You know it's bad when you walk into the control room and hear a controller yell, "I want a tracker!" It really wasn't what he said so much as how he said it. The high side was trying to work all the East Coast traffic around Tropical Storm Gaston and it was getting ugly. A tracker is the third position of the "radar team." We're supposed to get one when the traffic gets too heavy (or too complicated) for two people -- the Radar controller (R-side) and the Data controller (D-side) -- to manage.Not to be outdone, the guy on the low side answers, "Forget the tracker, I want a priest!" I don't know if he wanted forgiveness or last rites. Maybe both. Yeah, it was funny. But it isn't. It is interesting to observe the controllers I work with as they attempt to handle the ever-increasing level of stress we are being subjected to these days. But it isn't funny. Or fun.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/features/say-again-41-atc-105-phraseology