What I'm watching on Youtube this week: air traffic control videos

Still exploring the endless genres in Youtube, this week I came across air traffic control videos.

This is where people have recorded actual conversations between aircraft and air traffic controllers.

There are some that are humorous, there are some arguments, and some that will keep you riveted to find out what happens.

As an example of the latter, watch this video about a 17 year old female student pilot on a solo flight. After taking off she gets told by ATC that another pilot witnessed her landing gear fall off.

Or another video about an 80 year old woman who has to try and land a plane after her pilot husband suffers a heart attack and dies at the controls.

There's plenty of other videos where private pilots, often travelling solo or with family, have to perform emergency landings due to technical faults. Most have a happy ending, but not all, and these videos will give you an insight into how well controlled and rehearsed handling aircraft emergencies is... And how often it happens. Here's an example.

For some lighter hearted videos, you should look for videos about Kennedy Steve, an ATC working at NYC's busy JFK Airport. Steve likes to make a few jokes (when appropriate) but has no time for pilots who don't follow his instructions.

Or how about this video about a guy who somehow managed to steal an aircraft, take off and fly around, despite no flight experience other than video games!

If you've heard of an aircraft incident or crash, chances are the audio is on Youtube and you can listen in to what happened. Many of the videos include original video footage, maps showing where the aircraft went, and some include flight simulator recreations of the incident.

Many of the videos are of course very sad, and you may not want to fly for a while afterwards. However, you will be inundated with travel advertisements while watching these.