Southwest pilot on hot mic trashing California

y_p_w

y_p_w

Joined
May 6, 2005
Messages
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Location
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It's a little more complicated than that and some of what was heard was political in nature. However, this particular pilot apparently doesn't like the San Francisco Bay Area as he was landing at San Jose, and was caught on recorded (public) ATC chatter as he was preparing to land. I'm pretty sure he was talking to his co-pilot and thought he wasn't broadcasting.

For some reason he doesn't like people driving around in Hyundais, and (paraphrasing here) doesn't feel that one is a man unless he's rolling coal.

Regardless of the subject of the rant, I understand that saying anything unrelated to the safe operation of the aircraft under 10,000 ft is not allowed.

www.nbcdfw.com

Southwest Airlines Pilot Caught in Expletive-Filled Rant Over California

A Southwest Airlines pilot was caught on a public air traffic control frequency as he went on an expletive-filled rant over California complaining about liberals, Hyundai drivers and touting the merits of “rolling coal.”
www.nbcdfw.com www.nbcdfw.com

www.nbcnews.com

FAA investigating pilot's expletive-filled rant about Bay Area, liberals

Southwest Airlines said it is "fully addressing the situation internally" after the pilot was identified as one of its employees.
www.nbcnews.com www.nbcnews.com
 
I saw that article this morning. My first thought was: how do they know it was from the pilot (or co-pilot)? I mean, airband communications is pretty open, no encryption. Just AM up around 120MHz, with some long haul stuff down in HF if I recall correctly.
 
supton said:
I saw that article this morning. My first thought was: how do they know it was from the pilot (or co-pilot)? I mean, airband communications is pretty open, no encryption. Just AM up around 120MHz, with some long haul stuff down in HF if I recall correctly.
Click to expand...

Southwest Airlines has confirmed that it was their pilot. Part of the chatter you can hear the same guy engaging in real communications with ATC.

Also - wouldn't it be illegal to interfere with ATC communications?
 
2strokeNorthstar said:
I live in CA and agree with some of that. He’s allowed to have an opinion. Who doesn’t talk at work? It’s just BSing
Click to expand...

Where I've worked, anyone saying stuff like that before a meeting would probably be severely reprimanded or perhaps even fired. But much of that work was in Silicon Valley. I've seen a few people who use four letter words regularly, but that's pretty rare and only certain people would be allowed to do so without getting in trouble. Heck - I've even heard people talking about guns and pickup trucks. Was before "rolling coal" was a thing and his was probably gas powered. He seemed to be more angry about the size of parking spaces. Said that he didn't feel bad about taking up two compact parking spaces if compact cars would take up a single regular parking space.
 
kschachn said:
During sterile cockpit rules.
Click to expand...
That’s the real issue. Sterile cockpit below 10,000 is an FAR.

No cockpit activity (including talking) unrelated to safety of flight.

So, this SWA pilot is recorded violating an FAR. It’s not his opinions that are concerning, or enforceable by the FAA, it’s the fact that the crew was ignoring an FAR.

That will be enforced. The FAA is acting with a firm hand whenever possible after accusations (some with merit) that they were too lax over the certification of the 737 MAX.

They won’t be lenient on this guy, I promise...
 
Problem is the Captain ( either it was him or he allowed the FO to talk ) broke company and FAA safety policy as pilots are not allowed to be talking about stuff that is irrelevant to the flight when in a “ critical phase of flight “ ( below 10,000 feet ). They were on the “tower” ATC frequency which means they were below 10,000 feet.

Wonder what he feels about Airbus pilots who drive old Honda Civics with over 300K on them?

Pilots are allowed to talk conversationally when in the cruise portion of flight when the Captain feels its appropriate ( not busy on the radio ) and safe but my advice is, always treat the mic as hot just like TV personalities are trained but often forget.

Maybe this Southwest pilot should bid to avoid California flying lol.

Sorry, Astro already stated the safety problem and violation , I was typing already and didn’t see his reply.
 
LOL OOPs... and ATC guy was trying to help him out "hot mic" but he just keeps on ranting...

If he still has a job he will check his mic from now on for sure.
 
JMJNet said:
It is called 1st amendment right.
Click to expand...
Ummmm... if I'm a passenger on that plane, I'd much rather him be paying attention to his job, while my life (and that of hundreds of others) is directly in his hands.

If he wants to shoot off his mouth and play Archie Bunker at any other time... then whatever.
 
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