I think I'd rather circle the airport for a few minutes than know my ATC has something else on his mind.

I happen to agree with ya! Better to have a well rested and relieved ATC landing your plane than someone who keeps saying the mantra "Gotta take a dump" "Gotta take a dump." Obviously he does NOT have your planes best interest in mind when he has a dump at his assholes door. Let him circle a few he has enough fuel.
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The Thunderous Crapper 63 Enjoying home toilet advantage since 2004!

I agree with the above posts and views completely. I've been in understaffed work situations for about 10 years and it sucks to have to leave your post (you are not allowed to leave the animals in your care!) when you have to ask someone not qualified to cover you and it's all too obvious to others why and for how long you are gone, but a distracted mind does not make a good worker (neither does a shatten themselves worker for that matter!). Air traffic control is one place where I will not scrimp! An 18 minute wait? C'mon! Does it really make that much of a difference? It's not like the wait time was outrageous or was due to incompetence. Shit happens....

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'Hey that sounds pretty nasty, how about a courtesy flush over there?' (AP1)

I bet you guys wouldn't be saying that if those lungs were meant for you. 10 minutes does make a difference when you're trying to get organs to a transplant patient.

There's no excuse for having only one certified controller on shift. What if he had an emergency of some sort and needed to go home or to the hospital? What if he had a heart attack one night? Who would cover him then? Would passengers and transplant patients have to wait over an hour until someone else could come in to cover the shift?

What if the crapper was broken on the plane, and several passengers (including you) had to go NOW? Would you appreciate knowing that you had to wait almost 20 minutes because the guy that's supposed to handle the landing is relieving himself?

It's reckless not to have two air traffic controllers handling each shift.

(static, crackle) Uh...United 47, hold at 15000 feet, got a heavy coming in hard and fast...(static, crackle)

(static, crackle) Uh Roger Tower...let us know how everything comes out, good luck (static, crackle)

Fart Poopie, that WAS one of my concerns-- but thought my comments were running too long to include it. Yes! It IS horrible to think of what all could delay a plane (and for how long) if something really serious befell this AT controller! That's why I said, 18 minutes may be OK, but really, the underlying problem is that NO ONE else there could do his job! Been there..... not fun! (Really, for example: Having to work my day off, the day after my mom died, because no one else could possibly do it??!! Bitter? Yeah, bit him too.)

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'Hey that sounds pretty nasty, how about a courtesy flush over there?' (AP1)

Toots, that stinks! Did you quit or do you still work there?

Even if it's far more mundane that air traffic control, it's always assinine for management to be too cheap and/or lazy to have the right number of people working a shift. The major reason the fast food jobs I had years ago were bad enough that light couldn't escape was always having to work shifts with no break and having to handle someone else's job on days off because the people I was covering for were just too cool to work those days, or else they'd just walk out early and leave the rest of the shift for the few of us who had to stay.

Having to run to the bathroom and leave something critical unattended wasn't usually an issue, but it was a pain in the ass just standing around for 10 hours without a break . the big mistake I made a few times was heading to the bathroom near the end of a shift and being "chosen" to stay later upon coming out and trying to punch out with my coworkers.

I can imagine the "controller in the bathroom" problem affecting NASA in the future.

A shuttle is counting down to launch, and the astronauts suddenly get no reply from mission control and the countdown is on hold.

Several minutes later, CAPCOM is heard again: "roger shuttle, had to hold the count, better than me holding it...."

If there's one inevitable truth that everyone on this site should know by now, it's that you CANNOT control your bowels.

You may think you can. You may have been able to pinch your bunghole shut so tight that you put off an assplosion for a while. But you can't stop it when your body says it's time.

I can't complain about having to wait a while on a plane because of something no one can control.

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It's YOUR cat, YOU get his poop out of my sink!

I just had a thought. WHAT IF..... what if in those smallest airports, with only one ATC on duty at a time, there was a little cabinet built under the desk.

In that cabinet could be a camp toilet (the kind with baggie liners) to be used in just such an "EMERGENT-CY".*

The ATC could dispose of the used baggie after he had safely guided the plane (for example, the LifeFlight) to a landing.

*(Hah. Did I just coin a phrase, or has that one been done?)
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Hey! Don't touch my wenis!

I would bust a gut laughing if I was the pilot being guided down by an ATC that was grunting away as he pooped.

Your idea is genius, GGG.
The ATC is happy. The pilot gets a laugh. Everyone wins!

Right! And the organ recipients would be pretty happy, too! :)
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Hey! Don't touch my wenis!

If the ATC has to go, he has to go. He followed procedure and I see no problem with what he did. If I had to go and in that posistion, I would do the same exact thing.

You're right, Big Female Pooper. The ATC did absolutely nothing wrong. His bosses did by not hiring enough ATCs to cover for each other when these things happen. :-)

FP, you're sweet-- I finally did leave that godforsaken place about a year later. I saw and experienced many horrible things during my tenure and if I ever write a daring expose of my 6 years there it will be titled, "One Flew Over The Koko's Nest"!

I am cracking up about the camp toilet in the controller's booth! I can hear it now....

*Uh*.... "flight #2.... I mean, flight #2-365 you must circle the bowl. I MEAN CIRCLE AIRSPACE!! You are stuck in your holding pattern until...."
*Uhhhhh* *grunt* *whoosh*.....
"Ahh, OK, you're good to go for the runsway--I mean RUNway!!!!"

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'Hey that sounds pretty nasty, how about a courtesy flush over there?' (AP1

Thanks Toots.

Does your story end with someone throwing a drinking fountain through a large window?