Latest / Brian Thomas / IHeartMedia Aviation Expert Jay Ratliff
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: We do aviation conversation with iHeartMedia aviation expert Jay Ratliff
- 0:04Speaker 1: joining the show. Always a fun time. Jay Ratliff, welcome
- 0:07Speaker 1: back to the morning show. It's great to have you
- 0:08Speaker 1: on as always pleasant.
- 0:10Speaker 2: Good morning to It's great to be.
- 0:11Speaker 1: Here and real quick, let me shout out to me anywhere,
- 0:13Speaker 1: definitely here. Thank you. I really enjoy our conversations, my friend.
- 0:17Speaker 1: I know you do this all week long, all over
- 0:19Speaker 1: the iHeartMedia networks, and there's lots of stations, but your
- 0:22Speaker 1: time here is valuable to me and I really enjoy
- 0:24Speaker 1: the topics we go over and real quick, can I
- 0:26Speaker 1: thank Timothy who just sent me a message and saying
- 0:28Speaker 1: you can add his prayers for good weather for my
- 0:30Speaker 1: daughter's wedding on Saturday. I've given up. But Jay, our
- 0:34Speaker 1: weather forecasts occasionally wrong, you know.
- 0:38Speaker 2: I well, no, obviously not Brian, because we're told with
- 0:41Speaker 2: absolute certainty, in twenty three years, we're going to be,
- 0:45Speaker 2: you know, without a planet.
- 0:47Speaker 1: So that's right.
- 0:48Speaker 2: If they can get that right, certainly they can get
- 0:50Speaker 2: this weekend.
- 0:51Speaker 1: No question about it. Prayers keep coming in. I'll take
- 0:53Speaker 1: them if you want to offer them anyway, absolute and
- 0:55Speaker 1: pivoting over to the subject matter. This was this was
- 0:59Speaker 1: great Jay. When I said this, of course, I immediately
- 1:01Speaker 1: thought of you. The Southwest Airline captain that is obviously
- 1:04Speaker 1: forced into retirement because they must retire at age sixty
- 1:07Speaker 1: five for reasons unknown. We'll get to that in a moment.
- 1:09Speaker 1: But he had a really extra special day on his
- 1:12Speaker 1: last flight.
- 1:13Speaker 2: Yeah, they brought us his daughter on board, and the
- 1:15Speaker 2: daughter addresses the passenger saying, Hey, it's my dad's last flight,
- 1:19Speaker 2: and she went on to talk about their space of relationship,
- 1:23Speaker 2: how her dad taught him to or taught her how
- 1:26Speaker 2: to ride a bike, how to walk, yes, how to
- 1:29Speaker 2: fly a plane. And then she went on to announce
- 1:31Speaker 2: she was going to be the first officer on that
- 1:33Speaker 2: flight because she also works for Southwest Airlines, and they
- 1:36Speaker 2: arranged it so that dad and daughter could fly together
- 1:39Speaker 2: on his last segment. And I tell it's an incredibly
- 1:42Speaker 2: emotional time because you will have air traffic controllers who
- 1:46Speaker 2: are aware of it pass along their best wishes to
- 1:49Speaker 2: the pilot that's retiring. Many times, the fire crews will
- 1:53Speaker 2: come out with two trucks and they'll do the water cannon,
- 1:55Speaker 2: oh to loot as they leave both on departure and arrival.
- 1:59Speaker 2: But we have your daughter next next to you on
- 2:02Speaker 2: that flights as part of the crew. You know, I've
- 2:05Speaker 2: seen it where it's you know, it's a mom and daughter,
- 2:08Speaker 2: mom and son in the cockpit, or maybe the dad's
- 2:11Speaker 2: flying and the one of the flight attendants is one
- 2:14Speaker 2: of the children. But I mean to have them both
- 2:16Speaker 2: up front like that. You know, that's one. If you
- 2:19Speaker 2: encounter a little bit of a weather delay, you don't care.
- 2:21Speaker 1: You don't care.
- 2:22Speaker 2: You milk it for just a few more minutes, because yeah,
- 2:26Speaker 2: it's very special and it's gone viral for all the
- 2:29Speaker 2: great reasons.
