Latest / Brian Thomas / IHeartMedia Aviation Expert Jay Ratliff

Transcript

IHeartMedia Aviation Expert Jay Ratliff · Brian Thomas

0:02
Speaker 1: It is 8.30 on a Thursday. Love this time of week.
0:05
Speaker 2: Even though the first subject matter is not a pleasant one,
0:08
Speaker 2: it turned out pretty good, all things considered, but nobody
0:11
Speaker 2: likes to see a hijacker or anybody get stabbed on
0:13
Speaker 2: an airplane. Welcome back, iHeartMedia aviation expert Jay Radliff. As
0:17
Speaker 2: I mentioned to you yesterday, I guess your phone's been
0:19
Speaker 2: ringing off the hook the last couple of days.
0:22
Speaker 3: It has been going, been crazy, that's for sure. As
0:28
Speaker 3: you mentioned, Fortunately, it was a good news story versus
0:31
Speaker 3: what it could have been on so many other levels.
0:34
Speaker 2: No question about it. And the first question I have,
0:35
Speaker 2: and I'll let you get into the details and fill
0:37
Speaker 2: in the blanks for us. A section of the plane's
0:41
Speaker 2: rudder was ripped from the tail as a consequence of
0:45
Speaker 2: this thing going almost directly into the ground 15,000 feet.
0:50
Speaker 2: It was at 34,000, and for like in one minute
0:52
Speaker 2: it dropped 15 or so thousand feet. I just found
0:55
Speaker 2: it surprising that apparently... It pushed the plane to the
0:58
Speaker 2: limits of its engineering abilities, and that's how the piece
1:01
Speaker 2: ripped off the tail. Have you ever heard of that
1:04
Speaker 2: happening before, Jay?
1:06
Speaker 4: I have.
1:06
Speaker 3: And if you look at the speed, if you look
1:10
Speaker 3: at the flight data that we have right now, which
1:13
Speaker 3: is preliminary information, it actually exceeded the operational limits. So
1:20
Speaker 3: that's how much stress that 737-800 was on as it
1:21
Speaker 3: was diving. And yes, part of the vertical stabilizer, you know,
1:27
Speaker 3: the part that sticks up on the rear of the aircraft,
1:30
Speaker 3: the back of it was damaged. When I saw that picture,
1:34
Speaker 3: my first thought was American Airlines 587. Now, you may
1:38
Speaker 3: not remember the number, but it was right after 9-11.
1:40
Speaker 3: It was November of that year. We had American Airlines
1:43
Speaker 3: flight out of Kennedy that had that vertical stabilizer, that
1:49
Speaker 3: same piece, come completely off the aircraft. crew lost the
1:53
Speaker 3: ability to control the airplane, down it went, killed 260 passengers,
1:57
Speaker 3: five people on the ground.
1:58
Speaker 4: And when I.
2:00
Speaker 3: Looked at that, I thought, how close did they get
2:02
Speaker 3: to that entire stabilizer coming off that aircraft? And if
2:07
Speaker 3: that had been it, all 180 souls on board plus
2:10
Speaker 3: anybody on the ground would have been lost. So, you know,
2:14
Speaker 3: that was a miracle on top of all the other
2:16
Speaker 3: miracles that took place because that airplane was pushed to
2:20
Speaker 3: the limit and and beyond as it went through that
2:23
Speaker 3: plummet that you talked about in a minute or so.
2:26
Speaker 4: And it was just unbelievable.
2:28
Speaker 3: And then to realize what the passengers were going through
2:31
Speaker 3: in the back, not knowing what was going on. Yeah,
2:36
Speaker 3: you don't know if it's a mechanical problem. Your first
2:39
Speaker 3: thought isn't necessarily terrorism. It's normally, oh my gosh, something's
2:44
Speaker 3: happened to the airplane and we're going to crash and
2:46
Speaker 3: we're going to die.
2:47
Speaker 4: So you've got all of these things ongoing.
2:50
Speaker 3: And then when the aircraft comes to, you know, limit
2:54
Speaker 3: levels off a bit, then you've got the commotion in
2:56
Speaker 3: front of the aircraft, and then it's a totally different
2:59
Speaker 3: scenario in your mind where, oh, my gosh, somebody may
3:02
Speaker 3: be trying to take over this airplane. And, you know,
3:04
Speaker 3: you've got a captain that is stabbed by his first
3:07
Speaker 3: officer and somehow is able to change the transponder on
3:13
Speaker 3: the aircraft to 7,500, meaning aircraft in distress. He is
3:18
Speaker 3: continuing to be attacked and is able to change that
3:20
Speaker 3: to 7,700, which is, well, I think it was 7,700
3:25
Speaker 3: first and 7,500. The last one being hijacking scenario, and
3:30
Speaker 3: that's when you have the military intercepts that are immediately launched,
3:34
Speaker 3: if not before, to escort or, if need be, take
3:38
Speaker 3: the airplane down if it's going to be used as
3:40
Speaker 3: a missile as it.
3:41
Speaker 4: Was in 9-11.
3:42
Speaker 2: So while he's being stabbed or otherwise attacked, he's got
3:45
Speaker 2: to change that distress signal. He has to issue first one,
3:49
Speaker 2: then change it over to the one that reflects that
3:51
Speaker 2: it's actually terrorism. And also, it's been widely reported that
3:54
Speaker 2: he also had to release the cockpit door so somebody
3:59
Speaker 2: else could come in and save him or otherwise save
4:01
Speaker 2: the passengers on the airplane. I mean, that guy was multitasking.
4:05
Speaker 3: It was unbelievable what he was doing as he was
4:10
Speaker 3: being severely injured in the process. And because apparently his
4:14
Speaker 3: injuries are very, very serious. And, you know, once he
4:18
Speaker 3: got the door open, then aid could be rendered, where
4:23
Speaker 3: you've got, you know, pilots rushing in to help.
4:26
Speaker 4: You had dentists. You had plumbers.
4:27
Speaker 3: You had different people from all walks of life that
4:30
Speaker 3: were there to assist as need be. And, you know,
4:33
Speaker 3: all of us have been reminded about American Airlines Flight
4:35
Speaker 3: 93 situation. And I've had some people say, well, Jay,
4:40
Speaker 3: you know, that pilot, the first officer, might have been
4:43
Speaker 3: buckled in, you know, how easy would it be to
4:45
Speaker 3: remove him from the aircraft? Well, you know, a lot
4:47
Speaker 3: of people have seen those quick-release harnesses, the 5.1s that
4:52
Speaker 3: pilots put on. All you've got to do is turn
4:54
Speaker 3: the middle dial on all five release. It's quick-release designed
4:58
Speaker 3: that way to get out of the airplane quickly if
5:00
Speaker 3: need be. So it would be easy to undo that
5:03
Speaker 3: seatbelt to get the first officer out. And then, you know,
5:07
Speaker 3: thankfully you've got, yeah, here you go, pilots on board
5:09
Speaker 3: that can take over. to help land that airplane safely.
5:13
Speaker 3: So you just had so many things that were ongoing
5:16
Speaker 3: with this. And, of course, we still have to figure
5:19
Speaker 3: out what the intent was and those types of things.
5:22
Speaker 4: But, Brian, the other thing that.
5:23
Speaker 3: Crossed my mind is I don't know what fly Dubai,
5:27
Speaker 3: because that's the airline that this occurred with. I don't
5:30
Speaker 3: know what their policy is when one of the crew
5:32
Speaker 3: members leaves the cockpit to go to the lavatory.
5:36
Speaker 1: It used to be they would just.
5:38
Speaker 3: Leave one person up there. Now, after a German wings
5:41
Speaker 3: flight a number of years ago where the captain went
5:43
Speaker 3: to the lavatory, first officer locked the door and then
5:46
Speaker 3: flew it into a mountain, killing.
5:47
Speaker 4: Everybody on board.
5:48
Speaker 1: I remember that.
5:49
Speaker 3: Most international airlines adopted what we do here in the
5:52
Speaker 3: United States, where a pilot leaves, a flight attendant steps in,
5:55
Speaker 3: and then the door is shut. You always have two
5:58
Speaker 3: people in the cockpit at all times just as a
6:01
Speaker 3: safety precaution. I don't know what Flight Dubai's policy is,
6:04
Speaker 3: but I was thinking, what would have happened had.
