I got told to call the tower only once. The controller told me to do something, I did it, and then he asked why I did that and told me to call the tower once I was on the ground. I did. The controller apologized to me. He said he listed to the tape and he had misunderstood my position report so he asked me to do something that he didn't really want me to do. As I said, he apologized and thanked me for dealing with the situation he had created. It truly isn't ALWAYS bad when you have to call the tower.

Honestly, she spoke so fast about hold short, I’m not surprised the pilots missed it.

*in my career as ATC, I had hundreds of VFR departures picking up IFR airborne; in a lot of instances, this helped out both us and the pilots* *that woman talks way way too fast, I don't care how busy she is, primary rule is "CLEAR CONCISE TIMELY communications"*

I love how the pilot of Vistajet 868 never lost composure or acted unprofessionally towards the tower controller - he remained calm, complied with the ATC instructions and never once had a hint of any attitude about it. Awesome!

A friend of mine once mentioned this phrase to me: "When the FAA invites you to a BBQ, make sure you are not the pig"

"Call the tower" = "Go to the principal's office"

I remember several years ago coming in to land at Dubai airport and we are within a couple of hundred feet and next thing the plane starts vibrating and the engines throttle right up and I’m thinking pants what the heck is wrong 😳😳😳 after we had climbed away from the runway the pilot came on the PA and he apologised for the vibration and explained that “some idiot air traffic controller cleared us to land with someone still on the runway” I could tell he was not very impressed with ATC 🤣🤣🤣

Agree with Kelsey. That ATC should've also insisted they clearly confirmed a readback of hold short of 22R, a crucial instruction of a runway incursion point from the other pilots was an error on their part

I don’t know how I got to this channel and I surprisingly can’t stop watching.

It's funny - I don't like to fly, know nothing about aviation, but love Kelsey's videos because they're so darn interesting and I like his humor!

Telling someone to hold short and actually enunciating the words 'hold short' are two different things.

As a non-pilot, I love your explanations, they really help me understand what's going on. I hope you get that fourth stripe soon, you deserve it!

As a controller, a foreign registered Global Express, operating under a call sign, requesting to stay in the traffic pattern vfr would be a massive red flag for me to clarify. That’s exceptionally unusual.

Sometimes ATCs be like: I'm beginning to feel like a rap god, rap god All my colleagues from the front to the back nod, back nod

Back in the 90's I used to travel doing trade shows. At the time, free breakfast buffets were not in every major hotel. I would find the hotel with a free breakfast buffet closest to the airport. So I always ate near flight crews. It got to the point where I would bump in to the same people in different parts of the country, and started having conversations with them.

The controller told the pilots to hold short so fast that I couldn’t even understand what she said.

The hold short story of Delta 253 and situational awareness reminds me of United 1448 at Providence Road Island in 1999. They made a wrong turn in the fog and wound up on the active runway and were just barely missed by another plane taking off. When United 1448 radioed the tower saying someone just took off and they are on an active runway the controller didn't believe them. The controller ignored United and cleared another plane for take off. That other plane listening declined take off twice after the controller kept clearing him for take off. I would like to see you do a video on that event.

Calling the tower reminded me of a time in flight training my instructor and I were come back to the airport north bound from kpuw to ksff and we were instructed to make a right base for 22R. We called to confirm what we heard. The controller corrected himself and then told us to call the tower upon parking. My instructor went inside and called as I finished the shut down check list. The controller wanted to just apologize for the mess up and thanked us for the correction.

