S12.E13: Air Traffic Control

[Lantern7]

Hey, my ex-Congressman got a shoutout for getting a pardon! And now, facepalm emojis. 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

I’m thinking Air Traffic was a topic that would have needed to be covered for years. The increased friction in air travel pushed it over the top and onto the screen . . . with a little nudge from serial impregnator Sean Duffy. In his defense, it was all with his wife. They subscribe to the “Every Sperm Is Sacred” theory . . . which I guess is better than “You’re All Going To Die.” Anyway, John was nice enough to feed us sugar mixed with bat guano and vagina. Bonus: the “honest ad” bit featured voice acting legend H. Jon Benjamin.

In case you thought John was kidding about Grimm threatening a reporter on live TV:

 

Edited June 3 by Lantern7

[Annber03]

23 minutes ago, Lantern7 said:

Hey, my ex-Congressman got a shoutout for getting a pardon! And now, facepalm emojis. 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Meanwhile, my Congresswoman was the one making the "You're all going to die" comment. So I will join you in the string of facepalm emojis. The fact she said that point blank to a crowd of voters, and actually smiled afterward even while they were naturally responding all, "WTF?" to that comment, just really drives home the sheer callousness of the GOP as whole. I don't understand what happens to someone to make them that cold-herated. I really, really don't.  

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In case you thought John was kidding about Grimm threatening a reporter on live TV:

 

 

 

Oh, I had no doubt he wasn't joking, because this is apparently the world we live in now, where childish bullies get their way and get to throw tempter tantrums on live TV without consequences. But I apprecaite the proof to back up the claim all the same, lest someone out there try to deny or downplay the threat. 

Anywho, yeah, hearing about all those pardons was just..so depressing. And then Trump's nonsensical golf aside when talking about that tragic plane crash. How the FUCK did we get here? What is wrong with our country? What is it going to take to make the insanity stop already? 

As for the main story, I've mentioned it before with the Boeing episode, but I watch a lot of that show "Air Disasters" and yeah, air traffic controllers deserve all the respect and admiration. I honestly do not know how they manage to keep track of everything as they do, and it was fascinating to learn about all the steps they need to take to become an air traffic controller. I agree that it's ridiculous that funding relating to our air industry is considered discretionary instead of mandatory, given how important air travel is to so many people and businesses and aspects of our lives. Even if one's never personally been on a plane themselves, I guarantee they've still benefitted in some way from the work of those in the air intustry on some levle or another. So yeah, its funding reallly should be of higher importance. I'm honestly shocked it wasn't treated as such post 9/11. 

Regarding all the concerns about the mental/emotional/physical health of air traffic controllers, there was an episode of "Air Disasters" that touched on a notable case addressing all of that. This particular tragedy didn't take place in the States, but it's a prime example of a worst case scenario for an air traffic controller and it's one of the saddest and most horrifying stories I've ever heard:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Überlingen_mid-air_collision

Edited June 2 by Annber03

[Lantern7]

1 hour ago, Annber03 said:

Meanwhile, my Congresswoman was the one making the "You're all going to die" comment. So I will join you in the string of facepalm emojis. downplay the threat.

My condolences.

Grimm wound up resigning from scandal, and the dude who filled his seat was upset by a Democrat. That gentleman lasted two years before he lost his job to a MAGA lady whose only redeeming quality is that she's neither MTG nor Boebert.

Aside from Pushing Tin, have there been movies made about air traffic controllers?

Edited June 2 by Lantern7

[peeayebee]

I forgot about the movie Pushing Tin. Re air traffic controllers, I always think of the Breaking Bad arc of a character who was an air traffic controller, and the tragedy that resulted.

10 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

The increased friction in air travel pushed it over the top and onto the screen . . . with a little nudge from serial impregnator Sean Duffy. In his defense, it was all with his wife. They subscribe to the “Every Sperm Is Sacred” theory . . .

I guess I haven't heard about this. Do the Duffy's have a lot of children?

9 hours ago, Annber03 said:

Meanwhile, my Congresswoman was the one making the "You're all going to die" comment. So I will join you in the string of facepalm emojis. The fact she said that point blank to a crowd of voters, and actually smiled afterward even while they were naturally responding all, "WTF?" to that comment, just really drives home the sheer callousness of the GOP as whole.

On the one hand, yes, we're all going to die. But on all the other hands, you don't have to push people over a cliff. 

And did you see her 'apology?' What a horrible person. Just doubling down on the cruelty and, I suppose, poking the libs, although I'm sure not all the people at the town hall who were appalled at her statement are liberals. 

