Thursday, March 4, 2010

You let your kid do WHAT?!?!

You’ve heard about the psycho air traffic controller who brought his kid to work right? Not only did he bring him to work, he also let him direct traffic. Huh?!?! And by directed traffic I mean, he gave takeoff instructions. To planes. To planes FULL of people at one of the world’s busiest airports. Is he kidding? Last I checked JFK was not a pre-school playground with big-wheels racing around the swing set. Did he really think this was a good idea? That he wouldn’t get caught? Because, sir, I’m pretty sure normal protocol is not to say, “adios, amigos” when a plane departs. Call me crazy. And you know what else? This wasn’t a one time deal. He did it twice! And quite frankly, I’m furious. Hundreds of innocent lives were put at risk, for what? What did this guy get out of this little charade? Well, it got him and his supervisor suspended for one thing. You know what I think? I think people are idiots. In a world where so much devastation is in our news every single day, the idea that someone potentially could have created more senseless devastation, it makes me sick to my stomach.

I flew twice last year; once to Vegas and once to NYC. Flying, it’s not my favorite thing to do. Once in the air, I’m fine. Landing, well, it should be the best part because that means you will soon be out of the air, not for me. When the plane slows down for landing, I know we’re still traveling at an ungodly speed, but to me, it feels like we’ve stopped in mid-air. And then they rev the engine and we speed up. And then they repeat. Uh…what’s that about? And I know what the sound of the landing gear coming down is, but nevertheless, it scares me every time. And the ears, oh how it kills my ears to land. To the point where there are tears in my eyes and I’m rocking back and forth in agony. The pain, it’s almost unbearable. But you want to know what the worst part is for me? Taking off. It terrifies the living hell out of me. It’s unnatural; traveling at that speed in something that large and just lifting off the ground. It shouldn’t happen. But it does.

This is not my plane. Nor is this taken from the air. It's actually taken from the top of our hotel in Vegas.

This was flying into NYC in December.

Once, after being stranded in Boston for 5 hours due to storms up and down the east coast, our flight was finally cleared for departure. It was still storming. And, if I’m not mistaking, it was after midnight. It was the single scariest thing I’ve experienced in all my life, that takeoff. I held Cassie’s hand and forced myself to sleep. When we landed in Atlanta, the boys said it was the smoothest takeoff ever. They must have smoked something and not shared it with us before that flight.

Point is, flying will forever and for always be mind-boggling to me. And now this; I have to worry about CHILDREN giving my pilots flight instructions? Do I think this guy needed to be suspended? No. I think he should have been fired on the spot. I know it’s a tough economy, I wouldn’t wish unemployment on anyone, but he took it too far. And if the story comes out that he’s a single dad whose wife died of cancer and he had nothing else to do with his child while he was at work, well, I’ll probably feel horrible. But, that does NOT grant you the liberty to put hundreds of other people’s lives in danger. It just doesn’t. Whatever happened to coloring books and crayons to keep kids occupied??

No comments:

Post a Comment