Take Your Child to Work Day hits JFK airport in New York City, and hilarity ensues … until the FAA finds out about it. The control room supervisor and the dad have been suspended for allowing a young child to give direction to planes queuing to depart the airport. Big deal or just a harmless diversion for pilots and controllers? MS-NBC had the audio today on Morning Joe, thanks to the site LiveATC:

Speaking as a white-knuckle flyer, I don’t find this particularly amusing. Taking a child in the control room to see Daddy or Mommy do the job is probably acceptable, although one has to wonder just how distracting that would be to the parent in a role where distractions could cost lives. Interestingly, though, none of the pilots seemed to mind, so perhaps this is just a tempest in a teapot.

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