TERROR AT SEA LEVEL! YOUNG CHILD ENDANGERS US ALL!!

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

By now, many of us have probably heard of the air traffic controller at JFK airport who let his son give instructions to planes waiting for take off.

Watch on YouTube

Now I know that I am supposed to be outraged, but my FIRST response as the father of a 3 year old girl and a 9 month old son is more like this:

"D'awwww...da widdle boy wants to be a AIR TWAFFIC CONTWOLLER! He so CA-YUTE!!! Who's da widdle air twaffic contwoller? Who's da widdle air twaffic contwoller??"

My second reaction is to note how completely nonplussed the pilots sounded and to wonder if this happens every now and then.

Now if I get to a third reaction, I am sure that there will be some clucking of the teeth and protestations that our nation's air traffic system is just too goshed darned important for such tom-foolery.

Or maybe not -- I'm not exactly sure how to label it, but at some point, I think we need to learn to let go of our collective outrage over lapses in judgement that, honestly, don't amount to all that much. Does a 5 year old at a control tower mike, saying exactly what his father tells him to say with tha father ready to immediately say the right instructions if the kids messes it up need to become a national scandal with top level investigations? Does the pubic REALLY demand this level of official and media response to breach of conduct that probably warranted a verbal reprimand? Is it solely because we are, more than 8 years later, still so hypersensitive to air safety that we are ready to flip a nutty over the slightest incident?

Or should we just collectively unclench our national sphincter and smile at a daddy letting his kid have a little workplace fun?

Comments

[indalay.livejournal.com]

I think it's called, let's report about something insignificant and stupid (does anybody really believe that the kid was "in charge"?), so those brain dead short attention span masses will forget about the economy and health care.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

Kind of reminds me of the "local interest" mini-cam crew stories we used to get from local news stations back in the 80s. Roaming "news" crews getting "stories" of fluff to pad out the time until the sports.

Only this is on every major network and the FAA administrator is pounding his desk in rage.

Sheesh.

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

Hey, anything that takes the pressure off the ATC guys. My grandfather was an ATC operator, and they used to require things like maximum days worked per year and maximum weeks worked consecutively. Note that these were not union demands - they were forced to take most of this without pay - but requirements by the government to ensure that ATC operators didn't go crazy or die of heart attacks from keeping track of everything going on in crowded airspace with the lives of hundreds of people routinely passing through their hands.

So I'm on the "unclench the national sphincter."

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

I remember a NY Times magazine article on the guys who work the TRACONs -- including the story of a controller who ust wigged out one day and stripped naked and lay sobbing on the floor. Orders of magnitude worse than tower controllers.

I didn't fly happily for a few years after that.

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

Well, my grandfather wasn't a tower ATC. He worked at the FAA Air Route Traffic Control Center in New Hampshire.

Still we all know how stressful being in the tower at an airport can be. "Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue."

[korean-guy-01.livejournal.com]

Admittedly I don't know the rules about having your kids in an ATC tower, but at some point I would think a 5 year old would be a distraction.

It's Obama's fault!

[drcruel.livejournal.com]

Srsly, who cares? It's not like the dad went on coffee break, or that the kid was directing airplanes to fly into the ocean, not that the pilots would have followed those instructions anyway.

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

We must have our daily dose of OUTRAGE!

[tridus.livejournal.com]

Most likely the vast majority of people don't give a damn. But you get a few people using mock outrage for some reason or another, and the media dutifully turns it into a big scandal.

[eracerhead.livejournal.com]

I guess they think the father was out on a coffee break.

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

As a daddy of a 2 year old girl and a 2 month old son I'll just say:

D'awww..... da widdle boy so ca-yute! Who's da widdle air twaffic contwoller?

Srsly. People should chill and have a laugh. Its not like his daddy left him in the control tower and went down to the pub for a few dwinks... d'aww I mean drinks with his buddies, did he.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

OMG! Next is Obama giving the coffer with the red button and the code to his girls while he's secretly browsing through his storage of marzipan in the cellar!

(Runs to the caves).

