Skip to main content

Above New York City, Jets' jet gets a special welcome home

By Mike M. Ahlers, CNN
New York's Empire State Building was lit up in green and white in honor of the Jets beating the New England Patriots.
New York's Empire State Building was lit up in green and white in honor of the Jets beating the New England Patriots.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • The Empire State Building was lit up in green and white
  • The Jets' jet's flight path took it past the illuminated building
  • The Jets beat the New England Patriots 28-21

(CNN) -- Victorious on the ground Sunday afternoon, the New York Jets got a special welcome home in the air Sunday night when the pilot of their large charter plane and air traffic controllers lined them up for a view of the Empire State Building, which was lit up for the occasion in the team colors -- green and white.

As the plane approached Newark International Airport at around midnight Sunday, the crew of Continental Flight 1915 asked air traffic controllers if the building was still lit up.

After confirming it was, a controller put the plane on a course down New York's Hudson River, telling the pilot they could see the west side of the skyscraper.

"We got 200 people looking at it," the crew of the Boeing 767 responded. "Really pretty night for it, too."

"I planned that," the air traffic controller deadpanned.

A string of air traffic controllers -- neutral on most occasions, partisan on this one -- chimed in as the plane landed and taxied, proclaiming, "Go Jets!"

The radio traffic was recorded and placed on LiveATC.net, a website for aviation hobbyists and devotees.

The Jets beat the favored New England Patriots 28-21 Sunday in a National Football League playoff game, a result that evidently lightened the mood on board the Continental Boeing 767.

"You've got a happy bunch on board, huh?" a controller says in the first transmission on the tape.

"Very happy," the pilot or first officer says. "We have a question for you: Is the Empire State Building still lit up right now?... I've got an unusual request. If it's green and white, the guys actually want us to get as close as we can to see it."

After the pilot was given a heading that put the building within view, he said to the controller, "You guys are awesome."

Asked later by another controller if they enjoyed the trip down the river, the flight crew responded: "We did, and the team did too. It was great. I know the coach liked it."

A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman, Paul Takemoto, said Tuesday the plane followed a normal course down the river, and the controllers did not divert from that course it to fulfill the players' wish.