I Can’t Forget

I don’t know if John Carr realized it when he wrote that piece for us yesterday...I don’t know if he listens to country music. But it shares the same theme as an Alan Jackson song. I love that song. Have a listen.

Drive

I also want to say this -- as I have in several other places. The controller’s actions at JFK were dumb -- but they weren’t dangerous.

The FAA’s (and the media’s) response to it so far has also been dumb. Let’s try to keep it from becoming dangerous. This story has already been blown out of proportion. If the FAA’s response to it gets out of hand -- if they try to fire this controller -- things will get ugly.

Controller’s make judgment calls all day, every day. Occasionally they’ll make a bad one. Everybody recognizes that this is one of those times. But the controllers know where this call falls on the scale. And it’s nothing in comparison to running an entire ATC facility on a software system that you know is full of bugs.

To fire a controller for what is a minor infraction while promoting people and paying bonuses for a major failure will just be a continuation of the same FAA culture that has been so destructive in the past. If people want to worry about a danger, worry about this one.

Don Brown
March 6, 2010

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