Jokes about barbecuing a cat preceded midair crash

Assoc. Press ^ | 08/20/2009 | By JOAN LOWY

[Responsibility2nd]

WASHINGTON — Two minutes after he cleared a private plane for takeoff and a fateful flight over the Hudson River, an air traffic controller at New Jersey's Teterboro Airport was on the phone with a woman in the airport operations office, joking about barbecuing a dead cat.

"We got plenty of gas in the grill?" the controller asked. "Fire up the cat."

"Ooh, disgusting, augh, that thing was disgusting," the woman responded.

According to a draft government transcript obtained by The Associated Press, the two continued to banter until seconds before the private plane collided with a tour helicopter over the Hudson.

[Responsibility2nd]

Fire Cat is not amused.

[astyanax]

Viking kitties get him?

[aliquando]

Misleading headline. He was going to grill the cat, not barbecue.

[Frantzie]

These people should be fired.

[papasmurf]

A spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said Wednesday the nature of the phone conversation wasn't relevant to the accident investigation.

"This phone call and the FAA's allegations that it was inappropriate are something that will be handled by the FAA in a disciplinary matter we will be involved in, but the bottom line for us is that this call had nothing to do with this tragic accident that occurred," said the spokesman, Doug Church.

A spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said Wednesday the nature of the phone conversation wasn't relevant to the accident investigation. "This phone call and the FAA's allegations that it was inappropriate are something that will be handled by the FAA in a disciplinary matter we will be involved in, but the bottom line for us is that this call had nothing to do with this tragic accident that occurred," said the spokesman, Doug Church.

I disagree.

[Retired Greyhound]

NY/NJ is very busy airspace. I’m not sure this guy contributed to the accident, but he probably should be paying better attention while working.

[Erik Latranyi]

This is just another gov’t union protecting a lousy employee.

Just imagine what will happen under healthcare....Britain has 1.3 million government employees working in the healthcare system.....they vote to keep the system funded and inefficient.

This is what Obama wants.....not the money, not the power....he wants several million new government employees who will consistently vote ‘D’ every cycle.

[Cicero]

Also, they barely mention the fact that the supervisor was out of the building at the time, although he was supposed to be on duty.

Not clear that any of this actually contributed to the accident, but it was pretty irresponsible. No one was paying much attention to doing his job.

[SteamShovel]

I’m not sure this guy contributed to the accident, but he probably should be paying better attention while working.

These types of inattention events are becoming more commonplace.....

.....Texting while running a train for example.

What is it with people these days?

[RobRoy]

>>These people should be fired.<<

I think they should be grilled first to determine if firing is warranted.

[jimt]

Tastes like chicken.

[RegulatorCountry]

They were on duty with air traffic control, cracking jokes about that 17 year old sociopath and apparent crack whore in waiting, Cheyenne Cherry, microwaving her roommate’s cat, while a helicopter and small plane collided?

Talk about your messed up priorities. And a sick sense of humor. Looks like they found death amusing. How amused are they now?

[Robe]

You pretty well have it .. I flown the corridor a few times, and if I recall the usual handoff was to Newark Approach Control. In this case for what ever reason he handed the Piper off to Newark Tower. If the pilot had anticipated this and had Newark App. on his second radio, he would have to put his head into the cockpit to re-enter the tower freq. This could have prevented him from seeing the chopper. If you look at the video you’ll see the piper turn to the right, putting his wing into the rotor plane of the helicopter. If he had pulled up instead, all might have gone well.. But as they say .. Fate is the Hunter

[colorado tanker]

Is that not correct or did I read something that wasn’t quite accurate?

Not that I condone this guy's work habits, but I think you have it right. It's hard to believe any Teterboro based pilot wouldn't understand he's flying into some of the densest airspace in the world and keep a sharp lookout.

[holden]

Operating in that area, their Mode C would've been required, but would the controllers' equipment have given any separation/conflict information (beyond human reading of the data blocks), perhaps a la TCAS?

HF

[Texan Tory]

“These types of inattention events are becoming more commonplace.....

.....Texting while running a train for example.

What is it with people these days?”

The air traffic guy was engaging in a bit of light-hearted banter with someone on the phone, but I’m guessing that he was still able to watch his monitor(s) for problems, so I wouldn’t go so far as to compare this with someone texting while running a train. It really comes down to whether he was distracted or not, and I don’t know the answer to that. From personal experience, I’ve witnessed competent individuals engaging in just this sort of light-hearted back-and-forth while doing some very intense things, like when the doctor was performing a c-section on my wife but was joking (just a little, not at all too the point of distraction) with the nurses and with my wife. The light-hearted chit-chat made me nervous at first, but it actually was helping calm my wife’s fears during the procedure, and it didn’t seem to interfere at all with the doctor, as he did an excellent job. I don’t believe there’s as much room for this same kind of personal chit-chat with air traffic control, but it’s hard to imagine a guy sitting there for hours on end without ever having any kind of personal communication whatsoever during the whole time; that would be a real pressure-cooker, maybe it takes a special breed to be a good air traffic controller.

[JerseyHighlander]

The job of air traffic controller in the NYC metro airspace was ranked the #1 most stressful job in North America a few years ago.

Granted that was before the recession slowed down the quantity of air travel, but the job is incredibly difficult, and has the highest or second highest turnover rate of any air traffic controller station in North America.

This guy is going out like a sucker, and just lost any jurors’ sympathy he might have had during sentencing.