Some notes on the Seattle snafu: 1) The pilot had already received his IFR clearance on the ground. At the time of departure, his route and schedule were fully cleared by all echelons of ATC. 2) The jet could not meet the minimum climb requirements of the active runways 14 (due to terrain/obstruction clearance). Therefore the jet had to depart opposite direction, runways 32. 3) This against-traffic departure was approved by Ground, with the caveat that it needed to be VFR, and they could resume their IFR clearance airborne. 4) The ground controller said that they'd coordinate this with tower. 5) Obviously, the ground controller forgot. The IFR flightstrip that ground had prepared was never passed to tower. Tower had no idea that there was any IFR clearance for the jet, or why the heck it was taking off the wrong way. 6) I assume that the tower controller has seen weirder at a busy GA airport like that, based on the non-asking-for-clarification. 7) The lynchpin comes when the pilot says "departing to the north destination Athens", he did not say "we have IFR clearance". He still thinks tower has a flightstrip somewhere around, and that stating the destination will enable tower to locate the IFR flightstrip. 8) Tower says "not gonna give you your IFR clearance airborne". There again seems to be some terminology confusion here, because the pilot should have said "I don't need a new clearance, we already have IFR clearance, find our strip!"; clearly the pilot misunderstands "not gonna give you your IFR clearance" as "we won't let you depart VFR and then resume the previous clearance", as opposed to "we won't create a new clearance and routing from scratch" which is what tower meant. 9) "Aren't you able to negotiate?" further demonstrates the pilot's misunderstanding of USA terminology for IFR, he thinks he's talking about resuming the old/current/active plan, whereas tower thinks he's bitching about how controllers should bend over backwards to make new clearances airborne. The query about landing, and the response to it, further distracts both of them. It's clear to me that 1) the proximate cause of this fuss was the ground controller having one of the worst brainfarts of their life, and completely failing to give tower the active IFR strip, as well as brief tower about the unusual departure that went with the IFR strip. Ground deserves the most blame for this incident. 2) The deeper underlying issue, which caused the relatively-benign proximate cause to spiral out of control, was the british pilot's unfamiliarity with USA IFR terminology and/or slang. I'm not a pilot, and don't know what is an international standard vs USA standard, but there was clearly all kinds of miscommunication about how exactly IFR works between the pilot and tower. Divided by a common language indeed. Probably the pilot bears more blame than tower, but tower had plenty of opportunity to ask for clarification about the strange circumstances (tho again, I assume that such non-asking is a result of tower having seen weirder before). Probably the best that could come out of this is if international and USA phraseology about IFR clearances could be standardized. Or maybe the pilot really was just an idiot, but I'm inclined to think a structural gap exists here.

I really appreciate how you break down the "boring details" as you call it. I've listened to live ATC at my local airport, and find they talk so stinkin' fast that I can't make out what they are saying most of the time. Watching your vids is a great help for me in learning ATC lingo. Hopefully one day, I'll be able to do that without scratching my head and wondering what the heck they just said. Keep it up!

You know ever since the Tenerife and the catastrophic results ATC and the volume of planes inbound and taking off would be more of a priority and more attention to these details. Every time I see close calls I think of that accident. The scary thing is as we all know the possibility is still real today.

Controllers are required to get a readback of all hold short instructions. We used to include "Readback all hold short instructions" on the ATIS.

The Delta 300 incident. That controller was talking faster than the terms and conditions guy at the end of adverts. It's no surprise those pilots missed the hold short instruction. Controller takes a 50% claim in the fault here, the other 50% being the Delta 300 pilots. They should have caught that the other flight was cleared for take off on the runway they were about to cross.

Some controllers also get in a hurry and talk like they have a mouthful of marbles, which can make things very difficult to understand. When in doubt, ask for a repeat... and never be afraid to tell the tower to slow down their delivery.

She was definitely at fault too. It was complete gibberish when she talked.

I think if the controller with the "hold of 22 right," statement had spoken slower it might have been heard and understood better by the pilots.

Lately I have seen so much death, hopelessness and peoples lives getting ruined by the choices they had taken. Thank you for being you, hearing you say "coming up" is one thing that makes me know that for the next couple minutes I'll be away from all that. Thank you

Love you Kelsey!!!💝 Your explanations are so clear, I can understand everything. Watching your videos calms my fear of flying.

thank you for explaining the "boring stuff" so well.

This guy ROCKS! I subscribe to a lot of channels, but out of all of them, on a list of people I would like to sit down and have a beer and a conversation with.....he's definitely at the top of the page. I wish the best of all things to all who read this......

The combination of pilot skills and a great personality is becoming a necessity! 74 gear, thanks!

