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Air Traffic Controller Lands Stricken Plane By SMS

Posted by timothy on from the r-u-here-yet-lol dept.

There's a new reason to hope that the no-cell-chatter bill now under consideration in the US doesn't bring with it a Faraday-cage mandate, and that reason is landing safely. Reader ma11achy writes with an excerpt from a scary story (with an SMS-based happy ending) from the Irish Times: "Five people on a flight from Kerry to Jersey received mobile phone text instructions from a quick-thinking air traffic controller when he guided them in to a safe landing at Cork, after the plane lost all onboard electrical power, communications and weather radar soon after take-off from Kerry airport."

11 of 177 comments (clear)

  1. Oh dear by i_liek_turtles · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hay r u ok 2 land lol?

    1. Re:Oh dear by FinchWorld · · Score: 5, Funny

      BRB, cnt talk, crshing.

      --
      "I may be full of crap about this game, and I may be wrong, and that's fine." -Jack Thompson
    2. Re:Oh dear by Plutonite · · Score: 4, Funny

      haha what u crshing on she not into u lolz

  2. Re:Why didn't he just call them? by FinchWorld · · Score: 3, Funny

    Maybe this will be a boon for women in air traffic control, most can type a sms out faster than most people could speak it.

    --
    "I may be full of crap about this game, and I may be wrong, and that's fine." -Jack Thompson
  3. Once again.. by consonant · · Score: 4, Funny

    ..what would be the point of this act? To reduce passenger annoyance? Great, might as well ban cellphones in cinema halls now.

    I think a more sensible legislation would be legalizing poking obnoxious cellphone loudmouths in the eye with pencils..

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    [Slashdot Comments We Liked]
    1. Re:Once again.. by ceoyoyo · · Score: 4, Funny

      You can be thrown out of a theatre for talking on your cell phone (or having it ring). Perhaps we should indeed have the same rule for airplanes.

  4. Re:Why didn't he just call them? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    They can also start recruiting air traffic controllers right out of junior high school.

    "U r clr 4 laning lol"

  5. Re:Why didn't he just call them? by jalet · · Score: 3, Funny

    Maybe the plane was in a tunnel at that time.

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    Votez ecolo : Chiez dans l'urne !
  6. Re:Why didn't he just call them? by Fumus · · Score: 3, Funny

    That's why I love my Nokia 6822 and will never go back to any non-qwerty keyboard phone. Without any effort I could outtype the Morse code in that vid. (Though I knew the text, but then again, I don't type much. Just under 50 texts a day on average.)

  7. Re:Why didn't he just call them? by dotancohen · · Score: 3, Funny

    I don't type much. Just under 50 texts a day on average.

    I also don't read /. much. I probably hit F5 no more than 50 times a day.

    --
    It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
  8. Re:Why didn't he just call them? by ProfessionalCookie · · Score: 4, Funny

    Which is why texting is free for contract phones in the US. Dang it!