Yet in a country where some people seem always ready to be either enraged or terrified, sure enough: 27% said they would be "enraged" while 9% said they would be "terrified." A more level-headed majority, 62%, said, "Meh. Nothing happened and he was being supervised." Good for the majority.
The FAA was less sanguine. Calling the incident "unauthorized and unprofessional," the agency suspended the controller and his supervisor with pay pending the outcome of an investigation.
These events don't need a federal investigation. They need a healthy dose of common sense. Was there a violation of rules? Yes, twice. But not every rule violation is a firing offense. There was no gross dereliction here; there was no lack of oversight. Lives and property were never at risk. And if any of the pilots involved had any concerns at all, they would have reported the incident themselves.
The media deserve a special FAIL for their sensational, overhyped coverage. They blew the incident completely out of proportion.It was an invented story on a day when there was much else more newsworthy.
Now the two nine-year-olds are blaming themselves: "We cost Daddy his job!" I hope that's not true. Maybe on their next vacation the kids can try news reporting. They would probably do a better job than the mainstream media did on this story this week. For sure, it would be hard for them to do any worse.
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