ATC or Chaos Management? Your Craziest Busy Traffic Moments!

Being an ATC in Infinite Flight sometimes feels like a crash course in chaos management. You’re controlling a busy airport, and suddenly, 10 aircraft check in at the same time, someone starts spamming “stand by,” another pilot lines up on the wrong runway, and one eager flyer thinks pushback clearance means “taxi to the runway at full speed”… Pure madness!

And what about pilots? Who here has waited 30 minutes for takeoff clearance only to be told “please expedite” at the worst possible moment? Or those who got a last-second “go around” while running dangerously low on fuel?

This is the confession booth! Share your wildest, funniest, or most unforgettable ATC and busy traffic moments so we can all laugh (or cry) together!

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Oh boy I have quite a few as both a pilot and as IFATC - some examples:

  • pilots spamming the pushback request even if there’s a gate hold and have already been told to hold position.

  • pilots not following pushback directions leading to a face-to-face situation that then takes up unnecessary time trying to fix.

  • pilots ignoring the given taxi instructions in order to cut the entire queue and they end up just blocking a taxiway.

  • telling a pilot “cleared for takeoff”, they hold short. A plane lands on the runway, I tell them to “LUAW”, they then proceed to start their takeoff roll with the landing aircraft still on the runway.

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Well there’s quite a bunch of moments from my side, but as recently as today I was instructed to line up and wait, while another was inbound maybe 1-2 nm away. Obviously they had to go around. I’m not sure if that was ATC error, but I was also equally to blame as I didn’t check the map, and rushed to line up 😆

Also during the flash flight from Doha to Dubai, I was flying from Muscat to Sharjah, just north of Dubai. I requested Sharjah, twice on two frequencies, but somehow was vectored to Dubai 🤣

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Ah, classic Infinite Flight moments! 😆 That ‘line up and wait’ situation sounds like one of those ‘trust ATC or trust your gut’ moments. At least the inbound pilot got some extra flight time! 😂 As for getting vectored to Dubai instead of Sharjah looks like ATC had different travel plans for you. Maybe they thought you deserved a luxury arrival! 🤣 Next time, just say ‘unable’ and see what happens!

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Oh wow, the ultimate ATC nightmare compilation! :joy: The pushback spammers must think persistence is key maybe they believe if they ask enough times, the gate hold will magically disappear. As for the taxiway queue jumpers, they’re just speedrunning airport procedures… in the worst way possible. :man_facepalming: And that last one? ‘Cleared for takeoff’ means hold short, but ‘line up and wait’ means full send? Love the logic! :rofl: ATC life is truly a rollercoaster!

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These situations happen 24/7, especially with those pilots being impatient. Either way, IFATC are well trained and know how to deal with these funny folks ;)

We do make mistakes as well, but we don’t want to go to the point where everything gets horrible as well lol.

That’s some good information for the Leadership team. Thank you!

😝

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During the world tour, I was doing a flight from KBOS-KJFK. I was cleared to land and on short final when a plane was told to line up on the same runway! I did a go-around and landed safely.

At an airport (of which I forgot the name) where a backtaxi was required, a pilot was holding short ready for departure. I told they could backtaxi and line up and wait. Pilot was lining up, installed the push cart and started to push back to the threshold of the runway! Hehe Oh yes, easy does it!!😄

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Okay if I had seen that I wouldn’t have been able to hold and laugh to death 🤣

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If you guys saw Hong Kong on expert a few days ago. omg, it was beyond one of the busiest I’ve ever seen any airport in a long time. I’d call it chaos management lol

Definitely getting vectored in circles for 30 minutes, then being told to go around when on final tops the chart!

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