JFK is a busy place, but the controller handling Delta 300 sounded like she'd had about 15 cups of coffee in the last hour. Yeah, pilot error, but her 600 words a minute broadcasts were not helping.

When he says coming up It's so satisfying to hear Thank you sir

These people are experienced and it's really hard not to let it go over people's minds. Overconfidence just kicks in with time and it can be disastrous.

I've just got back from a long day at work and I see this recommended in my feed. What a great uplift to the end of a hard day! Thanks for your videos Kelsey, love from Yorkshire xx

I know I'm not a member of the club (pilot) but the ATC order to hold sort is garbled at best, still the pilot should have asked for clarification and asked politely if ATC could drop the speed at witch they speak to under one thousand words per second. I think they both deserve a talking too.

I’m always amazed that pilots can maintain situational awareness, mainly because I can’t go to the supermarket without GPS. I have a good friend who’s now a commercial captain and, after many tries, we finally coordinated our schedules so he could fly my family home. Knowing my own lack of navigational skills, I actually asked him, “You know how to get there, right??” HNL-JFK

Totally off topic, but with all your flying how many times a week do you actually get to sleep at your own home?

Is it just me or is Air Traffic Control often not really articulating as well as they should be?

"holdshortarunway22rightwhat is your gate number"... she makes 2 different statements very fast, it's not surprising they didn't hear the first bit.

I'm terrified of planes but I love to travel, your videos are helping me get over my fear and understand aviation safety to where I do not believe I will blow up in the sky or suddenly burst into flames!

Bad day at the office for that Air Traffic Controller.

Some of these pilots and controllers talk so fast and don't enunciate very well. It's not surprising that mistakes get made. If the radio has a bit of static, you might miss something if the person is talking fast. Seems like they should talk slowly and clearly at all times.

Thanks for the video! I’m a student pilot and constantly learning and improving my ATC communication skills 😅. Takes some getting used to but these kinds of videos drive home the value of making sure you’re on top of it and crystal clear about the instruction you have been given.

GREAT DETAIL GIVEN on what's going on. Gives you something fun to do in your down time that we non-pilots who still love the idea of flying can enjoy the insights and mayhem!

I was flying a 172 out of SYR years ago, and heard/witnessed a runway incursion involving a USAir DC-9 and a company F-28. SYR has two runways 10/28 & (then) 14/32 (now 15/33). The DC-9 was instructed to “Taxi rwy 28 on Alpha, hold short of rwy 32” which they read back. I’m sitting on the opposite side of 28, finishing my run up, and look up to watch the DC-9 blunder right out into 32! Simultaneously, a company F-28 was cleared to position & hold on 32. At this point the ground controller went off (rightfully) “USAir ### you were NOT cleared to cross that runway! You were instructed to hold SHORT of 32 on Alpha!” One would think the DC-9 would’ve hustled across, and apologized. Instead they made a 180 in the middle of the runway, replying “ok, but we don’t see WHY.” The controller blew his stack at that- “you don’t see WHY?? When you finish your unauthorized 180, you’ll see a company F-28 off the left side in position and about to roll!!” Not knowing when to shut up, our hero in the DC-9 replied “well, they better not do it now, or there’ll be a hell of a mess...” Yes, they were given a number to call. Love to know what became of that crew.

I remember hearing the full audio including ground clearance a little while ago. I believe they filed the IFR clearance on the ground, but requested a different runway due to ?obstruction at end of their given runway while on Clearance - clearance advised them to take off in the pattern then they would be cleared for the IFR. There was miscommunication between tower, ground and pilot leading to this situation! It's a shame the full audio is not in the liveatc archive anymore :/

“Call the tower” doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s bad.” Me: “…Ahhhhh yeah, it does. 😝

I know the feeling, I was a passenger in a Piper Warrior with a 17 year old pilot who nearly taxied us straight into the path of a taking of Jumbo jet at Melbourne Int Airport. The tower was screaming at him to stop, he hit the brakes so hard we nearly had a prop strike. Within seconds of stopping this huge jet just went thundering past us.

To the pilot’s credit the controller was mumbling.