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Anywho, yeah, hearing about all those pardons was just..so depressing. And then Trump's nonsensical golf aside when talking about that tragic plane crash. How the FUCK did we get here? What is wrong with our country? What is it going to take to make the insanity stop already? 

But Biden! Geez, how people can excuse all the stupid, tone-deaf, narcissistic things he says is beyond me. I know people say this all the time, but imagine if any Democrat said the things Trump does (or of course does any of the things he and his administration do), if you're honest you'll see your hypocrisy. 

Quote

 

Regarding all the concerns about the mental/emotional/physical health of air traffic controllers, there was an episode of "Air Disasters" that touched on a notable case addressing all of that. This particular tragedy didn't take place in the States, but it's a prime example of a worst case scenario for an air traffic controller and it's one of the saddest and most horrifying stories I've ever heard:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Überlingen_mid-air_collision

 

What a sad and terrifying story. It's head-shaking to read about all the factors that played into that disaster. And that poor air traffic controller. I can't imagine how he felt. His murderer was convicted of manslaughter? And then hailed as a hero? Ugh.

Pete Buttigieg asked Congress for a mandatory account and also to hire more air traffic controllers. How'd that go?

Re that segment of Fox's Dagen McConnell repeatedly saying she didn't want to curse, I don't think the audience was too amused.

 

[marina to]

10 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Aside from Pushing Tin, have there been movies made about air traffic controllers?

There's this documentary about the air traffic controllers at Gander on 9/11. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zqf1mSuyd9w

[DoctorAtomic]

I actually don't mind the paper strips. They're the highest cybersecurity defense. Any Windows OS, however, is not. 

1 hour ago, peeayebee said:

But Biden! Geez, how people can excuse all the stupid, tone-deaf, narcissistic things he says is beyond me.

You could go back to Clinton. Not just pardons, but this would be a good topic for the show - executive power. It's really gone through the roof, both parties, since 9/11, and Congress has ceded so much of its own authority that it's probably unconstitutional. 

As for the town hall meetings, who is advising these people? Don't you have anyone on the group taking the temperature of the constituents. "Hey, everyone is mad about Medicare being cut, so let's plan a good response". 

[Shrek]

37 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

 

As for the town hall meetings, who is advising these people? Don't you have anyone on the group taking the temperature of the constituents. "Hey, everyone is mad about Medicare being cut, so let's plan a good response". 

Nobody is advising them because they think they always know better or they wouldn't be in the position they are in.

 

[peeayebee]

Or they just don't do town halls to begin with.

[Annber03]

12 hours ago, peeayebee said:

On the one hand, yes, we're all going to die. But on all the other hands, you don't have to push people over a cliff. 

And did you see her 'apology?' What a horrible person. Just doubling down on the cruelty and, I suppose, poking the libs, although I'm sure not all the people at the town hall who were appalled at her statement are liberals. 

I didn't see it, but I read it, and...yeah. Fuck her. I despise her so much and I cannot wait until the day she and every other member of the GOP who's controlling my state is gone. 

And yeah, I agree, I think there's a lot of people who are otherwise conservative who had similar "WTF?" reactions, too. I certainly hope so, anyway. If that isn't someone's instant reaction to her comments they're just as despicable as she is. 

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What a sad and terrifying story. It's head-shaking to read about all the factors that played into that disaster. And that poor air traffic controller. I can't imagine how he felt. His murderer was convicted of manslaughter? And then hailed as a hero? Ugh.

Mmhm. I absolutely sympathize with the killer's grief, I truly cannot imagine the devastation of losing one's loved ones that way. 

But yeah, his anger was, obviously, grossly misplaced and I wish he'd found a far better, safer way to deal with his grief and his pain. 

I just can't imagine what it had to be like for that poor air controller, too. Just one of so, so many reasons I could never, ever do that kind of a job. Way, way too much stress for me. I absolutley understand why they need to be abundantly sure that anyone who takes that job is in the right headspace and so forth to do it. 

[DoctorAtomic]

I saw the apology video on PBS news. Again, no one told her to rethink that? 

I guess you get what you vote for. The voters could make a change. 

[Annber03]

4 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I saw the apology video on PBS news. Again, no one told her to rethink that? 

I just saw the clip on Colbert. 

I've got a LOT of choice words for her, the vast majority of which I guarantee would not be printable here. What a witch. 

