Hilarious ATC conversation!

[jran225]

Hey guys and girls,

I already posted this as a reply to a thread in the A.net forums, but just to make sure that none of you misses out on the fun, I'll post it here again. Alright, story and transcripts are below and I'd recommend downloading the archived ATC files from http://www.liveatc.net.

Alright, this all happened very early this morning. Most of the Euro-heavies that had diverted to IAD yesterday are getting ready to depart JFK. One such flight is VS46, a 744 (G-VXLG). They are about to have two very funny conversations with the tower. If you want to listen to the archieved files, I've included the approximate times. First one starts at about 0133 and goes on for about three minutes. Apparently VS notices some ice building up on the wing while in the queue for 31R and requests to exit the queue and return to the deicing pad. Tower ignores his request at first and is then quite rude to him. Towards the end, you will notice the pilot muttering "unbeleivable". Turns out that there is no way for them to exit the line, so they decide to send some VS mechanics to check out the wing. An entire hour passes by and VS is now close to the holding point. He's waiting for the maintenance escort and holding up all other departing traffic while doing so. Now, you can download the archieved tower files from 0200-0300. The fun with VS46 starts shortly before 0227 and continues on-and-off for about 30 minutes.

At one point an American Airlines flight that is holding right behind Virgin decides to intervene:

Tower: "Tower 132 Kennedy?"
AA132: " Yeah, we've got some irate people inside here and how long is this Virgin gonna be? We're ready to go."
Tower: "Ok sir, well if you can't get back then I guess it shouldn't be too long if he moves."
AA132: "Yeah, we would have taken another way to the runway there, but...ok."
Tower: "It's the only way to get there."
.
.
.
Tower: "Uhhhm, Virgin 46?"
VS46: "Go ahed."
Tower: "You gonna be much longer sir?"
VS46: "We're in position sir, we're just waiting for our escort."
Tower: "Is it gonna be a while, cause the flight behind you CAN depart."
VS46: "Say again, Virgin 46."
Tower: (louder) "Yes sir, there's a flight behind you that can depart..uhm..the runway. I'm not sure whether you're aware of that.."
VS46: "Yes, we are quite aware of that, we're just asking for a couple more minutes at the holding point."

Hahahahaha, now AA132 decides to directly confront VS46.
AA132: "Tower, 132."
Tower: "132, Kennedy."
AA132: "Uhh, is Virgin waiting for an Escort to come out?"
Tower: "Yeah, he can't move [filler - tower is getting quite frustrated and panicked] so in the meantime you have to hold there. What do we do?"
AA132: "Ok, we're just getting close to our minimum fuel and I'm just curious if, uhm, he's gonna move?"
Tower: "He's gonna move soon sir."
[Flight XX]: "That's ridiculous what Virgin is doing here.
AA132: "It is."
VS46: "You guys obviously don't think about safety reasons."
[Flight XX]: "Like saving up fuel enough for the takeoff and coming back to wait for you guys (VS)." --> Hahahaha, he got burned! :P
AA132: "Please just shut up."
.
.
AA132: "Your engines are clear, just if you wanna know."
VS46: "No thanks, we're waiting for our escort."
A132: "Your wings are clear too."

For what it's worth, VS46 still hasn't departed JFK. I feel for those passengers - they taxi around the airport for almost six hours just to return to the gate. Hopefully VS reimbursed them accordingly!

Have a good one, my New York spotting mates! :)

Regards,
-Omar S. 8) [/b]

[cancidas]

ouch.... glad that i wasn't out there that night. although, if i were single i would have been at wok that night dealing with the same **** at LGA.

[AA 777]

ouch.... glad that i wasn't out there that night. although, if i were single i would have been at wok that night dealing with the same **** at LGA.

AFAIK LGA was closed till 6am today, so you wouldnt have had to worry about it Matt :D

As for the JFK mess, I was up till 3am listening to JFK Tower and all I can say is wow....talk about everything going wrong in one night. From Europe bound flights that took off 5-6 hours after pushback, planes going back to the gate because they burned too much fuel taxing, to the controller yelling at planes, to pilots yelling at other pilots, to a couple of medical emergencies with no where to go on the taxiways, to planes waiting for 2 hours for a gate after waiting 5 hours for takeoff and then not taking off we had it ALL! Oh, and not to forget the Turkish that went off the runway!

-Matt

[jran225]

Should have just kept the airport closed until morning and sent more stuff down here to IAD....haha, I wish! :P

Regards,
-Omar S. :)

[K9DEP]

Yeah the pilot that said "It's rediculous what Virgin is doing here" is a Kuwaiti Airlines pilot because later in the conversation the controller says "Kuwait xxx are you going to the gate or . . .?" and then Kuwait says "No we're going to London", it was cool. I have the whole thing on my mp3.