The over reaction of some people seems to be ridiculous imo, the kids were told what to say and were supervised the entire time, its not like they were handed a log book and the guy went out for the night. It's the same as letting a child shout out the specials on a supermarket tannoy.
Kid in charge of air traffic
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With the rather obvious difference that a supermarket tannoy isn't usually part of a safety critical system.
I think we get the message now.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100303/ap_on_re_us/us_child_air_traffic
Personally I find it quite funny and dont see the harm as he probably has the kid on his lap and is just getting him to say things, hardly as if tyhe child is landing the planes
Pilots seem to take it in good humour too but I can see this getting blown way out of all proportion and people get sacked etc for it. I mean we must be sad because it is one of the lead items on the news, must be a slow day. The tapes are quite funny
Personally I hope the guy doesnt get the sack but im sure people will disagree and he probably will be sacked
Heard this on tv yesterday, and I completely agree with you.
I don't see it much different from sitting on your dads lap at a parking lot at about 6 and trying to turn the wheel of a car. You're supervised if you do anything wrong you dad will kick in.
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Soldato
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although this has got out of proportion , imagine if there was a serious air accident at the same time the kid was giving the air traffic instructions?
even if it was a complete different air incident it would not go down to well.
even if it was a complete different air incident it would not go down to well.
There is a reason that even after getting a licence trainees require hundreds of hours of simulator and sector famil training before being allowed to transmit live. The job is a lot more than just speaking to pilots, it requires constant concentration, constant scanning and constant pre-planning, not something I would be able to do while babysitting a child on the radio.
From a UK perspective this would come under the umbrella of gross misconduct and you would be shown the door. What if an incident had occured that had nothing to do with the controller, like a runway incursion. Or what if dad, god forbid, made a mistake, and junior clears someone for takeoff with traffic on the runway?
I can't believe that anybody would think this was a good idea. I wouldn't even supervise an ADULT on my licence if they hadn't got a student ATC licence, let alone a child with zero training whatsoever.
ATC is not something trivial. It's core Flight Safety, along with what happens in the cockpit, and with engineering. It's NOT something to let kids use, especially at an International airport.
From a UK perspective this would come under the umbrella of gross misconduct and you would be shown the door. What if an incident had occured that had nothing to do with the controller, like a runway incursion. Or what if dad, god forbid, made a mistake, and junior clears someone for takeoff with traffic on the runway?
I can't believe that anybody would think this was a good idea. I wouldn't even supervise an ADULT on my licence if they hadn't got a student ATC licence, let alone a child with zero training whatsoever.
ATC is not something trivial. It's core Flight Safety, along with what happens in the cockpit, and with engineering. It's NOT something to let kids use, especially at an International airport.
Surely if the accident were so big and happened so fast that the time taken for the ATC to move the mic from the child infront of him back to himself were not enough then there would be nothing that could be done anyway.
Too many 'What if's' in this thread.
When I was a kid I used to go to the cockpit of passenger planes I was on, in fact you could even get things to collect from the pilots which the airlines provided. It was something actually encouraged back in the days before we all decided everyone had to be wrapped up in cotton wool. WHAT IF THE PLANE HAD CRASHED WHILE THE PILOT WAS TALKING TO ME.
When I was a kid I used to go to the cockpit of passenger planes I was on, in fact you could even get things to collect from the pilots which the airlines provided. It was something actually encouraged back in the days before we all decided everyone had to be wrapped up in cotton wool. WHAT IF THE PLANE HAD CRASHED WHILE THE PILOT WAS TALKING TO ME.
Too many 'What if's' in this thread.
When I was a kid I used to go to the cockpit of passenger planes I was on, in fact you could even get things to collect from the pilots which the airlines provided. It was something actually encouraged back in the days before we all decided everyone had to be wrapped up in cotton wool. WHAT IF THE PLANE HAD CRASHED WHILE THE PILOT WAS TALKING TO ME.
I too am privileged enough to have been in the cockpit of an airborne 747 when I was child. I don't think this was not compliant with the relevant procedures at the time however, and in fact probably had a proper risk assessment done on it.
The what ifs are why it's necessary to follow the approved procedures, because they have been considered by the system engineers.
I think this is people's beef though, there is too much emphasis placed on 'risk assessment' these days and not enough on common sense. In my opinion it has tipped too far towards one direction now. You clearly don't agree and I'm not going to change your mind.
You can argue that for the more day-to-day stuff, but risk has always had to be properly assessed in safety critical industries like the airline industry.
If you've ever watched Air Crash Investigation then you will know that it only takes a seemingly trivial mistake or error to cause the deaths of hundreds of people. Risk assessments are vital, especially in the aviation industry, for identifying where these errors can occur and preventing them.
The "common sense" approach wouldn't have had much of an issue with the Aeroflot pilot giving his kid a shot a few years back, and I'm sure the pilot at the time thought it was perfectly safe, but that wasn't much comfort to the families of the people killed.
The fact remains that in these situations small mistakes and errors can add up to cause catastrophic results. The more you can minimise the variables the better. Having a child transmitting on a live frequency at a busy international airport is a variable too far IMHO.
It was enirely his fault for not observign what his kid did properly, it would have been enitrely fine if he kept more of an eye on what the kid did.
Way too many "if"s in that statement. Here's a better one...
It was entirely his fault for letting his kid have a shot.
See, no "if"s.
I used to travel a lot as a kid, as an 'UM' if anyone had to wear one of those signs! :/
The stewardesses always looked after me obviously, ply me with juice and sweets and sometimes would ask to get me into the cockpits, I once got to turn a dial that banked the plane to the right under pilot instruction after getting shown around etc, then straightened it back up again.
I was well chuffed, made my week! better than going on holiday!
Walked back to my seat thinking what all the passengers would have thought if they knew a 9 year old was having a shot lol
Changed days alas.
:/The stewardesses always looked after me obviously, ply me with juice and sweets and sometimes would ask to get me into the cockpits, I once got to turn a dial that banked the plane to the right under pilot instruction after getting shown around etc, then straightened it back up again.
I was well chuffed, made my week! better than going on holiday!
Walked back to my seat thinking what all the passengers would have thought if they knew a 9 year old was having a shot lol Changed days alas.