Dear fellow Flightinfoers,
The fallout from the 10 March NYT article in which the reporter makes unsubstantiated quotes attributed to a SWA pilot is beginning to have a negative on my fellow jumpseaters. I am asking for your help & support in letting your fellow pilots know the truth behind the interview. As has been sited on here with an extensive thread posting, the quotes were either mis-attributed to a SWA pilot or were not spoken at all & were fabricated.
Regardless SWAPA has worked with ALPA & APA to get the word out to their members about this issue. The pilot himself has personally written on here & clearly said he never spoke to the reporter. The jumpseat is not a political tool to be used selectively by Captains who wish to make a statement toward any one company. It is always the right of the Capt to decide who jumpseats on their airplane & I fully support that. However, to base that decision on an erroneous story is unfair to pilots from Southwest or any airline that happens to fall under the crosshairs of a national media outlet. I ask of you to do the following, please post the following 4 letters that can be found on the public portion of the SWAPA website and are easily re-printed. Please consider helping your fellow professionals out by getting the truth out.
For the few who still believe the quotes are accurate, feel free to PM me & I'll be happy to engage the issue with you separately. For those hardcore folks who need more convincing feel free to contact me and I'll be happy to do that. Here is the website with the 4 letters, 3 from SWA & 1 from ALPA.
http://www.swapa.org/Union/Committees/AirSafety/Matthew_Wald_incident/SWAPA_responds.htm
The latest press release is below...the other 3 documents as well as a .pdf of this document can be found at the website above.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 15, 2006
Southwest Airlines Pilots’ Association (SWAPA) Questions Authenticity of Quotes in New York Times Article
Capt. Ike Eichelkraut, President of the Southwest Airlines Pilots’ Association, released the following statement in regard to an article that ran in the New York Times, March 10 edition, entitled “Airline Pilots Still Flying, but no Longer Quite So High,” by reporter Matthew Wald.
“In an otherwise well written story highlighting the devastation which has occurred to many pilots as a result of 911, Mr. Wald credited a highly incendiary comment describing these victims as “spoiled brats” to a Southwest Airlines’ pilot. The pilot was never interviewed by Mr. Wald. Additionally, the tone of these quotes is the antithesis of the attitude of SWAPA members who share in understanding the sacrifice so many families have experienced in what is the worse downturn in civilian aviation history.”
SWAPA sent letters to the ombudsman of the New York Times asking to have the quotes attributed to the proper individuals with a correction or a full retraction. SWAPA has urged the New York Times to conduct an investigation which SWAPA was confident will show the quotes are unsubstantiated. “SWAPA has a great relationship with our fellow professional organizations. We wanted to make sure our fellow pilots, other airline employees and the general public fully understand SWAPA finds the unsubstantiated quotes in the New York Times article offensive and detrimental to our members and other professional pilots everywhere,” saidCapt. Carl Kuwitzky, SWAPA’s Vice President.
SWAPA, headquartered in Dallas, TX, is an independent Union which represents the more than 4,800 pilots of Southwest Airlines.
The fallout from the 10 March NYT article in which the reporter makes unsubstantiated quotes attributed to a SWA pilot is beginning to have a negative on my fellow jumpseaters. I am asking for your help & support in letting your fellow pilots know the truth behind the interview. As has been sited on here with an extensive thread posting, the quotes were either mis-attributed to a SWA pilot or were not spoken at all & were fabricated.
Regardless SWAPA has worked with ALPA & APA to get the word out to their members about this issue. The pilot himself has personally written on here & clearly said he never spoke to the reporter. The jumpseat is not a political tool to be used selectively by Captains who wish to make a statement toward any one company. It is always the right of the Capt to decide who jumpseats on their airplane & I fully support that. However, to base that decision on an erroneous story is unfair to pilots from Southwest or any airline that happens to fall under the crosshairs of a national media outlet. I ask of you to do the following, please post the following 4 letters that can be found on the public portion of the SWAPA website and are easily re-printed. Please consider helping your fellow professionals out by getting the truth out.
For the few who still believe the quotes are accurate, feel free to PM me & I'll be happy to engage the issue with you separately. For those hardcore folks who need more convincing feel free to contact me and I'll be happy to do that. Here is the website with the 4 letters, 3 from SWA & 1 from ALPA.
http://www.swapa.org/Union/Committees/AirSafety/Matthew_Wald_incident/SWAPA_responds.htm
The latest press release is below...the other 3 documents as well as a .pdf of this document can be found at the website above.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 15, 2006
Southwest Airlines Pilots’ Association (SWAPA) Questions Authenticity of Quotes in New York Times Article
Capt. Ike Eichelkraut, President of the Southwest Airlines Pilots’ Association, released the following statement in regard to an article that ran in the New York Times, March 10 edition, entitled “Airline Pilots Still Flying, but no Longer Quite So High,” by reporter Matthew Wald.
“In an otherwise well written story highlighting the devastation which has occurred to many pilots as a result of 911, Mr. Wald credited a highly incendiary comment describing these victims as “spoiled brats” to a Southwest Airlines’ pilot. The pilot was never interviewed by Mr. Wald. Additionally, the tone of these quotes is the antithesis of the attitude of SWAPA members who share in understanding the sacrifice so many families have experienced in what is the worse downturn in civilian aviation history.”
SWAPA sent letters to the ombudsman of the New York Times asking to have the quotes attributed to the proper individuals with a correction or a full retraction. SWAPA has urged the New York Times to conduct an investigation which SWAPA was confident will show the quotes are unsubstantiated. “SWAPA has a great relationship with our fellow professional organizations. We wanted to make sure our fellow pilots, other airline employees and the general public fully understand SWAPA finds the unsubstantiated quotes in the New York Times article offensive and detrimental to our members and other professional pilots everywhere,” saidCapt. Carl Kuwitzky, SWAPA’s Vice President.
SWAPA, headquartered in Dallas, TX, is an independent Union which represents the more than 4,800 pilots of Southwest Airlines.
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