Letter of the week at Avweb.com about Airline Pilots

[ultrarunner]

Ahh...Care to gues what the federal penalty is for falsely reporting a crime?

If someone comes up to me and attempts to take information off my ID, I'm making a quick call to airport security. Simple as that.

At the very least, the person will be detained long enough to miss their flight. And I think that would be deterrent enough.

Flight crews and cabin crews are given a fair amount of latitude when it comes to reporting "suspicious" behavior.

 

[mazbaird]

How would you feel if someone falsely reported smelling alcohol on your breath just before departure?

 

[ultrarunner]

How would you feel if someone falsely reported smelling alcohol on your breath just before departure?

Is it my last leg home, or the first leg of a 4-day?

 

[LawReview]

If someone comes up to me and attempts to take information off my ID, I'm making a quick call to airport security. Simple as that.

At the very least, the person will be detained long enough to miss their flight. And I think that would be deterrent enough.

Flight crews and cabin crews are given a fair amount of latitude when it comes to reporting "suspicious" behavior.

I'm just trying to stop people from making stupid decisions. People read information off ID's and name tags all the time. If it's in public view it's legit. Put your ID in your pocket if you don't need it and don't want people looking at it.

Reporting "suspicious behavior" always has to have some some resonable belief behind it. Besides being criminal, causing someone to miss a flight now meets the standard of liability. While there is some perceived latitude for flight crews I wouldn't want to test it. Besides, what are you going to make a person miss their flight for - interferring with flight crew complaining?

Step out from your paradigm. Doesn't it irritate you when you're at another business and have to hear employees complaints, particularily out of context?

That's it. I'm all for complaining, just not quite as obnoxious.

 

[DairyAir]

I cannot agree more with this individual. If we want to be treated like professionals then we should act like professionals. Bitching and complaining about your job in front of the very people who pay your salaries will not further our agenda of returning this profession back to its former glory. You want to complain do it out of the public eye, at the overnight bar or whatever. The public thinks we are a bunch of overpaid crybabies already why make it worse. And weren't we all private pilots at some point or did they hand you an ATP after your first checkride. Give the guy a break he's right!

 

[EMBpilot]

Raising public awareness is good. Let him write.


Maybe in the next article he will come up with solutions to the problem, not just ..... whining about it

 

[waveflyer]

That's funny- he sounds like a union busting lawyer getting on the blogs. I learned thar lesson a long time ago with fair weather pilots. I respect anyone who flies- but it doesn't mean they can do what we do. I also love the business traveler who thinks they travel a lot. I've never met one who in the end a) didn't fly a 1/3 of what I do. And b) doesn't admit to being very tired after even short trips.

That being said- there's a fair amount of us that wouldn't know what to do with ourselves if we weren't fighting somebody-whether it's mgmt or each other.

Wag more, bark less.

 

[Ty Webb]

Puh-leaze!

I cannot agree more with this individual. If we want to be treated like professionals then we should act like professionals.

This industry needs a lot more than "Looking/Acting Professional"- that just doesn't cut it. Maybe it's time the rest of the country sees what has happened to the profession. Take the window-dressing off of it. Call it what it is. Stop pretending everything's freakin' peachy.

"Looking Professional/Acting Professional" hasn't helped the Pilots of Midwest Airlines, and it hasn't helped the Pilots of:

Branniff
TWA
Eastern
Midway (original)
Pan Am
Delta (40% - 60% pay cut, loss of retirement)
United
Delta (40% - 60% pay cut)
NWA (see DAL)
Alaska (see DAL)
USAir
America West

Your name here.

 

[Amish RakeFight]

I can guarantee with 95 percent certainty that if two or more people with white shirts and epaulettes are chatting together in an airline terminal, they're probably complaining about their jobs.

WTF?

From now on, whenever I see pilots complaining in the terminal, their names and an account of their actions will be sent to airline customer service at my earliest convenience.

Perhaps you should mind your own business and NOT eavesdrop.

Ruminate all you want in private, but when wearing your uniform in view of passengers who entrust their lives to you, provide the modicum of professionalism the people expect.

If you were neither addressed nor a participant in the conversation, then it IS in private.

 

[ultrarunner]

Amish hit the nail on the head with his last comment. Let 'em bitch all they way. As far as I'm concerned, until they push back, they are on their OWN TIME...uniform or not!

Mr. Matthew Sawhill needs to get a friggin life, sit in the back, shut up, and be glad he gets home!