On the 16th and 17th February, an Air Traffic Controller at John F. Kennedy airport (Glenn Duffy, 48, of Stony Brook, New York) permitted his 7-year-old son and younger daughter to issue ATC instructions with JFK air traffic. The recordings were posted onto LiveATC.net before the FAA and the air traffic controllers’ union became aware of them.
The FAA issued a statement that said, in part, “Pending the outcome of our investigation, the employees involved in this incident are not controlling air traffic… this behaviour is not acceptable and does not demonstrate the kind of professionalism expected from all FAA employees.”
Dough Church with the Air Traffic Controllers’ National Union released a very brief statement saying, “We do not condone this type of behaviour in any way. It is not indicative of the highest professional standards that controllers set for themselves and exceed each and every day in the advancement of aviation safety.”
As a result of the incident, two tower employees – a supervisor and an air traffic controller – have been forced onto administrative leave pending the outcome of an official FAA investigation. In addition, all unofficial visits to operational areas with ATC centres have been temporarily suspended.
Audio below:
(2 mins 42 seconds)
“This is what you get, guys, when the kids are out of school,” the father said to a pilot. “Wish I could bring my kid to work,” the pilot responded. The pilots seemed to condone the conduct by making jokes, rather than condemning the transmissions for what they were – a disgraceful breach in security and safety.
What surprises me is the way pilots casually responded to the transmissions as if they were valid. In such circumstances, wouldn’t flight crew have to question the validity of the instructions? Wouldn’t you have to question the authenticity of the information provided? Personally, I would ask for a familiar and grown up voice to repeat the instruction… then I’d tell the kids that Santa wasn’t real.
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