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Child’s play in JFK tower was nothing criminal

Posted Mar 3, 2010 by Beth Gaddis

Updated Mar 4, 2010 at 10:24 AM

Did your parents ever bring you to work when you were a kid?

One co-worker said he used to play on the typewriter when he went to his dad’s office; now he’s a journalist. Another said her dad, a doctor, would take her on house calls. Typically, we don’t see kids around our office much unless it’s a designated take your son/daughter to work day, but every now and again they come in as parents do a hand-off or colleagues have to finish up one last task after day care has closed.

So I’m not at all upset about the youngster heard talking to a pilot from the air traffic control tower at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City.

On the recording, the child, who sounds 4 or 5 years old, is heard relaying directions to a JetBlue pilot getting ready to depart.

“That’s what you get, guys, when your kids are out of school,” a man’s sheepish voice says on the recording.

“Wish I could bring my kid to work,” the pilot replies.

Listen to the recording.

Neither of the two pilots on the receiving end of directions seemed to mind. “Departure, JetBlue 171. Awesome job,” the first pilot says.

I’d love to know if the child’s guardian had a plan in place in case there was an emergency; was somebody on standby to hustle the child out of the room if the employee needed to jump into action?

Otherwise, it’s clear the kid is just parroting what the air traffic controller told him to say. The incident happened Feb. 17; we haven’t heard of any co-workers or pilots filing any complaints saying the situation was dangerous or disruptive, and it doesn’t seem like it was a prolonged amount of time or a standard practice for this employee.

The Federal Aviation Administration says the employees involved are no longer directing air traffic while the investigation continues. I sure hope they weren’t suspended. In my opinion, this was cute and not criminal.

Poll: Were the child’s actions cute or crazy?

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