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When I was going through my engine starting procedure, I heard this guy on the Piper requesting taxiing clearance and being cleared to taxi to runway 15  at Reggio Calabria airport (which I later found is just a little bit short for a fully loaded 737... I barely did it  :P). I swear the fellow never was cleared to takeoff, neither was I told to hold short for him. But I knew he was out there somewhere, so I held short nevertheless. Good thing I did... otherwise it would have been de profundis time for a lot of people. Instead, only one person lost his life. The tower controller guy was found dead in his booth, with a headphone-and-microphone set sticked down his troath.  Lt. Columbo was assigned the case.

Heya FridayChild,

There are many stories in the Big City.  And this is just one.  I too have noticed some glaring ATC blunders.  Thankfully they are rare.  My observation is that if ATC does mess up something, they do it big time!

"Uh- I'm sorry, Captain- just one more thing... you say you were holding short, but this picture shows you were actually over the line... that is the hold-short line, isn't it? My wife says I think I know everything... but were you maybe feeling frustrated? Angry, even...?"

"If you are referring to my little visit to the gents' right before taking off, you know how it is, we almost ran headlong into a taking off aircraft, I had to make a "technical pause", but I swear I went straight to the toilet, I didn't go up to the control tower... although my first officer can't testify, he stayed in the cabin... As for the headphone set missing from my cabin, it was missing from the beginning... it's all in the log book!"

I know how you feel, and had been another (namely me) in the shoes of the mysterious murderer (whoever he was ), he would have stuck the headphone up the controller's... er... um... I said enough.

Sadly this is the default ATC, let's hope in the new version of Radar Contact, available it seems from December 10.