Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Hurray for Air Traffic Controllers



Fast Thinking Boston Air Traffic Controller
Saves Hundreds of Lives on Two JetBlue Planes

I love competence.

"JetBlue hold. JetBlue 1264 hold right there. JetBlue 1264 Hold! Hold!"

JetBlue 1264 at Boston's Logan Airport with 91 passengers plus crew was taxing to the gate the night before Thanksgiving (back in November, 2010.) It should have gone left but instead went right.

Fail.

The ground controller spotted the error and had I264 stop literally seconds before it would have entered an active runway, with another JetBlue aircraft speeding in from the right on its take-off roll at well over 100 miles-per-hour, faster and faster.

JetBlue 1264 stopped three to five seconds from a two-aircraft fireball with hundreds of lives up in flames. (Watch the video -- judge for yourself.)

The ATC had been on the job 32 years. Experience, competence, counts.

Well done, sir. Well done.

FOX25 in Boston has more.