Swiss ATC near-fatal "joke."

[Larry Mudd]

Haw, haw! That French helicopter has accidentally drifted into restricted airspace near the G8 summit. Wouldn't it be funny if..?

Um, no, actually. Not funny at all. Not when fire & forget missiles that can be launched from beyond visual range are around. Lucky no-one got killed.

Arse.

[Super Gnat]

Idiots. Reminds me of the case in Florida where some pranksters removed three stop signs from their locations, leading to a fatal collision .

[Broomstick]

See, it's stuff like that that makes those of us in the US who deal with ATC on a regular basis really cranky when some asshole in the Federal government or some conservative think tank says "Hey! Let's privatize ATC - it works in Europe! Let's be like Europe!"

Uh... sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't...

A pretty fucking stupid thing to do all around.

[Zenster]

Well, at least the chopper didn't collide with a Russian airliner full of kids.

Anyone willing to put money on whether or not the ATC chap keeps his job? I can see this guy at the airport joking about a bomb in his luggage.

[lite]

Yeah, the Swiss are neutral. This is proof.

(Make up your minds you pansies)

[matt_mcl]

Reminds me of the asshole who could have gotten my dad killed when he told authorities that his business partner (dad's seat mate) was a terrorist.

(He had stayed in Montreal, and Dad and the partner were on a Mtl-Paris flight. The partners had been in a squabble.)

At least the ninny in this case was joking, not trying to maliciously wreak havoc.

[Sam Stone]

This being the enlightened Swiss, they'll probably give the guy some counselling and then give him a raise to make him more comfortable in his job or something.

The guy should never work another day behind a scope.

[CarnalK]

Broomstick-See, it's stuff like that that makes those of us in the US who deal with ATC on a regular basis really cranky when some asshole in the Federal government or some conservative think tank says "Hey! Let's privatize ATC - it works in Europe! Let's be like Europe!"

I'm no conservative but danged if I see how this incident is an argument for or against privatization.

My assumption is that a) he is an idiot and b) he thought only he could see the labels he was using. I can't imagine he knew they were being directly picked up by the military.

Or maybe he went nuts. It's a stressful job.

[Alereon]

What the FUCK is wrong with the french military that caused them to scramble fighter jets based on a goddamn ATC LABEL? This is truly one of the most idiotic things I have ever heard of. I do agree, however, that the ATCer in question is a complete fucktard, and should be forced to pay for the cost of the military operation in question as well as being fired.

_{That said, I do find the prank moderately amusing, on a very base and immature level.}