Children in the Control Tower

Do you have a link so we know what you are talking about?

http://wcbstv.com/local/jfk.air.traffic.2.1533423.html

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/CHILDS-PLAY-AT-JFK-86174177.html

 

Here's a couple.

I suspect he was simply being told exactly what to say by someone in the tower.  Don't really see the problem, you can tell from the pilots' responses that they knew roughly what was going on.

It was poor judgment but I feel really sorry for the controller. 

I have a picture of my son at age four turning on controls in the cockpit of a 707 while I sit in the co-pilot seat and the pilot stands behind us.  The co-pilot ran to the terminal while we sat there, found my wife and came back with her camera to get some pictures for us. When I was a teenager, I was allowed to clear take offs (with an airport employees direction) for small planes (it was a rural airport--no jets).  Small plane pilots often let there kids call in their approaches.  It was never rampant and my dad was a pilot and aircraft owner but it was always supervised and common sense.  It was pilots wanting to share their love of the air with their kids.  Airports were like close knit communities and if you knew someone there who was a pilot, you were family.

The photo I mentioned was taken a few months before 9-11...they would never do that now.  I think the JFK thing was just a nostalgic part of the air community forgetting for a moment the times have changed (sadly).  I bet "dad" was standing right behind those kids coaching them word for word what to say (and they did great) and with his hand near the controls and a headset on.  Hope he keeps his job.  Did you notice none of the pilots asnwering back were troubled or alarmed.  They understood.

On the one hand, I agree with you.  No harm was done.  The outcry is way overblown.  But then on the other hand, the place this controller brought his child deals with many peoples lives daily, and it is really no place for children as an emergency that requires the controllers undivided attention can occur at any moment.

I think the mistake was allowing them to bring the child into the control tower.  Once that mistake was made, the rest was handled well.  But I don't think either should be fired over the incident.  It is a good learning moment.  Both (controller and supervisor) should get reprimanded, and the rules made clear about letting children in the tower, but that is all.

That no harm came from the incident means we can laugh at it now (I am sure if I was in one of the planes and found out, I would not be laughing yet).

Ya, I agree. An air traffic controller is known as being one of the most stressful jobs out there. The reason for that is that the job requires constant attention and awareness of everything that is going on at all times. While nothing bad came of it, that doesn't mean that if you allow something like that to happen again that it will have the same outcome. Kids shouldn't be in the control tower. The air traffic controllers should be paying attention to what the pilots are doing and directing them, not if their kid is doing those things that they should be doing correctly.

Please, it wasn't like the actual air traffic controller wasn't in control at all times, nor is there any evidence he wasn't paying as much attention as he would have if the kid wasn't there.  If the guy knows his kid and knows that he'd stay out of trouble, why couldn't he bring him to work?  Everything that goes on in a control tower is watched by multiple individuals in case of momentary lapses, and if the supervisor/other controllers didn't have a problem with it, what was the harm in bringing the kid to work?  Overworking these guys and causing mistakes due to fatigue is about a thousand times more probably than anything happening due to this kid being there.

Both the supervisor and the controller are suspended as of right now.

OMG, next thing you know we will have kids in the white house making policy decisions...

 

And my guess is these policy will straight forward and simple.  

About 30+ years out of date on that one (Amy Carter).

This. It is absolutely ridiculous to get worked up over something like this and it really underlines the modern sense of hysteria over.. well.. everything.

And this.

If anything, I'm inclined to believe that having his children there relieved stress and increased security. People need to stop confusing professionalism with being robotized automatons. Well, congratulations, security and the average lifespan have increased since the times where air ports were open and children were a regular element of almost any worksite at any given day. Living standards, quality of life and happiness, however, has not.