What makes top news today: a Southwest pilot’s homophobic, sexist, and vulgar\u00a0commentary;\u00a0it\u00a0was kept quiet for some three months.\u00a0\u00a0This happened on March 25th, 2011, broadcast accidentally over the air route traffic control frequency during the flight.\u00a0 It’s now almost July.\u00a0 The FAA, the pilot community and Southwest Airlines\u00a0kept this under wraps\u00a0for eighty-nine days.\u00a0 Amazing.<\/p>\n
Here’s the transcript of exactly what\u00a0was said (trigger warning):<\/p>\n
Southwest Pilot: \u201cWell, I had Tucson to Indy all four weeks and, uh, Chicago crews\u202611 out of 12 \u2026there\u2019s 12 flight attendants, individual, never the same flight attendant twice.<\/p>\n
\u201cEleven fucking\u00a0over the top fucking,\u00a0ass-fucking homosexuals and a granny.\u201d (silence)<\/p>\n
\u201cEleven. I mean, think of the odds of that. I thought I was in Chicago, which was party-land.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter that, it was just a continuous stream of gays and grannies and grandes\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell I don\u2019t give a fuck. I hate 100 percent of their asses.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, six months, I went to the bar three times. In six months, three times.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce with the granny and the fag, and I wish I hadn\u2019t gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the very end with two girls, one of them that was part do-able, but we ended up going to the bar and then to the crew at St. Louis, and all these two women wanted to do was, one wanted to berate her sister and the other wanted to bitch about her husband.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLiterally, for three hours, me and the F.O. (First officer). When that was done, got back to my room, I\u2019m like why the\u00a0fuck did I stay up?\u201d<\/p>\n
ATC: \u201cOK, whoever is, uh, transmitting, better watch what you\u2019re saying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Southwest Pilot continues: \u201cThey\u2019re still both (inaudible), you know what I mean? I still wouldn\u2019t want anyone to know if I had banged them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I mean it was a complete disaster for six months.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I\u2019m back in Houston, which is easily where the ugliest bases. I mean it\u2019s all these\u00a0fucking old dudes and grannies and there\u2019s like maybe a handful of cute chicks.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In interview with Tom Costello on the NBC Today Show this morning, Aviation Analyst, John Cox defended the airline industry, saying the pilot’s comments are a throw-back to a different age in the cockpit: “It was more common in the past, but in today’s environment you see a lot more focus on the professionalism and you don’t hear these kinds of things very often anymore.”<\/p>\n
Really?\u00a0 Mr. Cox, you don’t hear these kinds of things often, anymore?\u00a0 Spend\u00a0one moment\u00a0to Google “Southwest stuck mic”; you will\u00a0find\u00a0pilot aviation forums yucking it up already in defense of the pilot saying, “Well, at least he was honest!”<\/p>\n
Is it any wonder only six percent\u00a0of all commercial pilots are women?\u00a0\u00a0The cockpit is not a place of equal opportunity.\u00a0 Never was.\u00a0 Isn’t today.\u00a0 What’s more,\u00a0there’s a cover-up.\u00a0\u00a0Outside of what airlines\u00a0now call a “flight deck”, the pilot fraternity defends itself saying, “yeah it used to be like that, we’re more professional now.”<\/p>\n
Try to find the pilot’s name.\u00a0 You can’t.\u00a0 Southwest will not identify the pilot.\u00a0 He was initially suspended without pay, but is now back in the cockpit under the good-‘ol-boy protection program and after\u00a0involuntary “diversity” training.<\/p>\n
Aviation market studies indicate women make up 26% of the prospective pilot population.\u00a0 Only 7% of all pilots are female.\u00a0 Unless\u00a0serious action is taken, I doubt anything will change soon.<\/p>\n
Audio:<\/p>\n