Boy Controls Planes

Oh no non no!!! Whooooaaa! lol The little boy was NO WHERE near a plane, let alone in the cockpit! He was in the control tower in the airport, giving the pilots their orders ( you know, like the 'you're clear for lift off' kind of things). And the boy was really clearly understood and he got everything right. Again, he was being supervised so nothing would have happened. I would be more worried if he'd been running around the control tower, maybe not being watched as closely, pressing buttons! lol

Oh I'm sorry! I missed the transition into the other story! I thought you were still talking about me!! Did your story really happen? That's terrible. But wouldn't the pilot have had time to get the plane fixed? He would have had a lot of time to correct the auto pilot mishap. I understand that some situations could be dangerous, but I don't think this specific situation was that risky. The pilots weren't even worried about it and they have a plane full of passengers to worry about

Well in the story I mentioned the boy was in the cockpit, but even in the control tower I think is risky, we never know what could happen and a mistake could lead to a disaster and some other's people lives could be lost, I couldn't carry such a burden on my shoulders

Thanks for the explanation. I understand your point. The boy seems to follow his fathers instructions. I don't see anything wrong in children watching how things are done but doing them themselves is another thing. I don't imagine a surgeon taking his young child into an operation room....

I don't think anyone would be okay with a child operating on a patient! lol. That would be dangerous and someone's life would be directly in the childs hands. I just don't think this plane situation is the same--I don't see it as a dangerous situation. Thank you!

With what he was doing there would have been no accidents. He was only giving planes the okay to take off after his father told him what to say. And if some how he had messed it up his father was right there to cancel it to the pilot. It's not an instant thing...once the plane is cleared for take off there is some time before the plane is actually in the air...so the father would have had time to correct any mistakes (which didn't happen). Thank you

He wasn't landing planes. The only time he had the control was to tell a plane they were clear for take off. And he onlygave the order when his father told him to. in this one specific situation I just don't see how any lives could be in danger. I don't like flying, it scares me...and I wouldn't have been upset if the plane I was on got this order lol Thanks!!

There are times, when flight controllers have told pilots to take off and they were not free to. They crashed into each other. The child is a distraction, he could miss something while paying attention to the child. You're cleared for take off or you're NOT cleared for take off must be two different commands because those two sound too close, it's easy to not hear NOT. Abort take off maybe. Again,the letter R. Take offs and landings have a lot of accidents. Those are mostly human error. Up in the air, sometimes human error, but usually technical problems. Hundreds and thousands of flights take off each day. If a pilot gets mixed-up or doesn't proceed to the correct runway at the correct moment in time, crash. So only one flight can taxi at one runway at a given time, but there are often many runways. So they must be numbered. Also, at any given time, a traffic controller isn't just watching people take off. He's got radar to watch to see who is coming in, who's up in the air, etc. My cousins did this for a living. There are a lot of things to keep track of. Even if the kid was doing only one aspect of it, the father should have been keeping track of the big picture and how can you keep track of what's in the air, what's coming down, what's going up, what's taxing down, what's taxing to go up, what altitude everyone is at, etc when taking care of the kid? They have the entire air port plus the sky above to keep track of all at one time, plus the planes approaching the air space above from all different directions and there are 360 angles planes can come from and from numerous altitudes. Not to mention weather including squalls and unique situations to air ports like we used to have one that had a regular highway at the end of one take off lane plus electric lines, but some up here have a mountain so they must go up fast enough to clear the mountain and now there are wind mills in some areas they must clear on top of the mountains. One place had an airliner fall into a river at the end of a runway-I forget where that was, but it wasn't that many years ago. So while he's giving an order to his kid and listening for the kid repeating and the pilots' responses, what's he missing? It takes 100% concentration to do their job or somebody, many somebodies die. So while he's adding a step that normally isn't in his job, what step is he not doing? I would be upset if I was in a plane and a kid was giving orders even if his Dad was right there telling him. Lives and machinery are at stake. Period. You'll never get me to believe it was OK. I like you a lot too, deary, but that guy was irresponsible. That's why he's suspended. Also because they don't want other ATCs (air traffic controllers) bringing their kids and having them do the same. It sets a bad pressident. You might want to do some research on what an air traffic controller does, what training they get, and what accidents have been attributed to them and why. Then get back to me. Also might be interesting to write a story with one character as an atc that caused an accident and created a situation that other people have to get out of. Just a thought, you don't have to do all that, but it would be interesting if you at least did the research part of it.

I see what you're saying about human error; and I agree. I think I heard or read somewhere that take offs and landings are the times in a flight that have the most risk of accidents-but that beign the case I think the father would be MORE careful about the orders and the information. But I'm not trying to sway you any more! You made it very clear how you feel about this sitaution (which I wanted people to do!) That could be an interesting story! If I could come up with the whole plot and everything, thay may be a good one to write-at least a short one for an exercise. Thanks for the idea!

I hope he doesn't lose his job either! I think there would be an uproar if he did because a lot of people are saying this was more of a cute story then a bad one.

Well, if something had happened while he was doing this (which was unlikely) THAT would be the time for his father to get in trouble. But everything was fine and the pilots got a good laugh out of it.

Well he wasn't controlling planes for any amount of time. The ONLY orders he gave the planes were they were clear for take off (which he told them AFTER his father told him to). So weather issues or anything like that would not have been in the boys hands.

Yeah they definatly overreacted. The boy wasn't anywhere near a plane! lol. He was in the control tower, and being supervised...so really I don't think there was any danger involved in this. If he said something wrong it would take his dad a second to fix it for the pilot.

I agree 100%! Today on my radio station they were talking about this (thankfully they all thought it was no big deal too). And they said that everyone in the Aviation business was saying that this was not something they would consider bad. If the child had been left alone that would be a whole different story, but he was in a room of professionals including his dad who, like you said, was probably coaching him! *My radio station made a funny comment about how it's not like the pilots wouldn't have known what they were doing and ended up in Japan when they should have been in Washington because of this kid. lol

I see where you're coming from--but in THIS particular situation i don't think this was risky at all--and I definatly don't think anyone could have been hurt.