Fly the unFriendly Skies
What makes top news today: a Southwest pilot's homophobic and vulgar admission he is a sexual predator; it was kept quiet for some three months. This happened on March 25th, 2011, broadcast over air route traffic control frequency during flight. It's now almost July.
Except that his stuck microphone did not play into the passenger cabin, but instead over ATC frequency, the FAA, the pilot community and Southwest Airlines kept this under wraps for eighty-nine days. Amazing.
Southwest Pilot: “Well, I had Tucson to Indy all four weeks and, uh, Chicago crews…11 out of 12 …there’s 12 flight attendants, individual, never the same flight attendant twice.
“Eleven fucking over the top fucking, ass-fucking homosexuals and a granny.” (silence)
“Eleven. I mean, think of the odds of that. I thought I was in Chicago, which was party-land.”
“After that, it was just a continuous stream of gays and grannies and grandes…”
“Well I don’t give a fuck. I hate 100 percent of their asses.”“So, six months, I went to the bar three times. In six months, three times.”
“Once with the granny and the fag, and I wish I hadn’t gone.”“At 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.”
“Literally, for three hours, me and the F.O. (First officer). When that was done, got back to my room, I’m like why the fuck did I stay up?”
ATC: “OK, whoever is, uh, transmitting, better watch what you’re saying.”
Southwest Pilot continues: “They’re still both (inaudible), you know what I mean? I still wouldn’t want anyone to know if I had banged them.”
“So, I mean it was a complete disaster for six months.”
“Now I’m back in Houston, which is easily where the ugliest bases. I mean it’s all these fucking old dudes and grannies and there’s like maybe a handful of cute chicks.”
Aviation market studies indicate women make up 26% of the prospective pilot population. Only 7% of all pilots are female. Unless serious action is taken, I doubt anything will change soon. More on the subject here: Sexism in Aviation, Then and Now.
Update: Co-workers, not Southwest, just released the pilot's name, James Fritzen Taylor, 46.

This guy's head is in a really bad place and we sure don't need it in the cockpit. You are right, there are certainly pilots who could use that seat and would have more respect for it (and more respect generally). He's a creep.
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