Information Echo

Well, how about that, one minute my blog is history, and the next, two posts in the day, this one even being a bona-fide aviation related post!

I was on the road this week (in Montreal at the time if I remember correctly) when I first heard about the now infamous “Kid in the control tower” incident. I was surprised when I checked Google Reader later in the evening to see that this wasn’t a huge topic of discussion in the aviation blogosphere. Yes, there was posts, but not that many.

However, today I came across this blog entry by Brian over at “Grounded Pilot”.

Brian indicates that he doesn’t see it as a big deal, and wow, I couldn’t disagree more. I think that the almost universal condonement of this situation speaks volumes about how most others feel about the situation, but let me rebut Brian’s comments:

All the planes were on the ground

Yes, but history has proven that accidents (and major ones, at that) can happen as the direct result of ground movements - runway incursions being a huge one. When I was a student pilot long before I was licenced the first time I ever touched the radio and broadcasted the first time my instructor was adamant that I realized this was serious stuff. Yes, I wasn’t going to be chastised if I choked on terminology or took a few seconds longer then I should to communicate something, but the fact that it was communicated clearly and effectively was of utmost importance.

Sorry, a child does not have the ability to hold those standards.

The controller could interrupt his child if something was going wrong

Sure, if he catches it. I’d like to believe that the actual controller was watching the kid like a hawk, but it only takes a split second for something to go wrong on the ground or in the air.

The pilots knew ahead of time a child would be transmitting

I’ll admit that I wasn’t aware of this fact, but it doesn’t change my overall opinion that allowing this whole situation to begin with was a huge lapse in judgement.

Perhaps my response there was a little off the wall and some might suggest that my analogy was a huge stretch, but I’m sorry, there are just certain things that children should not be doing no matter how much oversight or monitoring is happening (or not) behind the scenes - air traffic control is one of those things.

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