By now this story has become a classic anecdote at Maastricht UAC. Imagine the scene in the Ops Room... Traffic was fairly busy with a lot of chatting on the frequency. Earlier a US-bound Lufthansa had asked for a better direct routing, which had to be co-ordinated with the colleagues at Copenhagen ACC first. Right after the Lufthansa's request the radar controller got too busy for him to ask his planning controller what direct routing had been offered by Copenhagen (as this is not a priority in busy times). Nevertheless the Lufthansa pilot reminded us about his request. Fair enough. The radar controller - still busy - quickly turns to his planner and asks: "What direct routing did Copenhagen give us for the Lufthansa?"
At the same time another colleague was standing right behind these two controllers, getting the coffee and tea orders for everyone. It so happened he posed his coffee question at the same time the radar was shouting for the direct routing. Lazy as controllers tend to be, the planner only picked up the drink request and answered: "Mint tea!"
The coffee guy wrote it down, but our meanwhile hectic radar controller had also taken this for an answer and asked, slightly confused: "MINTI??". The planner - now looking at his tube again - took it for granted the coffee guy just asked him for confirmation (and obviously did not realise that the radar had been asking him something as well) so he simply replied: "Yes, yes! Mint tea!". The phone rings, the planner picks it up and misses that the radar clears the Lufthansa as follows:
Maastricht: "DLH123, proceed direct to MINTI"
DLH123: "Uhrrrr... roger... direct to MINTI, confirm?"
Maastricht: "Affirm, sir. MINTI"
2 minutes pass, and finally the Lufthansa comes back...
DLH123: "Maastricht, I'm sorry but can you spell MINTI for me please? I cannot seem to find it"
Maastricht: "Standby"
The radar turns to his planner and asks: "How do you spell MINTI? Is it mike india november tango india??"
Planner: "Huh? What?"
Radar: "Well, you gave me MINTI for that Lufthansa before, right? How do you spell it??"
At this point the planner realised what had happened and bursted out in manic laughter: "No! I ordered a MINT TEA!!". The radar immediately caught up with the silly situation and could not stop himself from laughing. He was unable to say anything for at least half a minute or so. Situations like this one just get so much more momentum when they are preceded by tense moments. And that is when I like to job the most!
