper operator might make all the difference.As a kid, I once spent 40 minutes on the flight deck of a 747 mid-flight. I stood in the corner trying to be as inconspicuous as possible and gaped at everything and it was great fun - terrorism stops that these days of course. Had I been sat in one of the pilots seats, been given the controls and told to press that button or this one, that would have been wrong.[/citation]

Well, kyzar, in fact ATC isn't run by a single person and that child was occupying only one seat among at least 10, (In an airport with the size of JFK, there should be at least 20 personelle there working on duty, directing planes in air and on land.)

When there's an emergency situation, it doesn't come from a resticted band that's already actively used between the tower and plane, but from the general emergency band, that would scream in the ATC room, not to the headphone of a single ATC personelle.

So, when such an emergency call comes, any one of those 10+ personelle who's free at that time switch to that plane in trouble and with the coordination of the other personelle in the room, take that bird down safely.

So, while you might feel like insecure by having a child you are as secure as you could have been while there's no child there!

 

[Pailin]

Aeroflot flight 593 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroflot_Flight_593 ) is a poor example to give.

The plane had poor safety features and pilots not trained to fly it correctly (typical of Aeroflot's safety records) - The kid, seated at controls, moving the control column disabled the auto pilot with no audio warnings - was a light though.

The pilots were used to an additional audio warning from other planes.

They didn't notice till too late.


A tragedy, but they simply were not sufficiently trained to fly that aircraft - in their understanding of its instrumentation.