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Channel 9: How United Airlines Allowed Passengers To Listen To Live ATC Communications
When you're on board an aircraft, the only time you'll ever hear the pilots during the entire flight is when they use the public address system to make announcements and information about the flight or destination. As a frequent flyer, hearing the same generic statements can become quite dull. (www.msn.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
As a private pilot I loved listening to Channel 9. One evening, our flight from ORD to BTV was delayed due to a crew issue, but it was the last flight of the day to Burlington, so we pax were all very appreciative when United rounded up a crew, and we departed late, but at least we would get home that night. Approaching Burlington, ATC called out the airport and instructed "report the field in sight", no doubt expecting to clear us for a visual approach. I noticed we were crossing Lake Champlain on a nearly due east heading, which would have taken us right over mid field. Burlington is on a hill, and approaching from the west the airport is notoriously hard to spot due to city lights between you and the airport. The pilot got on the radio to Approach Control and confessed "Uh..Burlington Approach, it's been a while since we were up here (meaning Vermont)... where's the airport?". The controller graciously offered vectors to intercept the ILS to runway 15, and we turned north to loop around and get lined up landing to the southeast. Honesty is always the best policy!
AA back in the 80s or 90's had a channel on some of it's DC-10s where you could listen in during landings. I remember listening during a landing at DFW when the controller issued a tornado warning just as we touched down. Looked out the window & saw it parallel to the runway a couple of miles away.
In-flight magazines used to have articles that gave a glimpse of the inner workings of an airplane or the pilots activities during a flight or the number of people and systems that were involved in getting a single flight from its origin to its destination, etc. That stopped long ago, replaced by advertising for things that a kid has absolutely no interest in. With 9/11 shutting off in-flight visits to the flight deck and making even a visual glimpse inside a rarity, the audio peek into the cockpit via Ch 9 is one of the last frontiers that can attract a kid's interest and spark the beginning of an aviation enthusiast, who is likely to become one of the next generation with a love of aviation that makes for a more conscientious and dedicated and ultimately safer workforce. That would be preferable to the airlines luring people with extraordinarily high wages after shortages have crippled operations, or the ICAO allowing a pilot with training in a multi-crew operations curriculum and 240 hours total experience to fly as FO on an airplane that requires two qualified pilots and is serving a scheduled airline flight (but doesn't have the authority to fly a Cessna 152 as pilot in command), or Congress proposing to extend the retirement age of pilots to 67. Too bad the powers that be can't figure out or pay heed to what would attract people to the industry and act in a timely manner to fund it.
Check out the Civil Air Patrol, that is how I got started on my pilot path.
I'm baffled… Ch 9 (whenever I listened in) used to be the active COM frequency, i.e. whatever was received or transmitted on the tuned frequency of one of the pilots, not the interphone audio between the crew. That broadcast audio is available—live—on the internet via apps like LiveATC. So how can anything captured from Ch 9 and posted to the internet or sent to anyone be deemed a "security risk?"
Would be interesting to hear the unexpurgated version of cockpit chatter. Might raise a few eyebrows when the pilots forget the entire self-loading cargo is listening.