It was recently revealed that in January of 2011 a near collision occurred between an American Airlines Boeing 777 with 250 passengers aboard a C-17 military transport plane. The near collision occurred 88 miles from New York City over the Atlantic. The report is showing that there was insufficient communication on the part of air-traffic controllers who allowed the two planes to pass within 2,000 feet of each other.
An air-traffic controller at JFK airport, which monitors the nation’s busiest air corridor, became distracted and briefly lost track of the passenger plane. The airliner’s collision-avoidance systems sounded an alarm and the crew took over evasive action. A catastrophe was avoided. The Federal Aviation Administration reported to The Wall Street Journal that it had taken a number of corrective actions to avoid such close calls in the future.
Communication is essential between air-traffic controllers and pilots. A breakdown in communication there becomes high visibility. Communication in every area of life is extremely important. A lot of crashes could be avoided in business if employers and employees communicated more effectively. A lot of crashes in marriages and families could be avoided if good communication occurred. Football games are won and lost oftentimes on inadequate communication. How much time is lost when people fail to communicate about being at the proper place at the proper time?
We are living in a day which is experiencing the apex of the possibilities of good communication through technology. New smart phones come on the market quite often. IPads, IPods, email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. help facilitate good communications.
While technology is excellent at enhancing communications, it can also be dangerous. I posted a blog about a man in a huge company that got fired because he inadvertently sent an email to a lot of people that he didn’t intend to send it to. A similar thing happened to Charlie Sheen recently, according to the London Daily Mail. He had tried to send a private Twitter message to Justin Bieber, but accidently tweeted it to his 5.5 million followers. He said, “310-954-7277 Call me bro. C.”
Many of the 5.5 million followers started calling Sheen. He didn’t realize he had so many bros. Charlie’s phone went into meltdown. It was ringing wildly. He also got about 2,000 text messages in the next few minutes. Sheen did change his number.
Proverbs 23:16 says, “Everything in me will celebrate when you speak what is right.” Job 18:2 says, “How long before you stop talking? Speak sense if you want us to answer.” Colossians 4:4 says, “Pray that I will proclaim the message as clearly as I should.” Psalm 19:3 says, “They speak without a sound or word, their voice is never heard.”
Can you hear me now?
