Kid Directs Traffic at NY's JFK Airport

neither party is conservative

I heard on the news the controller and his Mgr. have been suspended from their job by FAA.

Exactly what happen but of course in today's ultra conservative society everyone has to go nuts about it.

Similar thing happen to me at my old job, it was bring your kid to work day and one of the mom's brought in her 10 year old son. She got busy asked if I could help with showing her son around, no problem. He was bored so I suggested he answer my phone for a period of time, of course someone complained that a child answered my phone. Seriously I had all internal customers and all he was doing was saying hi then handing me the phone. Lucky my boss was like whatever to the complainer.

The FAA has now suspended the guy and guess who appoint the person in controll of the FAA.Randy Babbitt confirmed as FAA Administrator « ‘Fly NextGen’ Aviation Blog (http://blog.flynextgen.com/2009/05/22/randy-babbitt-confirmed-as-faa-administrator/)

I understand the liability issues but also wish that common sense could prevail.

I just can't seem to get outraged by this.

I just can't seem to get outraged by this.
I think the issue here is what if something happened. I'm guessing all of us would be calling the guy a fool and he should be charged with something but that did not happen so its all good.

Doesn't seem that risky to me. The kid really wasn't put in a position to cause anything even remotely tragic.

Seems to me something could go wrong pretty quickly in that type of setting. It's just good that nothing happened.

Seems to me something could go wrong pretty quickly in that type of setting. It's just good that nothing happened.

Nah, if he's properly trained and supervised, 0% chance. :silly:

No, but seriously, it was a pretty basic scenario. All they were doing was giving clearance for takeoff. The kid would really have to know their stuff to even begin to cause issues there. The worst case scenario? Planes sit on the runway. The kid doesn't know the airlines and their flight numbers waiting for departure.

I just can't seem to get outraged by this.I completely agree. Maybe it has something to do with a time when I was about 5 and I went to work with my dad and a my uncle let me operate a backhoe. He sat in the drivers seat and I sat on his knee and he basically said stuff like "pull this lever," or "turn this wheel." I was totally supervised and he was right there to take control if something were to go wrong.

I understand that airport/airplane safety is extremely important but I don't think this is a big deal. Its not like the dad was taking a nap and the kid was at the controls just doing what he wanted. If this was, say, a taxi dispatcher no one would give a damn.