Kennedy Steve


Kennedy Steve, real name Stephen Abraham, is a former air traffic controller at John F. Kennedy International Airport who was awarded the Dale Wright Award. He is known for his more "casual" ATC conversations with pilots while working as a ground controller. He is most famous for his conversation with a Lufthansa pilot who asked if he could stop taxiing and climb out of the plane to close the rear access panel.

Career and education

Stephen Abraham went to the private Horace Mann School in the Bronx and later to Ohio Wesleyan University. After he completed his study he became an institutional fixed-income salesman on Wall Street. He hated the job and quit, thinking of becoming a pilot. However, he felt like he was too old to try, so he took the rigorous test for the job of air traffic controller. After he was hired he went to Oklahoma City for training. After his training he started in 1990 at Teterboro Airport, New Jersey, and worked there for four years. He started working at John F. Kennedy International Airport in 1994 and continued there until his retirement on 1 September 2017.

Nickname

H89SA came up with the nickname "Kennedy Steve" on 20 November 2014 when he uploaded his first video with Kennedy Steve in the title. He now has over 100 videos starring Kennedy Steve. Shortly after that the aviation community started to adopt the name, earning him the nickname "Kennedy Steve".

Media appearances

Kennedy Steve appeared in lots of ATC recording clips on YouTube, and in late 2018 the was published. He also appeared in The New York Times and was talked about on several internet forums.

Awards

In 2017 Stephen Abraham won the Dale Wright Award from the National Air Traffic Controllers Association for distinguished professionalism and exceptional career service to the NATCA and National Air Space System.