Latest / Brian Thomas / IHeartMedia Aviation Expert Jay Ratliff

Transcript

IHeartMedia Aviation Expert Jay Ratliff · Brian Thomas

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  Speaker 1: Fifty five KR and see the talk station eight twenty nine.
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  Speaker 1: On a Thursday, it's a good time to be tuned
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  Speaker 1: at the fifty five Tharessey Morning Show from my subjective
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  Speaker 1: point of view, because get iHeartMedia aviation expert Jay Rats
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  Speaker 1: to join the program and talk about sometimes quite comical
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  Speaker 1: issues in aviation. My friend, welcome back to the morning show.
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  Speaker 1: It's always great having you on.
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  Speaker 2: Pleasure to good morning to you, my friend.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, I can live on what you made in an hour.
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  Speaker 2: Yesterday, Hey, Jerry was making dinner. She was making cube steak,
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  Speaker 2: and I was in my office shuffling a few papers,
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  Speaker 2: looked up, saw a couple of stocks that were moving,
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  Speaker 2: and yeah, she was making the cube steak for dinner.
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  Speaker 2: I made that at a ninety two hundred.
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  Speaker 1: Dollars in an hour. I could live on that hourly rate.
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  Speaker 1: Joe Strekker just left the building to go sign up
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  Speaker 1: for your training class on trading.
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  Speaker 2: Anyway.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what Jay does and he does really well
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  Speaker 1: at it. Anyways, pivoty back over to aviation news, which
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  Speaker 1: is why you're really here. A turtle turtle, Yeah, in the.
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  Speaker 2: Dallas Airport, we had a turn that was out sunning itself,
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  Speaker 2: and you had a plane that was departing and had
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  Speaker 2: a rather comical exchange with air traffic control saying that
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  Speaker 2: you know, I got this turtle out here on the
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  Speaker 2: middle of the runway, right on the center line, just
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  Speaker 2: happy as could be, just sitting there. And of course
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  Speaker 2: it's an issue because anytime you've got a plane landing
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  Speaker 2: or taking off, it's a critical moment of flight and
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  Speaker 2: you don't want to have something out there that you're
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  Speaker 2: going to strike that can prevent somebody from taking off,
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  Speaker 2: or an issue with an aircraft landing, so it becomes
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  Speaker 2: a problem. So we have birds a lot of times
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  Speaker 2: we talk about as far as a collision with wildlife,
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  Speaker 2: but we also have deer the jump fences and they're
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  Speaker 2: out there and sometimes get impacted by an aircraft. We
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  Speaker 2: have that happened quite a bit at night. We've had
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  Speaker 2: moose that have been hit, alligators, snakes, fish, if you
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  Speaker 2: can believe it, that aircraft have encountered out on the runway,
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  Speaker 2: and yeah, turtles. So this was a situation where you
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  Speaker 2: had some flight delayed because of a very content turtle
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  Speaker 2: on the runway, and you know, we're at the airport
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  Speaker 2: A lot of times and see those vehicles going up
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  Speaker 2: and down the runway. That's what they're looking for. Any
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  Speaker 2: sort of what we call FOD for an object debris
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  Speaker 2: that might have fallen off of an aircraft or could
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  Speaker 2: be you know, some wildlife or remains of wildlife, you know,
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  Speaker 2: that might have been left there by another.
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  Speaker 1: Critter or some crazy random dude who comes thinks it's
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  Speaker 1: appropriate to go running out of the runway and ends
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  Speaker 1: up getting well mowed over or ingested.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's happened. Well, it's breakfast time. I'm trying
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  Speaker 2: to be trying to be delicate here, but yes, it's
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  Speaker 2: it's not a good thing when that takes place.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, since you provided us a list of random animals
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  Speaker 1: and other critters who have been on runways in the past,
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  Speaker 1: I just have to ask, because you know, I've seen
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  Speaker 1: shark nato. I did waste an hour and fifteen minutes
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  Speaker 1: of my life watching that. Any sharks obviously a joke there, Jay,
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  Speaker 1: unless you tell me yes, there's this instance of a shark,
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  Speaker 1: cause you did mention fish not yet.