- 2:30Speaker 1: Right, it was a great put a sme on your
- 2:33Speaker 1: face story. And that lets us pivot over to the
- 2:35Speaker 1: other topic we have on your list here, among others,
- 2:37Speaker 1: Why the hell has a guy got to retire at
- 2:39Speaker 1: sixty five? I mean absence some cognitive decline of the
- 2:42Speaker 1: guy's obviously he has like what six thousand hours behind
- 2:45Speaker 1: the stick?
- 2:46Speaker 2: Well, I think it's eighteen thousand when you put everything
- 2:49Speaker 2: in as far as all this flying time. This this
- 2:51Speaker 2: guy flew.
- 2:52Speaker 1: For the military twenty years, that's right.
- 2:53Speaker 2: The Southwest flop for another twenty years. So I mean, yeah,
- 2:56Speaker 2: he he was doing it right, But sixty five is
- 3:00Speaker 2: the age that was determined. I think it's back in
- 3:02Speaker 2: two thousand and eight or nine we solved an increase
- 3:06Speaker 2: in the manuatory retirement age from sixty to sixty five,
- 3:11Speaker 2: and right now sixty five is considered the time when
- 3:15Speaker 2: it's time forced to put the pilots out. The past
- 3:17Speaker 2: year now, a lot of these sixty five year olds
- 3:19Speaker 2: are very very sharp men and women. Believe me, I'd
- 3:22Speaker 2: love to keep them in the cockpit for another year
- 3:23Speaker 2: or two. But for some inexplicable reason, there's been a
- 3:27Speaker 2: I don't know if it's the airlines don't want to
- 3:29Speaker 2: pay these individuals more money for two years. They want
- 3:32Speaker 2: to bring in cheaper talent, whatever it might happen to be.
- 3:35Speaker 2: But even the union that represents the Airline Pilot Association
- 3:41Speaker 2: is against the increase, and I've never gotten that, and
- 3:44Speaker 2: I've had some people say, well, Jay, you need to
- 3:46Speaker 2: understand that other countries at sixty five. So if we
- 3:50Speaker 2: did increase it to sixty seven, then our international flights
- 3:54Speaker 2: could be at risk if we had a sixty six
- 3:56Speaker 2: year old captain going into a country. But the problem
- 4:00Speaker 2: is the rest of the world tends to follow our lead.
- 4:04Speaker 2: So if we raised it to sixty seven, there's a
- 4:06Speaker 2: pretty good chance around the world that we would see
- 4:09Speaker 2: the same sort of situation. So yeah, I will certainly
- 4:13Speaker 2: accept the fact that there could be some scheduling complications
- 4:17Speaker 2: in that. But look, a lot of these men and
- 4:20Speaker 2: women have taken pay cuts over the years the decades,
- 4:23Speaker 2: and it would be nice for them to have an
- 4:25Speaker 2: extra year or two to try to regain some of
- 4:27Speaker 2: what they lost. Plus, I like it during a time
- 4:30Speaker 2: when we are saying that we are short on pilots,
- 4:33Speaker 2: here's an instant fix that will allow us to keep
- 4:36Speaker 2: a quality number of pilots for an additional year or two.
- 4:40Speaker 2: Let's do it. But again, I mean Senator Lindsey Graham
- 4:45Speaker 2: has been working on this for three or four years.
- 4:47Speaker 2: You go back to coming out of COVID, you and
- 4:48Speaker 2: I were talking about raising the retirement age of pilots
- 4:52Speaker 2: from sixty five to a higher number to help offset
- 4:56Speaker 2: the need for this huge gap that we had as
- 5:00Speaker 2: far as you know, pilots, some of these regional carriers
- 5:02Speaker 2: were offering one hundred thousand dollars sign on bonus for
- 5:07Speaker 2: captains to come over. So I mean it was crazy
- 5:10Speaker 2: with what was going on. And yeah, but again, sixty
- 5:14Speaker 2: five is it and it continues to be the case,
- 5:16Speaker 2: and maybe eventually we'll see it. There's bipartisan effort to
- 5:20Speaker 2: raise it. I just don't know what's holding it back.
- 5:22Speaker 1: Well, if to the extense the rest of the world
- 5:24Speaker 1: holding it back. If we do it, let's let the
- 5:25Speaker 1: sixty six sixty seven year old pilots fly domestically and
- 5:29Speaker 1: let the one sixty five and underfly internationally until the
- 5:32Speaker 1: whole world changes its tune and wakes up to a
- 5:34Speaker 1: sense of reality.
- 5:35Speaker 2: But when you get that seniority, you want the international
- 5:38Speaker 2: longer flights because then you work fewer days a week
- 5:40Speaker 2: a month in your homework. And that's why a lot
- 5:43Speaker 2: of people take those international trips.
- 5:45Speaker 1: All right, Well it's that or maybe no longer be employed.
- 5:47Speaker 1: We'll let them wrestle it out, Jay ratlif don't go away. Yeah,
- 5:51Speaker 1: things may be improving over United Airlines. Plus another near
- 5:54Speaker 1: miss we can talk about and viral images related to
- 5:57Speaker 1: aircraft issues. Don't go away? More with Jay Radleif.
- 6:00Speaker 2: These words fifty five KRC years of early morning.
- 6:04Speaker 1: Air c the talk station. Have you ever been in
- 6:07Speaker 1: a cockpit? Before Jay Rattlerfassi's iHeartMedia aviation expert. He's a pilot.
- 6:12Speaker 1: Tuck all aviation issues with Jay on Thursday's beginning of
- 6:15Speaker 1: Day thirty. Continuing on real quick here, in terms of
- 6:17Speaker 1: the mandatory retirement agent for captains at sixty five, my
- 6:20Speaker 1: buddy retired Navy probably served as country pat. Swaby said
- 6:25Speaker 1: his cousin was an air traffic controller and they had
- 6:27Speaker 1: a mandatory retirement age of fifty five. Is that accurate?
- 6:30Speaker 2: Jay? It was? And I don't know if it's still
- 6:33Speaker 2: fifty five, but it was an age less than the pilots.
- 6:36Speaker 2: It's very stressful, and especially these days with everything that's
- 6:39Speaker 2: going on, the fact that we have so much of
- 6:44Speaker 2: an of an understaffed facility across the country with air
- 6:48Speaker 2: traffic control centers that, yeah, it is even more so
- 6:51Speaker 2: because there's force over time for a lot of these individuals.
- 6:55Speaker 2: And that's one time we you and I talked about
- 6:56Speaker 2: a near miss. One of the things that's looked at
- 6:59Speaker 2: is the controller on duty. How long have they've been
- 7:02Speaker 2: on duty, are they on overtime? Are they in the
- 7:04Speaker 2: right position? I mean, you all kinds of questions because
- 7:08Speaker 2: of that issue.
- 7:09Speaker 1: I get it, and also the potential shortage of five
- 7:11Speaker 1: and a quarter flopping drives Jay to keep the system running.
- 7:14Speaker 1: That's an alse frightening proposition.
- 7:16Speaker 2: All right, well, yeah, let's get away from those for sure.
- 7:19Speaker 1: I imagine it is an unbelievably stressful job. I mean,
- 7:22Speaker 1: all these folks lives are in your hands, and pivot
- 7:24Speaker 1: over to Boston where we have two planes almost flying
- 7:26Speaker 1: into each other. What happened here?
- 7:28Speaker 2: Yeah, and the audio is pretty clear on this. You
- 7:30Speaker 2: have an air traffic control in Boston that's giving an
- 7:33Speaker 2: American airlines chef permission to take off, and you also
- 7:37Speaker 2: have at the same time the tower giving a permission
- 7:40Speaker 2: for Delta flight to come in in land. Now, as
- 7:43Speaker 2: you can see the overlay of the aircraft as they're
- 7:47Speaker 2: moving or preparing to they're about to occupy the same
- 7:50Speaker 2: spot at the same time at the Logan Airport in Boston.
- 7:53Speaker 2: So what happens is the American flight starts to roll
- 7:57Speaker 2: for takeoff as they were cleared to do, Delta coming
- 8:00Speaker 2: into land, and the crew notices as they're checking because
- 8:03Speaker 2: they always, you know, they're gonna double check everything, they
- 8:06Speaker 2: see that aircraft taken off, and the Delta crew on
- 8:09Speaker 2: their own says we are not landing, and they bought
- 8:11Speaker 2: the approach and they peel off. They let air traffic
- 8:14Speaker 2: control know what's going on, at which point then the
- 8:17Speaker 2: air traffic controller says, hey, American, what are you doing.
- 8:20Speaker 2: They're like, we're doing what you told us to do.
- 8:22Speaker 2: We were cleared to take off. So nobody got hurt,
- 8:25Speaker 2: thankfully for a very very alert Delta crew that you know,
- 8:29Speaker 2: did what they were trained to do. And the FAA
- 8:33Speaker 2: and the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate to find
- 8:35Speaker 2: out what happened, because again, was this somebody that was
- 8:39Speaker 2: in typical protocol unless they've changed radically. The procedure in
- 8:44Speaker 2: the tower is when somebody's involved in this, they're removed
- 8:48Speaker 2: off the job right then, for you know, drug and
- 8:50Speaker 2: alcohol testing and an evaluation and just to make sure
- 8:54Speaker 2: everything there is good. But yeah, we'll find out what
- 8:57Speaker 2: happened and hopefully make aviation safe as a result.
- 9:00Speaker 1: Real quick, here, in a few moments we have here,
- 9:02Speaker 1: can you briefly address the United Airlines reservation center upgrade.
- 9:07Speaker 2: Yeah, one of the biggest frustrations United was hearing from
- 9:10Speaker 2: their consumers was when I call you your reservation center,
- 9:14Speaker 2: I've got to go through all of this annoying artificial intelligence.
- 9:18Speaker 2: I'm an automated computer. I can help you, and you
- 9:21Speaker 2: go through ten or fifteen questions and then you finally
- 9:23Speaker 2: get transferred to an agent. Well, the problem is the
- 9:26Speaker 2: agent had no idea what you were chatting with back
- 9:29Speaker 2: and forth with that stupid computer, so they have to
- 9:31Speaker 2: ask all those same questions again. It's very very fresh.
- 9:34Speaker 2: So what United has done is they said, like, we've
- 9:36Speaker 2: heard those concerns, and here's what we're going to do.
- 9:38Speaker 2: All of that data that you communicate back and forth
- 9:41Speaker 2: with that automated system, when you're transferred to an agent,
- 9:44Speaker 2: all of that's going to come with you, so that
- 9:46Speaker 2: the agent that takes the call has got an idea
- 9:49Speaker 2: of what you've already discussed, where things are at, and
- 9:52Speaker 2: we can resolve the situation faster. I love it's and
- 9:55Speaker 2: I'm really really glad. I wish, like every other company
- 9:58Speaker 2: on the planet adopt that back. I wish they would
- 10:01Speaker 2: just flush that stupid automated system, because I get it
- 10:04Speaker 2: they're trying to save money, But Brian, what an aggravating
- 10:07Speaker 2: thing to go through.
- 10:08Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the epitome of not thinking about customer service. First,
- 10:12Speaker 1: simple fix. We're going to talk about viral stuff, dogs
- 10:15Speaker 1: on planes and crazy passenger gate conversations. More with Jay Ratliff.
- 10:20Speaker 1: After these words, fifty five KRC meant talk station eight
- 10:26Speaker 1: forty nine. Ifif you five KRCD talk station one more
- 10:29Speaker 1: with Jay Ratliff, I heard Mediva Aviation expert finishing out
- 10:32Speaker 1: on what I hope is a lighter area topic. Here
- 10:34Speaker 1: image of a dog on a plane has gone viral.
- 10:37Speaker 1: What's this one, Jay?
- 10:39Speaker 2: Oh, it's a fun story. Let me quickly though, if
- 10:41Speaker 2: I may wish Rachel's Ziggler. She's one of the Honor
- 10:45Speaker 2: Flight people that we work with. It's her birthday today.
- 10:49Speaker 2: I wanted to say happy birthday to Rachel. She's got
- 10:51Speaker 2: two daughters that raised tens of thousands of dollars for
- 10:55Speaker 2: Honor Flights.
