Here's the link header from Fox New's homepage, Kiddie Controls the Sky at JFK:
In a recording that has been confirmed as genuine by the Federal Aviation Administration, the child makes five transmissions from John F Kennedy International Airport — with the pilots in each case all responding enthusiastically to him.
One conversation between the tower at JFK Airport in New York and a pilot goes as follows:
JFK TOWER: Jet Blue 171 contact departure.
PILOT: Over to departure jet blue 171, awesome job.
How dare those rebel pilots acquiesce to the ruse and "respond enthusiastically." Why they should've crushed his aspirations to be like his daddy some day right there on the spot.
Within live on-air coverage, Fox anchors keep alluding to this as a prank. A prank? No I don't think so. A prank would be if they let the pilots sweat a little by providing misleading instructions. A prank would be if they stowed the kid behind the captain's seat and had him jump out mid-landing screaming, "Gotcha!"
Let me just say that I haven't seen this much overblown righteous indignation in the media since Chloe and Lamar kept their wedding private . . . until the airing of their show of course.
I don't see what the big deal is. I think it's called bring your child to work day, right?
Dad: "Hey Tony, this is little Johnny."
Boss Tony: "Hey little Johnny. Wanna operate the forklift today?"
Kid: "Gee Tony, that'd be swell."
Boss Tony: "Well get on it then kid. Those pallets aren't going to move themselves."
. . . . Eight hours later . . . .
Boss Tony: "You did great today kid. Don't worry about Dan's leg, no one really likes him anyway."
Dad: "Smoke up, Johnny!"
I have two questions: 1.) Did the child communicate the proper instructions? 2.) Did he communicate them clearly?
I understand there are - pause for dramatic effect - federal regulations with this sort of thing, but as far as I can tell the answer to these questions are both yes. By these facts alone, this child is more qualified in effective communication than 80% of TSA workers. This is coming from someone who was turned down for a TSA position (not sure what that says about me), so I know what I'm talking about here.
Question for the audience: What job would you allow your savant child to do for you?
If I might answer, as a professional airline pilot who happened to be flying in New York yesterday, yes, the kid did his job well. He not only communicated the proper instructions clearly, he did so with the sort of enthusiasm rarely heard.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's time we let a little fun back into the world.
Thanks for weighing in Matt.
ReplyDelete