The Captain has the ultimate responsibility
for the aircraft and passengers, he or she has total authority for its operation
Some posters seem to have forgotten that
A controller, no matter how busy he is doesn’t have the option to overide that
Perhaps this flight didn’t fit in with his plan, well, make a new one, the dynamics of convective activity demand flexibility
Ideally this should be a cooperative effort between Pilots and Controllers but if ATC won’t help but worse points you towards weather you’re not comfortable with you have to speak up and take action
As this Captain did, from the recording it’s apparent he stayed very calm, unlike the controller who aggravated the situation by loosing his cool
The ‘you got yourself in this situation’ statement was ridiculous and implied this controller was going to screw around with this flight to alleviate his obvious frustration
Highly unprofessional, he seemed to forget those blips have people in them
I don’t blame the Captain at all for his parting
remarks, they were appropriate and very restrained, unlike this controller
I’ve flown into all three NY airports since 1987 and had some rare testy exchanges on the radio but nothing like this