Summary

  • Air Traffic Controllers ensure flight safety by guiding aircraft but can have lighthearted moments.
  • The aviation industry is a family affair with relatives working together, even proposing over the radio.
  • Hollywood films like Airplane! and Planes depict humorous interactions with air traffic control.

Air Traffic Controllers are often overlooked in commercial aviation and are often only depicted as voices over the radio instructing pilots to do one thing or another. Nonetheless, these individuals ensure that all flights take off on time and land safely.

The nature of air traffic control is relatively straightforward: They guide aircraft onto the correct runways and taxiways and manage large airspace sectors. However, the slightest mistake by an air traffic controller could prove catastrophic, so they are almost always seen and portrayed extremely seriously.

Related

US Airlines Call For Urgent Air Traffic Controller Hiring In ‘Staff the Towers’ Initiative

The US has a severe air traffic control shortage that airlines say needs to be solved urgently.

Nonetheless, there have been a few memorable moments in which exchanges between air traffic controllers have turned humorous, bringing a lighthearted energy to communications with the cockpit that is often overlooked. In this article, we will take a deeper look at some of our favorite moments with air traffic control, in which they managed to get a good laugh out of all of us.

A family affair

A love for aviation often runs in the blood, and it is not unusual for multiple generations of the same family to work in the industry together. For example, recent years have seen mother-daughter pilot pairings operate flights at both Hawaiian Airlines and Southwest Airlines. In the video below, we can also see that relatives can encounter one another on the airwaves and be very proud to do so.

Staying on the topic of family matters, the video below depicts an audacious marriage proposal attempt. In this instance, a lovestruck controller guided the flight that his partner was on and liaised with its pilots to ask her to marry him over the radio. Was the attempt successful? You’ll have to watch and find out!

Unfortunately, not all marriages last, meaning air traffic controllers might find themselves directing a flight onboard with their former husband or wife. Such a situation involving a JetBlue flight resulted in the situation depicted below.

Happy birthday!

The aviation industry is a close-knit community. While many pilots will never meet the controllers they speak to over the airwaves in person, there is significant respect and camaraderie between the two parties. As such, when it became clear that it was this controller’s birthday, the pilots in the area weren’t going to pass up the opportunity to send their best wishes to the birthday girl.

The wrong audience

While aircraft cockpit crew primarily converse with air traffic controllers, their role sometimes involves announcing to passengers. The nature of these two types of communications can be rather different, so the last thing they’d want to do is broadcast their message to their passengers on an ATC frequency, right? However, this sometimes happens, as seen below.

I guess it just goes to show that everybody’s human! In any case, it’s nice to see the other users of the frequencies in question get it on the joke, enjoying the moment but relieved that it wasn’t them. Here’s one more for luck!

On the big screen

Comical air traffic control conversations have also made their way onto the big screen. Perhaps the most notable is this exchange between Victor Basta, Roger Murdock, and Clarence Oveur from Airplane!

In this instance, one of the cockpit crew being called Roger caused considerable confusion, given that the word is also sometimes used on the airwaves to confirm that a particular transmission has been understood. Simple Flying examined this subject last year, and you can read our article on the matter here.

Related

Do Movies About Aviation Realistically Portray Life In The Cockpit?

A handful of observations about plane movies.

But the confusion did not end there. The captain attempted to confirm the aircraft’s directional vector with the navigator, Victor, again leading to a humorous exchange with air traffic control. Lastly, even more confusion occurred when attempting to establish whether the aircraft had clearance for takeoff, something yet again complicated by the pilot’s name, Clarence.

This is not the only time in Airplane! during which we get to see the humorous side of air traffic control. A later scene in the movie shows the interior of the control tower, including dozens of similar plays on words and even a bizarrely placed laundry machine.

The last notable example of humorous air traffic control interactions we will discuss comes from yet another Hollywood film. In the 2013 movie Planes, the protagonist (which happens to be a single-engine utility aircraft) is preparing to land at the notoriously busy John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)).

In this exchange, the protagonist, who has never flown to such a large airport before, is confused by the air traffic controllers’ directions. Somehow, he finds the runway and admires how nicely paved it is, just as a massive Boeing 747 lands behind him, forcing him onto the apron. Later, the protagonist is guided around the facility by a polite American Airlines Boeing 777, something which led to an unforgettable American Airlines commercial:

What are your favorite air traffic control conversations? If you’re a pilot or a controller, have you ever had any memorable encounters on the airwaves? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *