Bad Piloting And Bad ATC At Teterboro

Surprisingly solid analysis by a non-aviator.

Confusion reigned supreme on this one. Everyone involved is lucky it resulted in nothing more than a phone call.

It sounds like two tired pilots, not working very well with each other, resulting in very sloppy flying. The controller on the other hand needs to think about his future and whether he really wants to work as a controller at a busy radar facility.

Who is on First ..... What is on Second ... I don't know is on Third .... What throws it to Who .... I don't know .... No, I don't know is on Third..... WHAT?

TEB is another airport with good controllers AND bad. Last year in VFR conditions I was watching an aircraft get closer while we were on approach control. Eventually we got an RA. When I told the controller he ignored me more than once. I asked him for the supervisors phone number and had to ask 3 times. I can't remember now whether he gave it to me or I got it from the tower. On the way to the hotel I called the supervisor and his response was, "TEB is a very busy airport and we get RA's all the time". No concern at all. When my buddy who was a tower chief at my local airport retired he told me the new hiring practices ( a few years ago) regarding ATC new hires. His recommendation--> Don't let them kill you.

This could easily have become another MentourPilot video...

There are a lot of ExecJet flights into TEB. You think those pilots would understand that there may be very similar call signs to them and pay attention to their flight numbers.

Also TEB has height restrictions on incoming and outgoing aircraft because Newark in/out flights are often going in the airspace above them.

Maybe they didn’t know how to either program/fly the Rnav 24 and were fishing for vfr conditions to continue visually. Either way, they don’t belong in the ifr environment……..I smell a competency check coming from the CP.

wow !!! A lot of aircraft replying back with wrong tail numbers

Children of the magenta at its finest. Push a button, turn a knob, touch anything but the controls!

I heard this interaction on VASAviation... I'm no pilot but I have heard (Also on VAS) when there are more than one aircraft with similar callsigns the tower normally indicates that to each aircraft when giving instructions. They will say something like another "similar company flight #"

Can someone please explain the methodology - if there is any - behind assigning flight numbers? Are they just randomly assigned by the carrier or do they have some significance? I know similar sounding callsigns are going to be unavoidable at times, but it sure seems like they could be much safer if the callsigns were shorter, more distinctive, and actually served a purpose besides just identifying the aircraft.

I’ve flown in and out of KEWR no less than 300 times in my past career. I consider the New York area controllers to be some of the best. Sounds the FlexJet pilots could be D.E.I.