[readherring.livejournal.com]

+1 for not caring. Dad was right there, and it's not like there was ever a point where safety was compromised. If anything, the minor change-up made pilots more alert because it added something interesting to an otherwise dull, routine, non-stimulating day.

[ccr1138.livejournal.com]

It would be cute at maybe a trucking company dispatch. Air traffic control is incredibly stressful and exacting. It's not so much that the kid made a few announcements, but that kids were in the tower AT ALL. I think they've done the right thing to ban all visitors. Those guys don't need the distraction.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

It's all fun & games until there's a mid-air collision.

Remind me not to schedule major surgery on "Take your kid to work day".

[dwer.livejournal.com]

Or should we just collectively unclench our national sphincter and smile at a daddy letting his kid have a little workplace fun?

Yes. But that wouldn't let the MSM engage in so much FEAR MONGERING BE AFRAID AAAAAAAAHHHHH!

Peter Graves approves!

[telemann.livejournal.com]

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

My favestestEST movie ever. By far and away. Watched it over 30 times, and still watch it at least once a year. Never get tired of it. Thanx for reminding.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Why don't they make such movies any more! ;-(

(Sobs).

I am serious. And don't call me Shirley.

BWAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

You mean EVAR.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

It's even more fun to watch Airport then followed by Airplane. Airport is such a great movie.

[dierdrae.livejournal.com]

I like how the pilots seemed not just unperturbed, but cheered up. A little ounce of destressing never did anyone any harm. The kid was repeating verbatim what the dad said, the pilots understood perfectly, why outrage?

The only thing I can see wrong with it is that yeah, 5 year olds can be distracting in the office. So if there was outrage about that, I could understand better. But of course, people get mad about the wrong thing. And how do we know the kid was in the office the whole day?

[Even there, I think the father deserves a reprimand/maybe another training course or something. Not whatever punishment he's sure to get..]

[mercystars.livejournal.com]

Yeah...it's not like they left the kid in charge and went to Happy Hour early. Much ado about nothing.

[penguin42.livejournal.com]

I FOR ONE AM OUTRAGED actually no i'm not either.

Look at me! I'm important!

[reality-hammer.livejournal.com]

This is just one of those situations that allows the peacocks to strut.

Strutting peacocks and ducks indeed.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Indeed, indeed (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/25/tareq-and-michaele-salahi_n_371336.html).

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

Once again, someone must be held responsible, even if nothing really happened.

[mijopo.livejournal.com]

My second reaction is to note how completely nonplussed the pilots sounded and to wonder if this happens every now and then

I don't think it means what you think it means.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

Aw, rat farts.

I haven't been this disappointed since I was forced to acknowledge that "decimated" only means 1/10 destroyed.

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

Blasé was the word you were looking for.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

Not as much fun as world of plussed and nonplussed people, however.

[debergerac.livejournal.com]

it's a tough crowd around here.

[mrsilence.livejournal.com]

Well I mean they do have a point, it wasn't that the kids said anything wrong, it's that they could have done something that caused a problem.

Instead it could have gone something like this:

Kid at Control tower: "pilot, crash the plane"
Pilot: "Say again tower, it just sounded like to said crash the plane".
Kid: "That is affirmative pilot, I just said crash the plane. Crash the plane. Now."
Pilot: "What? Are you out of your mind?"
Kid: "Hey I am the fucking control tower and I am telling you to crash that goddamned plane now".
Pilot: "Well....errr...ok...I guess we could do that.
Pilot: "Are you sure about this?"
Kid: "Yes"
Pilot: "Ok...well...ummm..roger that control."

*sound of aircraft decending at high speed*

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

That was pretty scary....

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

You're really no fun sometimes, you know that?

btw a verbal reprimand is technically a punishment.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

Can we amend it to a PAID suspension with cheesecake?

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

I was driving home from the Keys today and listened to the outrage via CNN, NPR and FOX for 19 hours.

Frankly, I am outraged at the outrage. It is the biggest tempest in a teapot since, gosh... since that other thing they had us all worked up over and it all turned out to be nothing. The worst that should have happened was the controller got a slap on the wrist and we all had a chuckle. Now this hardworking guy will probably loose his job because the whole country has turned into a bunch of sissy Mary's.