Kids in the Control Tower
JOY BEHAR, HOST: Tonight on THE JOY BEHAR SHOW, his father founded the Palestinian militant group Hamas. He worked as a spy for the Israeli government. Talk about a child rebelling against the parent. This does not make for a pleasant Father`s Day. Then an air traffic controller is suspended after letting his children direct flights. And you thought all you had to worry about was a kid kicking your seat in coach. And "Project Runway" guru Tim Gunn joins me. The man knows everything about everything when it comes to fashion. Maybe he can tell us why Naomi Campbell is so pissed off all the time. That and more right now. So apparently it was take your child to workday at New York`s Kennedy airport and a veteran air traffic controller let his son take several turns directing air traffic. We`re now learning he took his daughter to work the very next day. Listen.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jet Blue 57, contact New York departure.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jet Blue 57, thank you, good day.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is the next generation of air traffic control going here.</s>BEHAR: The FAA has suspended air traffic -- the airport`s traffic controller as well as his supervisor. And I believe both children were given a time-out. So could this have resulted in a catastrophe? Or is the FAA making a big deal out of nothing? Joining me now is Fred Tecce, former federal prosecutor and aviation law attorney as well as a commercial pilot; and Jim Hall, former chairman of the NTSB which we rely on very heavily. Let me start with you, Fred. Was this as dangerous as it sounds?</s>FRED TECCE, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR AND AVIATION LAW  ATTORNEY: Actually, Joy, this was really kind of a stupid move on their part, because I think what they did is they undermined the public`s confidence in the system, which is a very, very good system. You know, as a pilot and as air traffic controllers, we`re taught to think what if, what if, what if. We always worry about what`s going to happen. And I`ve been through this scenario in this particular case. And irrespective of a catastrophic failure of an airplane, there was never any danger, because the air traffic controller never relinquished any control. He was standing there the entire time watching over what was going on.</s>BEHAR: I know but Jim, you`ve been inside these control towers. Is it normal for people to bring their children?</s>JIM HALL, FORMER CHAIRMAN, NTSB: Well, certainly not. And it`s a serious breach of the professional discipline that you would expect in a tower. And the most concerning to me is the fact that this was not self- reported and obviously there were a number of individuals that were aware of this conduct and it`s a very poor reflection on the safety culture at the Kennedy tower.</s>BEHAR: Jim, why did it take so long to find this out? Maybe it even happened before and nobody ever knew.</s>TECCE: Oh, it`s happened a lot.</s>BEHAR: Why do you think it`s taken so long, Jim?</s>HALL: I really don`t know. If this is a conduct that has been going on in that tower, then it is a serious -- a more serious safety problem than Fred suggests.</s>BEHAR: Do you think it`s something like how the police they say have a blue wall of silence and all that.</s>TECCE: Right.</s>BEHAR: Maybe, you know, when you work with these people, you say, "I`m not going to let this go out." It`s not -- as you say it`s not a big deal.</s>TECCE: I`ve heard it on the radio. I`ve heard this. This is not the first time this has happened. I can tell you it`s the last. What the flying public needs to understand is that these are very dangerous jobs and these people are very professional. And the controllers at Kennedy are like the Yankees. I mean these guys are the best of the best and you heard them when that flight went down the Hudson, you heard them instantly drop -- hop into control. But it`s not like that every second. That`s what people have to understand. And there is time --</s>BEHAR: I know. But you`re a pilot.</s>TECCE: Yes.</s>BEHAR: Would you let your son do this? Would you let your kid sit on your lap while you`re driving?</s>TECCE: Joy, my 8-year-old sits in the right front seat of my airplane and if it`s a quiet day he talks to air traffic control. I`ve done it. I`m going to tell you right now. I`m not going to let them do something stupid. And the other side of the equation on this thing is that the pilots in those airplanes heard something from that kid that they thought was inappropriate, the first thing they`d say is "unable" or "say again" and then the father would step right in.</s>BEHAR: Jim, what do you make of a pilot that would let his son sit in the cockpit like he said? What do you think of that?</s>HALL: Well, let`s keep it -- we`ll keep it to the issue that`s being discussed right now.</s>BEHAR: All right. The actions of this controller and the supervisor, I think the FAA administrator has taken the appropriate action in their suspension. They need to investigate. If this is an action that has happened before or is -- in any way a reflection of the culture of how that tower has operated, I am concerned.</s>BEHAR: Wasn`t there an incident that one of you knew, I think it was you, Jim, about some Russian pilot who --</s>HALL: While I was chairman in 1994, we had an aerial flight accident that occurred with the individual having a child sit in the seat while he was flying the aircraft. There was an inadvertent deployment of the slats, I believe, which crashed the aircraft. You know, I`m a father and a grandfather. I love my children. But you know in a professional workplace --</s>BEHAR: Hello. We love our children but not on our lap in an airplane.</s>HALL: In a professional workplace -- if that`s a distraction, it was a boneheaded move.</s>BEHAR: I`m sorry. I got to cut you off. We`re all done. I`m sure you had much more to say.</s>TECCE: I`ve got a lot of different things.</s>BEHAR: Thank you, both. We`ll be back in 60 seconds to discuss what happened when Snooki and the gang visited "The Tonight Show".