Controllers suspended after child directs air traffic at JFK

By Rhonda Cook

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

There was no school, so spending a little bit of time in the air-traffic control tower at New York’s Kennedy Airport presented a teaching moment.

But a teaching moment for whom -- the child allowed to direct in-flight airliners or the parent who let him?

Two tower employees are under investigation for letting a child direct pilots, according to NBC News. The parent, a controller, and the supervisor in the tower are relieved of their duties while the Federal Aviation Administration looks into  five transmissions on Feb. 17  during which a child cleared air traffic at the busy airport.

There was no available information about the child, including age.

“Pending the outcome of our investigation, the employees involved in this incident are not controlling traffic,” the FAA said in a statement. “This behavior is not acceptable and does not demonstrate the kind of professionalism expected from all FAA employees.”

The article, posted at MSNBC 's Web site, was based on a story broadcast by a Boston television station that had obtained the tapes of the five transmissions. The FAA reportedly confirmed that the  recordings were authentic.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association was critical of the controller-parent, saying in a statement, “We do not condone this type of behavior in any way. It is not indicative of the highest professional standards that controllers set for themselves.”

Channel 26 in Boston broadcast one of the recorded exchanges between the child and a pilot.

JFK tower: “JetBlue 171 contact departure.”

Pilot: “Over to departure JetBlue 171, awesome job.”

A man is heard laughing.

JFK tower: “That’s what you get, guys, when the kids are out of school.”

And in another exchange, after directing Aeromexico flight 403, the child ended with “adios amigos.”