- 10:56Speaker 1: That's wight birthday ever, But God bless them.
- 10:58Speaker 2: Dog, Yes, SAPs especial people. Back to the dog story.
- 11:03Speaker 2: There's this picture that's gone viral of a dog that
- 11:07Speaker 2: was on a plane that was actually fitting a small
- 11:10Speaker 2: dog on a tray table. Now we are allowed, at
- 11:14Speaker 2: a cost to take a pet on board an aircraft
- 11:17Speaker 2: with us. The airlines allow us to do that they
- 11:19Speaker 2: charge us for it. The pet has to be in
- 11:21Speaker 2: a small carry on container that's underneath the seat in
- 11:24Speaker 2: front of us. And the deal is Brian the dog
- 11:26Speaker 2: or cat or whatever it is, stays in that carrier,
- 11:29Speaker 2: you don't get them out. Okay, Apparently this woman thought, man,
- 11:33Speaker 2: I'm gonna get the dog out, and only that I'm
- 11:34Speaker 2: gonna put his butt right here on the tray table.
- 11:37Speaker 2: And the picture that went viral. It's kind of like, well,
- 11:39Speaker 2: wait a minute, Jaya. They clean these tray tables off
- 11:43Speaker 2: after every flight. No, you're lucky if you get it
- 11:47Speaker 2: at the end of the day with the aircraft. And
- 11:50Speaker 2: that's why so many times you'll see Look, if you
- 11:53Speaker 2: fly with Sherry and I, you'll see us many times
- 11:55Speaker 2: grab an alcoholic wipe, Yeah, wipe down the tray table,
- 11:58Speaker 2: the entertainment screen, the armor, US head rest. Not because
- 12:02Speaker 2: germ freak, but it's simply because I can't trust that
- 12:06Speaker 2: to be done the same way. I'm not going to
- 12:07Speaker 2: drink the alcohol or the tea or the coffee. The
- 12:12Speaker 2: water systems, we've talked about how those water pipes aren't clean,
- 12:15Speaker 2: and the horrific pictures and images on Google you can
- 12:18Speaker 2: look it up and yeah, it's it's it's it's the yeah.
- 12:22Speaker 2: But so yeah, that's you know, the rest of a dog.
- 12:26Speaker 1: I mean, I got dog inside. Okay, the what are
- 12:29Speaker 1: you gonna get from a dog? Maybe the dog walking
- 12:31Speaker 1: in something. But I think more broadly of things like MRSA.
- 12:34Speaker 1: You know, I mean on human beings touching trays and
- 12:37Speaker 1: the trays not being washed out. Why do you think
- 12:39Speaker 1: they give you wipes at the Kroger to wipe off
- 12:41Speaker 1: your the handrail on your on your cart before you
- 12:44Speaker 1: go on in and get groceries.
- 12:46Speaker 2: Yuh, Well, that's why a lot of times flight intends
- 12:48Speaker 2: will stop kids running to the lavatory in their bare feet.
- 12:51Speaker 2: You no, no, sweetie, go back and get your shoes on.
- 12:53Speaker 2: This is because we don't. I mean, it's it's a
- 12:56Speaker 2: crime scene. If you went in there with one of
- 12:58Speaker 2: those black lights. It's just no, no, no no, even though
- 13:01Speaker 2: they're supposed to be you know, screened or you know,
- 13:03Speaker 2: sanitized and scrubbed down and cleaned.
- 13:06Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not.
- 13:08Speaker 2: It's not.
- 13:09Speaker 1: And another great reason why you really don't want to
- 13:12Speaker 1: join the Mile High Club in the airline bathroom or
- 13:15Speaker 1: no no, no, no, cross no.
- 13:17Speaker 2: Not unless you never want to fly that airline again.
- 13:19Speaker 1: Well there's that, Yeah, you may get kicked off for life.
- 13:21Speaker 1: But then again there's the germs and the entire disgusting
- 13:24Speaker 1: nature of bathrooms on airplanes. All right, let's go to
- 13:27Speaker 1: Canada where we have another viral video.
- 13:30Speaker 2: Yeah. I had a passenger. She was in the gate area.
