Controller error

An air traffic controller showed an astonishing lack of judgment when he allowed his two young children to take over his job instructing pilots on takeoff.

The controller took his son and then his daughter to work at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York during a midwinter school break and allowed them to transmit instructions.

Nothing went wrong. The flights departed without incident, but the controller and his supervisor have been suspended. The incident violated Federal Aviation Administration policies and "common-sense standards for professional conduct," said Randy Babbitt, administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration.

The FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association sought to reassure the flying public that the incident was an aberration.

Distractions, though, however brief, can be deadly. Last summer, nine persons died in a midair collision of a sightseeing helicopter and a small plane near New York City. A controller was on the phone to a friend and missed a pilot's error regarding radio frequency that left controllers unable to reach the pilot of the plane just before the crash.

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said the "isolated occurrences" did not indicate broader safety problems or "reflect the true caliber of our work force." However, other aviation industry observers question whether the incidents reflect a growing casualness toward safety.

FAA rules allow visitors in the control towers, but that practice has been suspended during the investigation. Traffic control towers are no places for distracting visitors.