http://news.yahoo.com/video/local-15749667/18424933

I wonder who thinks this is wrong?
We support "Take Your Child to Work" days.
I am quite sure the dad was right there, the child only made simple contacts. WHERE is the problem??

Are we so wrapped up in "LEGALITIES" that we can't teach our kids the "FUN & JOY" of work. We can only teach the boring/humdrum everyday stuff?

Just think we need to take a step back.

when i heard it on tv i thought it was cute itd not like he snuck up there and was directing all flights to cuba or anything people need to calm down and take a deep breath

I agree with Sage. Seems a bit overblown. That probably made that childs day. Typical government agency....

Much ado about nothing.

True, however, would you let your child drive your car if you drove a big rig? Would you want the President to allow his daughters to run this country? (PLEASE, no political remarks.)

It is TAKE YOUR CHILD TO WORK DAY. Not LET YOUR CHILD WORK day.

My friend is a firefighter and they have the Take Your Child to Work days too, but you won't see the kid in the fire truck rushing out to put out a fire.

The guy will undoubtedly get fired, regardless if anything bad happened or not. There are rules and he broke them.

No, but for reasons which do not apply to this situation. All of these examples have little to do with the situation - it seems to me that the applicable skill here is talking. Apparently the kid can talk. This doesn't make it okay, but it does mean that the examples given above are illustrations not of the inappropriateness of having the kid talk on the radio - they are examples of the irrational hysteria surrounding the event.



Okay, and maybe he should get fired. The fact that one person does something wrong doesn't lessen the fact that a bunch of other people are blowing their wrongness out of proportion.

OK, so have your boss let you bring your kid in for a day and do whatever job it is you do.

Take Your Kid To Work Day is just that TAKING your kid to work. Not LETTING them work. There are rules and regulations to the job as an air traffic control personnel. They were broken.

SOME jobs are TOO dangerous to just "let" your child "play". If the adult thought that it was okay to let a small child on the radio directing a plane, who's to say Obama wouldn't think it okay to let one of his daughter's into the room with that big red shiny button?

Oh hey, my boyfriend is in the Army fighting overseas... Maybe we should let one of his daughters go over there and shoot his guns?

DOES NOT MATTER THE JOB. DOES NOT MATTER IF THE KID CAN TALK. THERE ARE RULES.


So tell me, why is it okay for a child to hop onto the sir traffic control radio waves and NOT for a child to drive a big rig? It's like like driving one of those cars they make for kids, except bigger, just like an air traffic control radio is like a ham radio, only BIGGER.

There is a reason these kinds of jobs are regulated.
A lot of things could have gone wrong.
In fact, they have in similar cases involving airlines.

That child did not belong in that tower.
If they guy wants to bond with his kid I can think of a million other ways to do so that does not involve breaking rules or endangering lives.

So, are you telling me that the pilots, at the very least, are unable to think, and consider whether the information being passed to them by the air traffic controller is good or bad information?

Well, okay, maybe not, what with the amazing number of drunk or sleep deprived pilots running around, and that sure seems far more dangerous to me.

From the info on Good Morning America, the father and other air-traffic controllers were standing right over the kid, monitoring. It sounds like it was during the slowest point of time, and I can just about bet that if the pilot had had ANY questions, the father or other controllers would have cut in and did their job.

Oh, and around this area of Texas, it's rather common to see kids out driving the farm trucks. Not legal, but done still the same.

Sadly, I do think dad made a mistake, and will be punished for it, which is too bad.

You will never find a drunk COMMERCIAL pilot. They are prohibited from drinking if they are flying. No restaurant will serve them alcohol and you, the passenger, have the right to ask the bartender or the server if you see a pilot eating a meal if they have had a drink. I have done this. The server will guarantee that the pilot has NOT had alcohol while in their restaurant.


Now, however, for the drunk pilots that happen to own their own planes and their own private airstrips, that is a completely different story.


Back on topic, certain jobs follow certain rules. IMHO, the child should NOT have been up in there. What if the child had tripped and knocked out a microphone? What if the child pressed the wrong call button and told the wrong plane, "You are clear for take-off, adios amigo"? It would have required a fast reaction from the parent to correct it.

I don't care HOW slow you THINK it was, JFK's slow time is equivelent to Los Angeles Rush Hour. Same with Atlanta's. Two of the busiest airports? Yeah, so they go from handling 500+ planes a minute to 250+ planes a minute? That's still a lot of effin' planes.

I really think this is amasing . this government can't find 500,000 illegals rushing across the border but they can catch a little kid at work with his father ... wow they sure are a waste of flesh .

the only reasion the whole world isnt out raged at this is that no planes crashed because this kid messed up one message to a plane. i think everyone involved in this dangerous stunt shuld be fired now!

Fortunately, he did not let the child "do his job". He let the child do one tiny slice of his job, which is simply talking. The child didn't make decisions of any kind - as I understand it, the child simply repeated what he was told to say.



Which is why I agree with part of your post.



Oh, the slippery slope fallacy. For this reason, nothing should be permitted, ever.



You are correct that the existence of rules is independent of whether the kid can talk.



Is this a serious question? First of all, I didn't say that it was okay for him to be on the radio, but I respect the points of view of those who do think this is a harmless action. I also see that the discussion of big rigs doesn't apply. To drive a big rig, a person requires experience, knowledge, and developed hand-eye coordination. To repeat simple sentences, one only needs to be able to repeat simple sentences. A better comparison might be: taking your kid on the big rig, and allowing him help you with the data entry, under your watchful eye (some truckers have to report their mileage, etc, to the main office via a small computer).

I heard the audio on the news earlier and think people are making a big deal out of nothing. It's not like the kid was sitting there alone, messing around, laughing or anything else.

There are cases of commercial pilots flying drunk.

Here's one:

America West pilots convicted of being drunk in cockpit
MIAMI (AP) — Two former America West pilots were convicted Wednesday of being drunk in the cockpit the morning after an all-night drinking binge at a sports bar......

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2005-06-08-drunk-pilots_x.htm

There are more.

This was a bad idea on so many levels.I think bringing the wife and kids to work day is normally a good thing.But it should be a day when a company is idle and where if some kids or adults want to push a bunch of buttons and flip switches they can do it with out screwing something up.I know from working for some bigger companies and open houses on the Military bases those kids are going to press every button on every control board at least several hundred times no matter what you tell them.

I think most people already know that a air traffic controller is the most stressful job in the world.There is no room for mistake as airplanes are only minutes apart.Having a child or several children in there just distracts everyone.There is hundreds of buttons controlling God knows what.The chances of a child pushing buttons,kicking panels,or spilling something on a control board even with a adult present is a very real possiblity.Having the child broadcast life or death commands for the pilot with airplanes full of hundreds of passengers is a stupid idea.The chances of the pilot misunderstanding a command,number or word is something you should not gamble the lives of innocent people on.

The way I see it - the guy had to get permission to bring his child there, right? As heard on the audio, the pilots didn't seem to have an issue at all. Some seemed amused by it. The kid did not mess up anything and was not there alone. No harm done.

I try to picture myself on a passenger on this plane...."This is your pilot speaking.We just wanted you to know that today is bring your child to work day.If you hear a child in the background giving commands no need to worry everything is under control".

Thanks but no thanks!

amazing at the amount of ppl that think this is no big deal