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  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, because sometimes bird will catch birds will catch
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  Speaker 2: and drop them and they'll be on the runway and
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  Speaker 2: that can create a problem if it's sucked into an engine,
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  Speaker 2: because you know, birds and fish and different types of things.
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  Speaker 2: But to my knowledge, in the thirty six years I've
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  Speaker 2: been doing this, I don't think I've encountered a shark
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  Speaker 2: issue on a runway. But you never say never, not
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  Speaker 2: in this world.
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  Speaker 1: Never say never. I will move. Since this is a
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  Speaker 1: lighthearted topic to talk about before we get to United
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  Speaker 1: Airlines and their upgrades and engine fires and that kind
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  Speaker 1: of thing, let's talk about visibly intoxicated passengers. What's this
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  Speaker 1: all about with Alaska Airlines?
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  Speaker 2: Jay, Alaska Airlines have been fine, well, it's a proposed fine.
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  Speaker 2: It's not going to be this, but the FAA, federally
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  Speaker 2: of the AASH Administration is proposing one hundred and sixty
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  Speaker 2: five thousand dollars fine because in the twelve month period
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  Speaker 2: of February twenty twenty four to February of twenty twenty five,
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  Speaker 2: there were eleven instances where passengers boarded aircraft that became
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  Speaker 2: a problem, and in the investigation it was determined, you know,
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  Speaker 2: these people were pretty intoxicated in the in the gate area,
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  Speaker 2: and the airline never should have let them on the
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  Speaker 2: plane because that creates a safety issue for the flight attendants,
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  Speaker 2: for the crew, for the passengers, blah blah blah.
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  Speaker 1: Huh.
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  Speaker 2: So, yeah, they have this proposed fine, and I keep
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  Speaker 2: saying proposed because that's what it is. It's going to
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  Speaker 2: be negotiated down to some insane low number as long
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  Speaker 2: as Alaska promises never to do it again or do
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  Speaker 2: a better job. We have these maintenance sometimes finds of
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  Speaker 2: you know, eleven million dollars that's proposed and they negotiated
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  Speaker 2: down to one million. If they, you know, promise to
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  Speaker 2: change this or that. It drives me crazy because I
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  Speaker 2: want to negotiate down a smeeting ticket, but I don't
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  Speaker 2: think they're gonna let me do that. I can't go
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  Speaker 2: to the irs and say, you know, can we negotiate
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  Speaker 2: this number down as far as what I've got to pay,
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  Speaker 2: That's not going to work. But with airlines, they they're
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  Speaker 2: just no serious consequences a lot of times for some
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  Speaker 2: of the garbage they keep pulling.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I got to imagine this happened, was this would
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  Speaker 1: happen more often considering you know, the restrictions on it.
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  Speaker 1: Alcohol consumptions on planes and you can't buy like nine drinks,
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  Speaker 1: so people load up ahead of time and then get
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  Speaker 1: on the plane, because well, some people are stressed out overflying,
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  Speaker 1: and I can certainly understand that, but this is an
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  Speaker 1: FAA rule regarding the regarding an existing obligation on airlines
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  Speaker 1: to prevent drunks from getting on the plane. They I
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  Speaker 1: mean they knew about this ahead of time.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Because if you see somebody acting in a certain behavior,
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  Speaker 2: it's it's it is the responsibility of the airline to
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  Speaker 2: try to keep those kinds of problems off of a
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  Speaker 2: off of a flight that could create a safety issue
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  Speaker 2: or a diverted flight, or something else that might happen
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  Speaker 2: on board an aircraft. Because you know, you can never
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  Speaker 2: say to somebody, you know, you appear to be intoxicated,
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  Speaker 2: I'm not going to let you on the flight. You
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  Speaker 2: can say that they appear to be under the influence
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  Speaker 2: of something that's causing them to act this or that
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  Speaker 2: It could be medication, it could be a whole bunch
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  Speaker 2: of other things that make people act in a certain way.
