ABSTRACT
On July 25, 2015, Air Traffic Control (ATC) radio communication went viral on YouTube (ATC audio, n.d.) featuring a Dutch airline jet that encountered a wind shear—an abrupt change of wind direction. One of the pilots was heard exclaiming “Scary!” and “Speed, speed, speed!” The air traffic controller warned the pilots that they were accidentally broadcasting their private talking over the radio frequency, but for some reason the captain was heard on the radio again, coaching the copilot: “You’ve flown really well, I just wanted to say that.” The aircraft made a go-around and then landed low on fuel, having already diverted from another airport due to bad weather. While this information might typically only have ended up in an anonymous reporting database, the cockpit scare now spread via YouTube to national news media and even debates in parliament (AD, 2015, 30 July). Despite the upheaval, the Dutch Safety Board subsequently responded that there would be no investigation, because the event was too regular to learn anything new (AD, 2015, 2 September).
