I have a lot of respect for air traffic controllers and what they do to keep our skies safe, and tend to think that there are "bad apples" in every industry. So while the fact that he's an air traffic controller may only be tangentially related to what happened, it still makes for an interesting…
Continue reading: Charlotte Air Traffic Controller Charged With Having A Weapon Of Mass Destruction
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Pipe bombs aren’t like magazines; you don’t just happen to have one lying around. This guy had a plan for it, he just hasn’t divulged it or it hasn’t yet solidified...independent if whether or not it was aviation-related. Their sole intent is to hurt, maim, and destroy. Try this numbnuts then, if found guilty, punish him to the full extent of the law.
Just call it a clock and get an invite the White House. Oh wait, not anymore, we have an American there now.
That quote is the stupidest quote I have ever seen.
Obviously, ATCOs don't have direct access to any aircraft. All we do is make everything separated and safe, and make the traffic flow effective and smooth through damn good vectors and godlike speed control.
But with the alarming amount of people thinking Air Traffic Controllers are those guys with sticks on the ramp, I guess the existence of the quote is, if not justified, at least understandable.
About the headline: Do you perhaps mean “improvised explosive device” — IED — instead of “weapon of mass destruction” — WMD? One’s a pipe bomb; the latter’s generally an atomic weapon or suburb-killing amount of nerve gas.
Guess the headline stems from the actual charges vs. Dandan. (BTW, it might be irrelevant, but Dandan is a Lebanese last name.)
Seriously, William Y made a statement about killing a former US president, which, joking or not, is a U.S. Federal offense. Presumably this site will be referring him to the Secret Service?
Dandan is actually an excellent noodle soup available in Cathay Lounges in Hong Kong - so yummy!