- 13:33Speaker 2: She had been off of a canceled flight. She was
- 13:35Speaker 2: on another flight. She's supposed to fly business class. The
- 13:38Speaker 2: flight she was diverted to because of her first light
- 13:40Speaker 2: canceling didn't have it. She's in the gate area, strikes
- 13:44Speaker 2: up a conversation with another man who's traveling on the
- 13:46Speaker 2: same flight. They chat for about fifteen minutes or so,
- 13:48Speaker 2: and as the woman's getting on board the flight, the
- 13:50Speaker 2: man says, excuse me, I want you to take my seat.
- 13:54Speaker 2: He was the vice president of Air Canada flying in
- 13:56Speaker 2: business class. He said, let's trade seats. You take mine,
- 13:59Speaker 2: I'll take here. He goes back and sits in her
- 14:01Speaker 2: uncomfortable seat so she can enjoy her trip in another one.
- 14:05Speaker 2: It was just such a nice, nice thing, but it
- 14:08Speaker 2: reminded me of people like Ed Bashian, who's the head
- 14:10Speaker 2: of Delpha. He flies business The comfort plus seats or coach.
- 14:16Speaker 2: He won't sit up front. He wants to give those
- 14:18Speaker 2: to the passengers that want to pay for them or
- 14:20Speaker 2: that have earned them through the frequent flyer program. So
- 14:24Speaker 2: that's good to see. But it was just really nice
- 14:26Speaker 2: that somebody like that. Wasn't a super long flight, but
- 14:29Speaker 2: it was a story that went viral because the lady
- 14:31Speaker 2: said she was totally caught off guard by the fact
- 14:34Speaker 2: that this man would just quickly say, hey, take my seat,
- 14:37Speaker 2: because you know, we apologize for what you went through
- 14:40Speaker 2: and this won't make up for it, but you know,
- 14:42Speaker 2: maybe it'll help.
- 14:43Speaker 1: That's great. Gives him a real life feel for what
- 14:45Speaker 1: it's like to be back there.
- 14:47Speaker 2: So that's well, and that's why Ed Bastian does it.
- 14:49Speaker 2: He walks the floors and he's on the ramp and
- 14:52Speaker 2: he's talking with passengers, and a lot of passengers said,
- 14:56Speaker 2: wait a minute, that's who you're, the guy that runs
- 14:58Speaker 2: this airline. What are you going back here? And he
- 15:00Speaker 2: gets a chance to talk to him and here's what
- 15:02Speaker 2: people like and what they don't like. And I say
- 15:05Speaker 2: many times, it's not a matter of people, you know,
- 15:08Speaker 2: expecting change, if you'll just give them an ear and
- 15:11Speaker 2: listen to what complaints they have. If you can't change anything,
- 15:15Speaker 2: you can tell the person. Look, I'm sorry, I don't
- 15:16Speaker 2: see it's being able to change that procedure policy anytime soon.
- 15:20Speaker 2: People may not like the answer, but Brian, they appreciate
- 15:23Speaker 2: the fact that you at least were interested enough to listen.
- 15:26Speaker 2: And a lot of these executives get that.
- 15:29Speaker 1: Only politicians acted more like that. As we always finish
- 15:32Speaker 1: off with hub delay, you had their ruins. I know,
- 15:35Speaker 1: I know, thirty p word. What's it like to fly
- 15:39Speaker 1: out there today? Hub delays get some.
- 15:41Speaker 2: Issues in Chicago, Detroit. I think they're going to be minimal.
- 15:44Speaker 2: I gotta have a lot of rain around the country.
- 15:46Speaker 2: Nothing that's going to be hammering any of the hubs.
- 15:48Speaker 2: But it does mean we'll have some turbulence. So if
- 15:50Speaker 2: you're scheduled to fly today, just make sure you've got
- 15:53Speaker 2: your seatbelt fastened about you. It should be a pretty
- 15:55Speaker 2: good day to take to diskuies.
- 15:56Speaker 1: Hey right, God bless you, sir, Thank you for all
- 15:59Speaker 1: you do of yours here in the fifty five K
- 16:01Speaker 1: S three Morning Show's always end with