6:06
Speaker 4: The captain gone to the lavatory?
6:08
Speaker 1: Mm-mm.
6:09
Speaker 3: Would the door have been locked? And then all hope
6:11
Speaker 3: is lost. So there's all kinds of different scenarios here
6:14
Speaker 3: about what if could have happened. But what I do
6:17
Speaker 3: know is this. We're going to learn a lot, and
6:20
Speaker 3: we're going to make aviation safer as a result of this. Now,
6:23
Speaker 3: my other question is, okay, if this guy was stabbing
6:26
Speaker 3: the captain, did he have a knife? And if so,
6:29
Speaker 3: how did that knife get on board the aircraft? Was
6:32
Speaker 3: he screened before he was allowed to board the aircraft?
6:35
Speaker 3: Because in some countries, pilots are randomly screened. Sometimes pilots
6:40
Speaker 3: are not screened. Flight attendants might be randomly screened. We
6:44
Speaker 3: know that employees here in the United States many times
6:47
Speaker 3: are not screened between the time they go from the
6:49
Speaker 3: parking lot to the tarmac to work on an airplane.
6:52
Speaker 3: So there's a lot of questions here within the investigation
6:55
Speaker 3: that are going to have to be addressed and answered.
6:58
Speaker 3: That's going to kind of give us a bigger picture
7:01
Speaker 3: of what happened. And I'm telling you, there's so many
7:04
Speaker 3: things to this and so many moving parts in different directions.
7:07
Speaker 3: It's going to be a while before we get all
7:09
Speaker 3: the answers that we're looking for right now.
7:11
Speaker 2: Well, and we will continue because I still have questions
7:13
Speaker 2: I need to ask of Jay Radliff, iHeartMedia aviation expert.
7:15
Speaker 1: We'll get back to him right after these brief words.
7:18
Speaker 4: 55KRC.
7:18
Speaker 2: Talk station.
7:20
Speaker 1: You ever been in a cockpit before?
7:23
Speaker 2: Jay Radliff has. He's iHeartMedia aviation expert. He is nationwide.
7:27
Speaker 2: We are lucky here on the 55KRC morning show to
7:29
Speaker 2: get him every Thursday for a few segments and continuing
7:31
Speaker 2: the conversation about this, well, fly Dubai flight 1073. I
7:37
Speaker 2: have to ask you about this because recognizing that the
7:41
Speaker 2: stabilizer had been ripped off the plane after the rapid descent,
7:45
Speaker 2: we have the pilot who is obviously incapable of flying
7:48
Speaker 2: the plane, co-pilot, clearly out of commission after they wrestled
7:51
Speaker 2: him out of the cockpit. Fortunately, there were two other pilots,
7:55
Speaker 2: at least on the plane, who were able to land it.
7:57
Speaker 2: I guess I'm wondering, first off, would a random human
8:03
Speaker 2: being like you see in the movies all the time
8:05
Speaker 2: be able to right that plane without a stabilizer, that's
8:08
Speaker 2: something you need an experienced pilot to even manage. Jay,
8:11
Speaker 2: can you even comment on that?
8:13
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, they had part of the vertical stabilizer
8:15
Speaker 3: that was still there and intact. So there was, even
8:19
Speaker 3: though some operational limits with regards to how well they
8:24
Speaker 3: could fly the airplane, they were able to maintain control.
8:28
Speaker 3: Would the average Joe Blow get up there and be
8:31
Speaker 3: able to land it? A lot of these aircraft are
8:33
Speaker 3: incredibly automated, and you could walk through a series of
8:37
Speaker 3: sequences that could allow the aircraft to come in and land,
8:41
Speaker 3: but obviously you never want that to.
8:43
Speaker 4: Be the case.
8:45
Speaker 3: And again, the pilots who are on board, most of
8:48
Speaker 3: the time when you've got airplanes that are flying, you've
8:49
Speaker 3: got either a deadheading crew or a replacement crew that's
8:52
Speaker 3: on board the aircraft that are there that can render assistance.
8:56
Speaker 3: You're talking about commercial pilots that have flown for thousands
8:59
Speaker 3: and thousands of hours that are there if possible. And
9:03
Speaker 3: when all this was transpiring in the initial moments, I
9:07
Speaker 3: was wondering, did we have a crew in the cockpit
9:10
Speaker 3: flying as a deadheading in the jump seats or were
9:12
Speaker 3: they in the back? Because we kept hearing these reports
9:15
Speaker 3: where people had broken in to the cockpit. And I'm
9:18
Speaker 3: thinking you can't break into the cockpit with these reinforced doors.
9:22
Speaker 3: Something had to happen to get those doors opened up. So,
9:26
Speaker 3: you know, we have had explosive decompressions where like the
9:30
Speaker 3: Southwest flight over Pennsylvania where the passenger was killed.
9:34
Speaker 4: Where part of the door window.
9:37
Speaker 1: Yeah.
9:38
Speaker 3: And we had that situation with Alaska Airlines where that
9:41
Speaker 3: door does get ripped open in the cockpit. So but
9:45
Speaker 3: it takes a very, very serious event for that type
9:49
Speaker 3: of scenario to happen. The average person or people trying
9:51
Speaker 3: to pound open a door. is not going to happen.
9:54
Speaker 3: And as we indicated in the last segment, just what
9:57
Speaker 3: heroic efforts were involved to try to A, fight off
10:01
Speaker 3: somebody who's trying to attack and kill you and still
10:04
Speaker 3: have the presence of mind to get to that door
10:06
Speaker 3: and get it open, both unlocked and then open it
10:11
Speaker 3: so that other people.
10:12
Speaker 4: Can come in and assist. So, I mean, it is
10:14
Speaker 4: the stuff that movies are made of.
10:16
Speaker 3: It's going to be unbelievable when we see everything that
10:19
Speaker 3: has taken place here. But again, you know, the whole
10:24
Speaker 3: idea is how did the knife get on board if
10:26
Speaker 3: it was a knife? And, you know, did this person
10:29
Speaker 3: have any intent? And do we have to worry about
10:32
Speaker 3: other pilots?
10:33
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, okay.
10:34
Speaker 2: And you stumbled right into the question I wanted to
10:35
Speaker 2: get to you before we take a break here. I've
10:38
Speaker 2: read on multiple locations they do background checks for pilots
10:42
Speaker 2: before they're put in a cockpit, but they do ongoing,
10:44
Speaker 2: like regular, every once in a while they do just
10:47
Speaker 2: like looking at social media and whether this guy had
10:50
Speaker 2: been radicalized because if he passed the initial background check,
10:53
Speaker 2: that doesn't mean the guy couldn't be radicalized by some
10:55
Speaker 2: crazy fundamentalist organization sometime down the road.
10:59
Speaker 1: That may have been what happened.
11:00
Speaker 3: Well, if something is brought up to someone's attention and
11:04
Speaker 3: it becomes known to the company, the company more than
11:07
Speaker 3: likely is going to look into it to find out
11:09
Speaker 3: what may be going on. But as far as an
11:12
Speaker 3: ongoing requalification in that regard, typically not. you've got your
11:18
Speaker 3: flight physicals and the training and the other recurrent stuff
11:21
Speaker 3: that you have to do as an ongoing part of
11:24
Speaker 3: your job. But, you know, for the most part, you've
11:27
Speaker 3: got a lot of airlines around the world.
11:29
Speaker 4: And how many times have you and I.
11:30
Speaker 3: Talked about this, where there's a shortage of pilots in
11:33
Speaker 3: a lot of areas and they really need to get
11:36
Speaker 3: as many pilots as they can.
11:37
Speaker 4: Brian, it's so bad.
11:38
Speaker 3: I think it was Pakistan International Airlines, PIA, that they
11:43
Speaker 3: found out a number of years ago that a third
11:46
Speaker 3: of their pilots were had fake pilot license.
11:49
Speaker 1: Oh, great.
11:50
Speaker 4: Now, yeah. Oh, my God. Note to self, do not
11:54
Speaker 4: fly that airline.
11:55
Speaker 3: But if that can happen, then obviously other things can
12:00
Speaker 3: as well. And look, I've talked to a lot of
12:03
Speaker 3: people that learned to fly here in the States. There
12:05
Speaker 3: weren't any job openings. They went overseas, and they were
12:08
Speaker 3: able to fly with Emirates or Qatar or Qantas or
12:12
Speaker 3: one of these other carriers that had a massive hiring need.
12:16
Speaker 3: And they were able to jump in, fill that that
12:19
Speaker 3: need and go from there. I'm not suggesting that these
12:22
Speaker 3: airlines would have a substandard hiring practice. But when you're
12:27
Speaker 3: desperate to fill a position, just how deep do you go?
12:31
Speaker 4: We don't know.
12:31
Speaker 3: So, again, just all the questions that are that need
12:35
Speaker 3: to be answered here. And hopefully we'll get all the
12:38
Speaker 3: answers that we need.
12:40
Speaker 2: Well, we live in a country where they apply DEI
12:42
Speaker 2: standards to pilots as well, so they can achieve some
12:44
Speaker 2: sort of UN-approved color chart in terms of the color
12:47
Speaker 2: of people's skin and not talk about merit. So I
12:50
Speaker 2: guess it should come no surprise that in a pilot
12:51
Speaker 2: shortage area, they're willing to hire people that, well, show
12:54
Speaker 2: up to work or show up to that application or
12:56
Speaker 2: interview with the suicide vest on, metaphorically.
12:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, and it's– again, we're going to learn from this,
13:04
Speaker 3: and I'm glad we're learning absent of anybody dying up
13:07
Speaker 3: to this point.
13:08
Speaker 4: Yeah. And the idea that the people.
13:10
Speaker 3: On board that airplane got to see their families. And
13:13
Speaker 3: I mean, there's going to be a lot of emotional
13:15
Speaker 3: baggage that everybody's going to carry forward on this. And
13:18
Speaker 3: it's not a matter of, you know, you shake it
13:20
Speaker 3: off and away you go.
13:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, if you're a.
13:22
Speaker 3: Trained military pilot or somebody that knows what you're doing,
13:26
Speaker 3: and even then you might have issues. The normal passenger
13:30
Speaker 3: that goes through this and it being such a public
13:33
Speaker 3: event that everybody's talking about and will be for a
13:36
Speaker 3: period of time. I mean, there's going to be counseling, medication,
13:39
Speaker 3: all kinds of things that these men and women and
13:41
Speaker 3: children are going to have to go through for some
13:43
Speaker 3: time when it becomes even more apparent how close they
13:47
Speaker 3: came to whatever it might have been. Because we talk
13:51
Speaker 3: about the structural integrity of that vertical stabilizer, but then
13:54
Speaker 3: you also have the intent of the person that was
13:56
Speaker 3: trying to take over the airplane to.
13:58
Speaker 4: Do Lord knows what.
13:59
Speaker 1: Lord knows what, and certainly we'll find out at some point. Pause.
14:03
Speaker 2: We'll bring Jay Ratliff for one more segment here on
14:04
Speaker 2: the 55KRC Morning Show. It's 847, 848 at 55KRC Detox Station.
14:11
Speaker 2: It's 851 at 55KRC Detox Station. Talking with iHeartMedia aviation
14:16
Speaker 2: expert Jay Ratliff. We get the benefit of his company
14:18
Speaker 2: every Thursday beginning at 830. And you'll find this discussion
14:21
Speaker 2: over on the podcast page at 55KRC.
14:22
Speaker 4: iHeart. com.
14:25
Speaker 2: Jay Ratliff, you know, I'm surprised I have your list
14:27
Speaker 2: of topics and try to maybe move away from the
14:29
Speaker 2: fly-to-buy incident. I'm sure we'll have a lot more to
14:31
Speaker 2: unpackage between now and next Thursday and we learn more.
14:33
Speaker 2: But there was nothing here about the Boeing 737 MAX
14:40
Speaker 2: software update that apparently there was a problem with, or
14:43
Speaker 2: at least it sounded suspiciously like the update that they
14:45
Speaker 2: didn't let anybody know about.
14:46
Speaker 1: Jay, do you have a comment on that one?
14:49
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, this is a situation where there was
14:52
Speaker 3: part of the flight management system that disengaged right as
14:57
Speaker 3: the aircraft was on final approach. And it had to
15:01
Speaker 3: do with the automated system and then it coming off
15:04
Speaker 3: of that. And then at the last minute, the pilots
15:06
Speaker 3: had to do what they needed to do. And it
15:08
Speaker 3: was a number of years ago that airlines started reporting
15:11
Speaker 3: issues with this. Boeing said, we've looked into this. Nothing
15:15
Speaker 3: to see here. So it was later that the Federal
15:18
Speaker 3: Aviation Administration looked a little.
15:20
Speaker 4: Closer and said, time out here. You know, we need
15:23
Speaker 4: to have this looked at so much.
15:24
Speaker 3: In fact that you have airlines like, I think, United
15:27
Speaker 3: and Southwest that have told Boeing, look, when you deliver
15:32
Speaker 3: our next Boeing 737 MAX aircraft that are of this series,
15:37
Speaker 3: we want the.
15:37
Speaker 4: Old software package.
15:39
Speaker 3: Not the new updated one, but the old software package. Because, yes,
15:45
Speaker 3: once again, it appears that, I don't know if it's
15:47
Speaker 3: a matter of, hey, let's see how little we can
15:49
Speaker 3: pay people to do things as we did in the
15:52
Speaker 3: Boeing MAX situation on the MCAS system. where we were
15:55
Speaker 3: paying people who paid $ 20 an hour in India to
15:58
Speaker 3: develop the system that ended up, you know, malfunctioning and
16:01
Speaker 3: killing 346 people on two flights. But, you know, the FAA,
16:06
Speaker 3: you know, is stepping in saying, look, this has got
16:08
Speaker 3: to get fixed. It's got to get fixed now. And
16:10
Speaker 3: I'm glad to see that because, once again, when Boeing
16:14
Speaker 3: was made aware of a situation, maybe they knew there
16:19
Speaker 3: was a problem. opted not to do anything, or maybe
16:22
Speaker 3: they just totally were.
16:23
Speaker 4: Ignorant of the fact that there was an issue.
16:25
Speaker 3: But we found it in the Boeing MAX issue seven
16:28
Speaker 3: years ago that, yes, they were very aware of the
16:31
Speaker 3: situation involving the MCAS system and the stalling thing and
16:36
Speaker 3: all of the things that were the problems with what
16:37
Speaker 3: they had. And their internal decision was, we know there's
16:41
Speaker 3: a problem, and we're going to fix it in the
16:43
Speaker 3: future on future ones, and we'll get it worked out. Well, obviously,
16:47
Speaker 3: people died in the process. I don't know, obviously, about
16:50
Speaker 3: the thought process or what's going on here, but it was,
16:55
Speaker 3: like you.
16:55
Speaker 4: Said, eerily similar.
16:56
Speaker 1: Eerily similar.
16:58
Speaker 4: To the Boeing of old, and it just makes you shudder.
17:01
Speaker 2: It does, and it just blows my mind that they
17:03
Speaker 2: have that Cavalier attitude. This has not been a day
17:06
Speaker 2: of easing the concerns of the reluctant flyer Jay Ratliff, but...
17:10
Speaker 2: There's your aviation news for the week as relayed to
17:13
Speaker 2: you by our great iHeartMedia aviation expert, Jay Ratliff. Jay,
17:16
Speaker 2: thank you so much for your time today breaking down
17:18
Speaker 2: the issues. We'll do it again next Friday. And as always,
17:20
Speaker 2: between now and then, I hope you and your better
17:21
Speaker 2: half have a fantastic, wonderful week. And best of health
17:23
Speaker 2: and love to both of you.
17:25
Speaker 3: Always good to talk to you. And if I can
17:26
Speaker 3: throw in real quick, if you're going through Dallas or
17:28
Speaker 3: Chicago today, look for delays. Get to the airport early.
17:31
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Appreciate that brief hub delay. Jay,
17:34
Speaker 1: take care, brother. It's 855.