FAA probe launched into child giving all-clear to airplanes at JFK airport
By ANIWednesday, March 3, 2010
NEW YORK - An FAA investigation has been launched to probe a shocking recording in which a child’s voice gives an all-clear to a pilot from the air-traffic control tower at the John F. Kennedy Airport in New York.
The child makes five transmissions and the pilots respond enthusiastically to him.
Jim Baker, a retired chief pilot at Delta airlines with forty years of experience, says lives hang on every transmission and this raises safety concerns.
“I have never ever heard a small kid in the tower giving instructions for an airplane to take off or cross a runway or any kind of instructions” Fox News quoted Baker, as saying.
JFK is the 6th busiest airport in the US with thousands of planes taking off and landing every day.
In a statement released to FOX 25 the FAA said: ” Pending the outcome of our investigation, the employees involved in this incident are not controlling air traffic. This behavior is not acceptable and does not demonstrate the kind of professionalism expected from all FAA employees.”
In response the union that represents air traffic controllers released the following statement to the channel.
“We do not condone this type of behavior in any way, and 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,” it said. (ANI)
