Listen: Kids allowed to clear takeoffs at Kennedy

By Dan Plutchak ( Contact )   March 3, 2010 - 5:20 p.m.

NEW YORK (AP) — An air traffic controller at New York's Kennedy Airport has been suspended after he allowed two children to radio instructions to several pilots.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday the children did so over two days in mid-February.

The first night, the controller brought his young son to work and let him squawk a few routine messages over the radio to pilots waiting to take off.

The FAA says the controller brought a different child the next evening.

The agency has placed the controller and a supervisor on administrative leave as it investigates. FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt called the episode a "lapse in judgment."

The few quick exchanges between the children and jets waiting to take off from JFK became public after they were recorded and posted on the Internet.

reader COMMENTS (6)
crisblue813
Mar 4, 2010 at 10:11 p.m.
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I agree kawisixer! Big deal! it was just take off stuff! and im sure his dad was telling him word for word what to say .. im sure the child is proud to be a pilots son and wants to be just like his dad .. if it was emergent im sure it would have been different. hell i could understand him better than i could the two men... its like he was flying the dang plane!

prevention
Mar 4, 2010 at 8:04 p.m.
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My dad worked for a major airlines, I went with him to work one day, but I didn't have that deal with contact such as thing. I wouldn't have wanted it at 17 anyway. I still don't and I'm twice 17

kawisixer01
Mar 4, 2010 at 11:10 a.m.
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wow big deal, the kid was prob sitting on his dads lap repeating word for word what he told him to say. He was calling gate departures, not dircecting in flight traffic. The only stupid thing this guy did was to not have the foresight that some whiner would take issue with it and make a big deal out of nothing. Obviously the pilots got a kick out of it and didn't complain as it only came to light after it hit the web.

spicymarge
Mar 4, 2010 at 10:36 a.m.
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What were the pilots thinking?!

HoopsFan
Mar 4, 2010 at 8:51 a.m.
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What was this guy thinking? Doh!

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