This channel is growing on me...Subscribed...Really liked how Stern that ATC woman was...She seems to really care what the heck can go Wrong and was not taking any Crap from the Pilot

There's something that I enjoy enormously about the way you deliver your "coming up" Kelsey. Hahaha. Thank you for your content. :)

Your content is awesome! You do an amazing job breaking down all these situations and aviation in general. Love the chanel, Thanks for being awesome.

Great channel, Kelsey. I've tried a few other aviation channels, keep coming back to yours. Pacing and content always wins. 🤘

I've seen this constantly while doing service work at KSEA. I've even seen some planes that are being towed by mechanics almost run into taxing aircraft. If you're ever in the Seattle area again let me buy you a beer for all the great content you produce!

Lol the ATC was thinking “holy shit!!!!” I applaud him for staying calm despite the chaotic situation.

The major cause of the runway incursion was ATC’s lack of communication discipline. She raced through the clearance and never got a read back. Delta’s only fault was not asking her to repeat since they clearly didn’t understand the first part of her transmission, but other than that they complied with the clearance as they had previously been given.

Ik what he means, I just thought it was funny when he said “VFR, where there’s no rules”

Love your channel. There are 2 career fields that I would have pursued if not the one that I chose. One would have been as an ATC - just seems to be non stop action of something important. I am glad you include them often in your videos. That's what I will do in my next life LOL

I related the 'last one' to my wife. We BOTH had a good laugh about the "buffet" and 38.0 !! -- Thank you for the grins and laughs!!

Video 1 is the reason I love jfk Steve ATC , he would always refer to the private jets as the 1 percent. He would be professional with the crew of the private jets , do everything as required and professional , but would always warn the heavy’s especially, “give way to 1 percent and remain vigilant” he was a legend . Would love to see you react to some of his ATC funny interactions … he is a educator for ATC now

I have never commented on your videos before, but just wanted to say you have great content. I work on the railways and no one knew that I had an interest in aviation. I spoke with with a colleague yesterday who also had an interest. He said that I need to watch Kelsey and Petter's channel. I said I already do. Keep up the good work. Take care, Jeff

You're a joy to watch. I remain a nervous flyer, but thank you for all your explanations!

Yessss, love this channel. So glad I found this through Sir Lushy.

Hello Kelsy, I like your way of saying " comin up" 👍😂

I was once cleared across active runway....I seen the other plane rolling and stopped just as ground control went crazy...this was in my solo learning phase. That was a good lesson, I carefully look everytime.

So true about things slowing down as the comfort level and familiarity increases. Going through that now, finally starting to offload stuff to the left brain and it's such a relief.

Hey kelsey I just wanted to say I love your content, keep up the good work my dude, happy flying and smooth landing to you sir

11:00 In Delta's defense, "Hold short" was a bit difficult to hear, and could have just been missed.

I'm a student pilot and made my obligatory training landings at a class D airport.... throughout my visit there- I screwed up a bit with the radio calls and the controller started to talk to me like I was a 3rd grader. I appreciated the clarity from him but left with my tail between my legs :)

Why am i spending my lunchbreak watching your channel? Because you're awesome dude! Your explanations are clear and concise. Well done!

Thank you Kelsey for explaining downwind and base!

From what I've read in another place, the aircraft needed to take off opposite to the active runway direction for performance reasons. This wasn't possible to do IFR for traffic reasons, so the crew had negotiated with the ground controller to depart VFR and pick up the IFR clearance in the air. Somehow ground didn't communicate this properly to the tower controller.

12:15 If you ask me, the entire fault is on the ATC. She fired out that instruction like a Barret Jackson auctioneer and asked the pilot a question in the same breath. Even playing it back multiple times, I still found it difficult to clearly pick up on the "hold short." He responded to her question about the gate number and didn't repeat the instruction about the hold short. This should have been a red flag for the ATC, as she should have been waiting for him to repeat that instruction back to her, and he didn't. That's the whole point of repeating it back, to ensure that they heard you correctly and that they are executing the instruction.