[DoctorAtomic]

It's funny though. Because of she said it to a Democratic constituent, the Republican voters would all 'own the libs'. How about when it's on the other foot.

Maybe they're becoming victims of their own creations. 

[andromeda331]

Despite the serious topic this was a funny episode. Thank you for that John. Thanks for going back to the bat story. You can't start something like that and not give us details.

I've been thinking about air traffic controllers since 9/11 afterwards there were a lot of episodes about how they did their jobs. So I saw them using the papers things to place the planes. I had naturally assumed given the terror attack all that had been updated. I guess I really need to stop expecting the government to do it's job.

Majority of the politicans on both sides of the aisle fly around a lot. They are okay with their lives in the hand of over worked, exhausted employees with old crappy equipment from the 50s? I know they don't care about anyone else's lives. But their own? I've already decided not to fly any Boeing planes but the past year or so with all the near misses and one crash deciding not to fly at all. We're really, really lucky there's only been one crash.

The comments from the Congresswoman was horrifying and stupid. Why does she say it? Because she doesn't care and as a MAGA she can say whatever she wants with no fallout. As do they all.

I'm glad we do have ones there doing their jobs. They really do have one of the hardest and stressful jobs there is. Really make things easier for those guys not harder.

I liked hearing how they were training. There's no way those guys with the small toy planes aren't making airplane sounds.  

 The commercial at the end was hilariously horrifying summing up the problem. The Bees. The bats. The power going out every time someone goes the bathroom. At the end they're all standing outside when the lady opens the door and calls them back to work because no one was at their post. I did wondered that right before she said it. 

[tessaray]

14 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

I've been thinking about air traffic controllers since 9/11 afterwards there were a lot of episodes about how they did their jobs. So I saw them using the papers things to place the planes. I had naturally assumed given the terror attack all that had been updated. I guess I really need to stop expecting the government to do it's job.

I took a ground school class for beginning pilots about 20 years ago and they showed a video about the atc and those paper strips came up. They really were the most efficient way to handle things, especially the hand-offs. Any equipment used has to be FAA certified and rock solid and the computers back then just weren't good enough. When I retired a few years ago that was starting to change but it's still an incredibly expensive process. 

Edited Tuesday at 07:34 PM by tessaray

[DoctorAtomic]

Windows 95 is way more of an issue than paper strips. Just about all major cyber security incidents are unpatched systems, software, or OS. 

[andromeda331]

I forgot I loved the woman trying to figure out what the small square disk was for including the toaster. 

On 6/3/2025 at 2:17 PM, DoctorAtomic said:

Windows 95 is way more of an issue than paper strips. Just about all major cyber security incidents are unpatched systems, software, or OS. 

I don't know whether to be impressed or scared that Window 95 still works.

[DoctorAtomic]

My old desktop that's now an endtable in my home office is Vista and it turns on and you can do stuff, but it's littered with cyber weaknesses. If you check out the CSIS Significant Cyber Incidents reports, just about every hack on business systems is due to legacy OS. You can't patch Windows 95 because patches doesn't exist. 

But it's a shakedown, right? Get the new version of Windows because it's better security. That's a big cost for a business. Or, just get linux for free with free updates and you can customize it.

[tessaray]

Avionics as an industry has a lot of specialized requirements. One is the need to support equipment for decades. Once a piece of equipment has been certified, it becomes incredibly expensive to make changes. Windows 95, if not connected to the internet and virus-free, can run a lot of DOS programs, especially ones that require serial port interfaces.

I was not an engineer but did technical avionics software support. In 2021, we still had to occasionally support equipment with 3 1/2" diskettes, though they finally were starting to phase that out. 

You can't just use any OS and compiler to develop software for aircrafts. The FAA-certified version of Linux (a Linux-based OS, to be more accurate) is pretty pricey. The FAA-certified version of anything is pricey. 

Edited Thursday at 09:05 PM by tessaray

[iMonrey]

On 6/1/2025 at 11:12 PM, Annber03 said:

How the FUCK did we get here? What is wrong with our country? What is it going to take to make the insanity stop already?

Sadly, I fear nothing will. Have you ever seen the movie Idiocracy? The only thing it gets wrong is that it won't take 500 years to get there. We're pretty close to it already.

[Annber03]

I have not seen that movie, no, but I've certainly heard about it, and from what I do know about it...yeah. Evidently some people seemed to take it as a playbook instead of a warning sign. 

[DoctorAtomic]

You totally have to watch it. Holds up. 

[peeayebee]

Now it's a documentary.