What Air Traffic Controllers & Pilots Say During Delays

Six months ago, ice storms on Valentine's Day walloped airlines, especially JetBlue, at the area airports. WABC 7 got a hold of some tapes between air traffic controllers and pilots on that crazy day where some flights were lingering on runways for more than seven hours, even up to 13 hours. Here are two of our favorite conversations:

Air Traffic Control 1: "These [flights] were there before I got here. You got JetBlue 80, 1048, 620, 1060 and 850. They've been there with passengers for about 4,5, 6 hours."
Air Traffic Control 2: "Jeez."

.........................

Air Traffic Control: "Did you run out of fuel yet?"
Pilot: "Luckily we only have 50 people on board. I was just going to call Domino's."
Air Traffic Control: "Your company just cancelled one to New Orleans and waited at de-ice station for 5 hours."
Pilot: "What a day."

Domino's? We wonder what kind of tips do iced-in airline pilots give delivery people.

The crazy February delays (Jet Blue canceled hundreds of flights) led the NY State Legislature to create an Airline Passenger Bill of Rights. Recently, some reports showed how flights have had near misses at LaGuardia, which some blame on the FAA's poor staffing of air traffic controllers.

Photograph of passengers waiting for flights to leave JFK during a July thunderstorm by hmmlargeart on Flickr

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on August 15, 2007 2:58 PM

Comments [rss]

guest

It's easy to fix this problem. The problem is there are too many flights scheduled for the same time. There are times of the day when there are very very few flights coming out or coming in. I'm talkin bout 2 am, 12 am, 4 am.... 11 pm, 5 am... these kinda times. When did your last flight depart at 11 pm? I cant remember ever taking one.

The govt needs to regulate a bit and force airlines to schedule more flights during these unpopular times. Too many are during regular business hours. If flight schedules were more spread out, we could avoid these near collisions and outrageous delays.

-Andrew

The government needs to prohibit private corporate jets from taking up valuable prime-time landing slots at popular airports. Let them go to a less popular airport or land during the middle of the night. Each coroporate jet takes up the same space as a commercial jet yet only has a few passengers.

30% of air traffic in New York is corporate jets.

- Bob Goatse

Toby von Meistersinger

All I can say is Domino's would be perfect airline food - mass processed crap.

Now the aviation world is filled with wonderful phrases like controlled flight into terrain which translates into plane crashes into ground.

guest

It's easy to fix this problem. The problem is there are too many flights scheduled for the same time. There are times of the day when there are very very few flights coming out or coming in. I'm talkin bout 2 am, 12 am, 4 am.... 11 pm, 5 am... these kinda times. When did your last flight depart at 11 pm? I cant remember ever taking one.

The govt needs to regulate a bit and force airlines to schedule more flights during these unpopular times. Too many are during regular business hours. If flight schedules were more spread out, we could avoid these near collisions and outrageous delays.

-Andrew

guest

The second quote wasn't "out of fuel," it was "out of FOOD"

WhittySmitty

This is what I don't get about the Passenger Bill of Rights thing, it's for flights delayed OVER THREE HOURS!!! 3 hours is a loooong time. It should be more like 1.5 or 2. Why 3???

schadenfreudian mensch

Too bad this will be be business as usual for most flights.

http://news.aol.com/story/ar/_a/irate-airline-passengers-threaten-to-sue/20070814133609990001