Do your thing! Love the consistency in the messaging. Also love your face when you listen lol

Love this chanal. I had lots of errands but watching this for 3 hours now. Thanks alot Mr Kellsy 👍

As a former Center controller, I like that you clearly explain in non-technical terms what is going on.

I also think tower shouldn’t be asking a non-relevant question, like “what’s your gate number” when they’re also issuing a critical hold short clearance. Secondly, tower should be able to see where the plane is parking without asking, for example phx ground can see your gate. Thirdly, at these busy class B airports they’re giving control instructions while you’re still slowing through 100 knots, and it’s high workload. They would eliminate expectation bias by just waiting 5 more seconds to give critical control instructions once the plane is slowed.

As a small plane pilot training for what was then called a COMM/IFR, my CFI and I flew out of Honolulu Intl. which was a red star airport and made for some interesting radio comm. The ATCs in the tower put the pro in professional. One of my favorite commands from them was after being cleared to land, hearing my call numbers followed by "expedite approach," repeated back by me and after looking over my shoulder and seeing four 747s sequenced behind me meant one thing. No flaps and firewall it. I loved it. We aimed for just past the numbers (having trained on a naval base with arresting gear equipped runways it was second nature) and first taxiway off. To this day, I still love the no flap landing. And I kinda think the controllers liked having the puddle jumper getting down and getting off their runway as quickly as possible.

I could listen to this English pilot talk anytime, so clear,calm with beautiful enunciation. He could read my bedtime story any time.

I got a "call the tower" they asked me to do a brake connection check. My heart sank to my stomach though.

Could she talk any faster?!? She sounds like an auctioneer, no wonder they missed it. I know some are saying that's standard at large airports but I'm not buying it. I've listened to enough of Kennedy Steve and others to know you can speak at a normal pace, even at a high traffic facility.

Your faces on your thumb nails are hilarious! Of course not in the fatal crashes. Sometimes you have to laugh so you don't cry.

I worked in a traffic office the radio had contact with ops,ramp,catering,traffic and engineering the first day in the traffic office I missed a lot of the calls but after a short time I knew what was going on in all departments so I agree that experience makes you more aware of everything that is going on with your airline and the airport

Last time I was this early was when I flared... and subsequently tested the landing gear.

you still feel like the guy with 70k subs to me. Can't believe you've grown so much!

I may not know anything about planes and aviation. But I am enjoying how you explain everything.

Enjoying your channel Mr. Green eyes. Love your breakdowns...fascinating.

We call that a readback/hearback error and from the FAAs perspective the controller hold the same responsibility for causing that incident as the pilot. It's easy to do though. I dont work at a facility nearly as busy as JFK and I can only imagine how easy it is to think you heard something that you really didn't at somewhere that busy.

Kelsey, was that you confirming last second go around instructions at O'Hare on July 1? Turkish seemed to be taking its merry old time getting off the damn runway.

Said it before and will say it again. I appreciate this channel.

Here from the Leon Lush channel! I’ve watched 3 of your videos and love your content. New sub

VistaJet 868 DID say departure. He also asked if the controller would like him to hold 1500 for the downwind. Typically pilots will say they are doing patterns or doing touch and goes, etc. But this is a perfect example on miscommunication which is responsible for many crashes and most wars. Also after takeoff the first turn in the pattern is called "crosswind" then downwind, base, final, departure.

I miss the 747-400 from back in the day. Great plane

Love your channel. Keep up the great work!

thanks leon, love your channel man!

In defense of the pilot who erred in crossing the active runway - the controller was talking so fast I think it would be easy to miss such an important message. I could easily understand her question regarding the gate number because she seemed to deliver this question more slowly. "Hold short..." was the more critical message and I think she should have commanded this more slowly and deliberately.

11:20 the pilot taxiing was on different a different frequency than the pilot cleared for takeoff. You can tell by the controller voices in the full tape. The controller who gave the takeoff clearance is one of the better controllers at JFK, always very polite and speaks clearly.

Enjoy your clear explanations. Thank you.

You are a fabulous youtuber and stellar credit to your highly (pun intended) underpaid profession. Thank you!