Jokes about barbecuing a cat preceded midair crash

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Two minutes after he cleared a private plane for takeoff and a fateful flight over the Hudson River, an air traffic controller at New Jersey's Teterboro Airport was on the phone with a woman in the airport operations office, joking about barbecuing a dead cat.

"We got plenty of gas in the grill?" the controller asked. "Fire up the cat."

"Ooh, disgusting, augh, that thing was disgusting," the woman responded.

According to a draft government transcript obtained by The Associated Press, the two continued to banter until seconds before the private plane collided with a tour helicopter over the Hudson.

Nine people - three members of a Pennsylvania family in the plane and five Italian tourists and a pilot in the helicopter - died in the Aug. 8 accident.


Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/nationworld/story/2123531.html

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I know that this is a weird bit of info - it's new info though, on a serious story... so I thought LBN made sense for the post.

your average conservative. :eyes:

not that the karma element caused people to die.... but part of it is that Karma and negativity distracts from the moment.... which is key in this case.

Often times, however, I get the impression that it's a long term solution ... a sort of BALANCING of energies within the universe.

But, point taken. ;) :hi:

He cleared the guy for takeoff. The takeoff was successful. His job was done.

It was the airplane pilot's fault. Nobody else's.

The repeated question has been could he have PREVENTED the crash, had he not been, in violation of FAA rules, chatting on the phone, and, instead, paying attention to his airspace - which is what he is paid for?

Or, had his supervisor been looking over his shoulder - instead of being, in violation of FAA rules, out of the facility - would the outcome have been different? This question is not answerable.

There is no question that both pilots failed in 'see-and-avoid', because traffic separation is not, when flying under visual flight rules, the responsibility of air traffic control (ATC), and thus the pilots are jointly responsible for the tragedy (and both dead, along with their passengers).

It is also possible that an alert control might have prevented the collision - even though, in the strictest sense - it was 'not his job'. Most controllers would not feel put upon to key-up the mike to save lives - which, in the larger sense, IS their job.

There is also no question that the culture in the Teterboro Tower seems not to be that of the culture of safety embraced by most ATC facilities. People were not meeting their responsibilities, and this was apparently acceptable to the facility's top management, given that at this particular moment in time two controllers felt comfortable violating the FFA operational rules - one by chatting on non-operational matters, the other by not even being in the facility during his duty hours.

with a reckless disregard for the duties they are paid to perform.

private plane that took off from a New Jersey airport heading further SOUTH in NJ doing over NYC in the first place?

Seems to me that the wealthy assholes simply wanted to sightsee and wound up killing innocent tourists.

offering additional information as to why the crash occurred.

I didn't know this bit of information. Just why WAS that pilot in that airspace? Wasn't that a violation of his flight plan? Is the FAA asking that?

His destination was south on the Jersey Shore, which is actually to the east of Manhattan.

The quickest way from Teterboro is to fly al little ways east to the VFR airspace over the Hudson River (which is not all NYCs - its the border) and then south.

There is a LOT of traffic over the Hudson. On a clear day there are various sightseeing, air taxi, police, military, private and news choppers over the river with a mix of light planes. Usually they manage to crash individually, rather than in collisions.

The Teterboro ATC had handed the Piper over to Newark ATC, which monitors, but does not control low-altitude traffic over the river.

His life is ruined, and rightfully so. Too bad some innocent people had to die.

God doesn't want to kill people, but the cat demands it.

Punishing the air traffic controller might please the CAT.

Besides, everyone knows barbecued cat tastes like shit.

joking around (who among us has never done that?) at that time, but they didn't have authority at time of crash, so for the media to continually release this info doesn't make any sense to me.