Here's something you don't hear
everyday ever: an Irish air traffic controller helped guide a seriously malfunctioning plane to a safe landing via SMS. In a story that's admittedly tough to fathom, a pilot with four passengers aboard his twin-engined Piper plane lost all on board electrical power, communications and weather functions soon after he lifted off. In a effort to establish any form of contact with someone back on the ground, he phoned a controller at the Cork airport and spoke only momentarily of his troubles before losing voice signal. The quick-thinking controller decided to switch up his conversation method to texting, eventually providing sufficient details to safely guide the pilot in. Can you say "promotion?"
[Via
Slashdot, image courtesy of
StarWars Blog]
posted Aug 25th 2008 @ 2:59AM 
