Air traffic control age requirement?
 

just saying.....whats with the kid?

50 with 20 yrs service, any age with 25 yrs, manditory at age 56.

i guess my eyes are going, i thought it said retirement....duh!

i did not hear about that until this morning. not too smart.

I think Snap was referring to this article...

BFD.
Poor guy will probably lose his job over taking his kid to work and transmitting an innocuous hand-off message.
What have we become?

Its not like the plane would have crashed if he messed up the handoff.
(plus the real guy was only one thumb click away from disconnecting the kid and taking control.)

overreacting due to the publicity. Ever let your kid shift for you? was he "driving"

From reading the transcripts, and hearing the tapes,looks like the boy did a fine job, and endangered nobody at all.Sounded like the pilots got a kick out of it.Kid just wanted to be like his dad.Now he'll probably have to live with the guilt of costing his dad his job. What a positive influence that will be. What we've become, is a country so scared of retribution,law suits,and losing our jobs over miniscule nit-picking, that we've lost all common sense. A.K.A. a bunch of spoiled bastards,with nothing better to do.
Of course thats just my opinion.

My son once piloted a 130' car ferry the entire trip to Washington Island. He was 7 at the time and had complete control of the vessel. The Captain was right there next to him and nothing bad happened. That will be a life long memory for the little guy.

It sucks that what seemed to be an innocent attempt at allowing a kid to feel on the top of the world will cost his father his job.

Speedy:)

I fell out of my chair when they announced the atcs name..

I grew up with him..

Well, if that's the case... tell him I think the whole mess is pathetic and think it was cool of him to take his kids to work.

ditto!

Listen folks...you've got to understand that the media just LOVES blowing things up out of nothing. There was little danger imposed on the traveling public by that man allowing his kid to recite what he would normally say over an aviation radio. If there was any confusion, the controller could easily grab the microphone and give instructions immediately. They played the tapes on the nightly news tonight, and I could easily understand the kid.

-The FAA? This is a bunch of brainless inbred losers who couldn't make it at the airlines. Most of them have deviant or at least bizarre personalities, and many of them have an "axe to grind" with those of us who have been successful in aviation. You can bet a bunch of overweight poorly-socialized FAA pencil-pilots are literally drooling over the chance to take this controller's [and his $150,000/year salary...] away from him. Filth-

N

It's Bull S***. No one was in danger. Just listened to it on the news. The pilots knew what was going on.

A bunch of pin heads with nothing better to do.

Our country largely seems to consist of brain-dead pussies. Too bad. Seems to me that the father was sharing his job in a responsible manner, and in no way put anyone at risk.

When I first heard it I thought 'whats the big deal'. Obviously the kid was just reciting what the father told him. On the other hand, I don't think this should become a common practice. The father should be reprimanded and that should be the end of it.

So, here is an excerpt of the article:

"That's scary for everybody. You can't do that. That's risking a lot of people's lives," said JFK air passenger Shamir Ali."

Well, Sir, I would feel safer with a child in the control tower, than having a passenger with a name like yours onboard.

Howz dat for PC?:D

Reading the article, it was interesting to note that the recordings were up for some time, but that no complained or said anything about it until the media made a big deal. It would have been one thing if the pilots had complained about the kids, but they all seemed to enjoy the kids' performance.

On that same thread, who is Shamir Ali? Since when is some random d-bag a quotable source?

Ridiculous. Even DAL's ex chief pilot is a pussy.

Nobody.

He's not.

America is starting to suck, real bad.

JR

This is the media out of control and reaching. Watching the TV news is becoming painful. Huge story in the Seattle area yesterday with interviews of idiot parents, etc. was the horrible, dangerous, life threatening incident of a baby at day care getting the wrong breast milk. This ATC thing is ridiculous, the kid did a great job, pilots clearly knew what was happening and congratulated him.