Originally Posted by
N90-EWR
This was a no event as far as we are concerned. The ones that have made this a storm were the pilot, and the media (social media-forums, etc). The controller has had a great career that spans well over 3 decades working traffic here at the New York Tracon, and he is retiring at the end of the year with a max retirement. All that talk about "My boss will call your boss" means nothing. Bottom line he did nothing wrong from an operational point of view, it was reviewed, and declared a non event.
As for declining a heading, yes that is your decision as PIC. We are not debating that. We are in agreement that you must follow whatever course of action you deem is the safest for your aircraft. What followed the declining of the heading was a consequence of the airspace limitations, weather, and traffic situation he had at the moment. We don't do "penalty vectors". We don't want you on our radar scopes one second longer than needed, but we have set rules and procedures to follow, and safety is also our number 1 priority.
I think some of you should spend some time in other busy control centres to see how they handle high traffic volumes without being petulant and condescending, nevermind the fact you guys and girls pretty much use the most non-standard comms out there.
We're all stressful in times of bad weather and high traffic volumes. I think it helps if people can be nice to one another instead of being jerks.