[UPDATE: This wasn't the first time!] An air traffic controller at JFK airport brought his young son to work last month and let the bright young lad do his job for him. Now the FAA is investigating all the employees who were in the tower that day, and an audio recording of the child's instructions to pilots has surfaced. Listen:
After the child clears one flight for takeoff, an adult male—whom we assume is a licensed controller, but who knows?!—is heard telling the pilots: "That's what you get guys when the kids are out of school." HAHAHA! That's almost as funny as the time the air traffic controller was joshing around about barbecuing a cat moments before that fatal plane/helicopter collision over the Hudson. Which is to say, NOT FUNNY AT ALL. But the boy made at least five transmissions to pilots from the control tower, and the kid's performance was uniformly greeted with warm guffawing. (To be fair, he does sound pretty darn cute.)
Deploying breathtaking understatement, a retired Delta pilot tells Fox News in Boston, which broke the story, "I am sure the controller is a tremendous controller not a wise move, not a wise move...not in this day and age." And the FAA issued this statement last night: "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."
Of course, this isn't the first time adults have been busted letting kids cover for them in the transportation industry—last July a 9-year-old boy was observed getting a tutorial in the subway train operator's compartment, and in August an LIRR engineer as busted for letting a passenger have a turn at the controls (that guy was a grown-up, but one witness said it "was like a little kid was driving.").
