We're only Human

Don't forget that I told you earlier what one of the supervisors told me; "You're not expected to be perfect, you're human. But you are expected to be fast enough to fix your mistakes before anyone dies."

So I was working the Toledo sector (Mainly Detroit Metro departures, Cleveland arrivals, and misc. other traffic), anyway, Detroit was unloading, and when they unload they really pump these guys out.

So I'm busy climbing guys, getting higher for them and getting them up and out of my airspace.

Meanwhile the sector to my south points a guy out to me, which is pretty much just like it sounds. He points at the aircraft and says "Point out, inbound to Adrian."

I figure with the location of that airport, I don't really have to worry about the guy so I say "Point out approved."

Time passes as I work more departures, take point-outs on the Cleveland guys, switch aircraft. Then I get a hand-off from Toledo approach on a guy outbound from Adrian. Don't think a thing of it, and climb him.

I go back to doing what I was doing. I can't tell you how long it took me to realize I'd just climbed the guy head on with the point out I'd taken inbound to Adrian. As soon as I realized what I'd done I keyed up "November two-five, expedite your climb through one-two thousand." Course, you'd never be able to tell by my voice that anythings wrong.

Course, I had no idea what kind of aircraft November two-five was cause I hadn't paid attention. I checked then, to make sure he was flying something that could actually climb well enough to get on top of the arrival.

Fortunately, he was a turboprop and didn't have a problem at all clearing his traffic, with room to spare.

One more saying that gets used a lot on the job "I'd rather be lucky than good."

And that is the God's honest truth.