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  Speaker 2: Somebody may have spilled a drink on them. It may
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  Speaker 2: smell like alcohol, but maybe not had a drink at all,
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  Speaker 2: and it's just a change in medical that's causing him
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  Speaker 2: to act in a certain way. So, but the FAA
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  Speaker 2: saying the airlines are responsible for making sure that you
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  Speaker 2: don't have a problem getting on an airplane, and they
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  Speaker 2: had so many of these in that twelve month period
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  Speaker 2: of time. That's one of the reasons that the find
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  Speaker 2: was proposed. And I can't recall ever that we had
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  Speaker 2: the FAA do this. I'm sure that they have. But
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  Speaker 2: keep in mind these gate agents, a lot of them
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  Speaker 2: are short staffed. You've got a short window, you are
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  Speaker 2: under an incredible pressure to dispatch that silver revenue tube
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  Speaker 2: on time. And oh yeah, by the way, I've got
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  Speaker 2: to stop and look at every passenger comes on board
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  Speaker 2: to make sure they're walking straight. Sometimes that's asking a
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  Speaker 2: bit much of them, given some of the conditions that
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  Speaker 2: we see, at least in today's airports.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I would think out of it about it's
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  Speaker 1: a caution for fear that there might be some repercussions
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  Speaker 1: against the airline for erroneously flagging someone that they got
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  Speaker 1: to tread lightly and actually telling someone they can't get
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  Speaker 1: on the plane.
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  Speaker 2: We went through tons of training on just how to
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  Speaker 2: address that specific conversation, let alone to carry it out.
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  Speaker 1: Well, let's bring Jay Ratliff back other interesting topics, voting
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  Speaker 1: Europe doing something that Jay Ratliff has been advocating here
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  Speaker 1: on our segment for as long as we've been fifty
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  Speaker 1: five KRC the Talk Station. Have you ever been in
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  Speaker 1: a cockpit before Jay Ratliffs, He's I heard, met the
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  Speaker 1: aviation expert and we get the pleasure of his company
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  Speaker 1: every Thursday beginning at eight thirty for a few segments
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  Speaker 1: talking about aviation. Is Jay Rattler pivoting over? Hey, at
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  Speaker 1: least Europe listen to you?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, the idea of consequences for your actions
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  Speaker 2: on board a flight, I think is something that makes
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  Speaker 2: common sense. But uh, you know, somebody acts up on
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  Speaker 2: a flight in the United States, especially when it's a
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  Speaker 2: physical altercation. You and I have talked about that so
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  Speaker 2: many times before. It's a shame where somebody pushes a
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  Speaker 2: flight attendant, pushes a passenger something like that, and they're
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  Speaker 2: banned from that airline for the rest of their life,
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  Speaker 2: as they should be, But then they can just skip
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  Speaker 2: down the counter to another airline and off they go.
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  Speaker 2: In Europe, they're saying, if you have somebody that is
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  Speaker 2: aggressively or has assaulted a passenger or a crew member
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  Speaker 2: not only should be banned on that airline, but all
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  Speaker 2: the European carriers. Now. I don't know if it's for
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  Speaker 2: a period of time or if it's a lifetime ban,
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  Speaker 2: but certainly I think, you know, three years, two years,
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  Speaker 2: five years, something. The problem is airlines would then be
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  Speaker 2: required in the United States here to create this database,
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  Speaker 2: to share this database, and it would take time, energy, money,
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  Speaker 2: and they're not going to do it because airlines are cheap.
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  Speaker 2: I remember when the pandemic was coming around, the government
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  Speaker 2: was asking for the airline's help in establishing lists of
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  Speaker 2: passengers on certain flights so that they could provide to
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  Speaker 2: the CDC information on anybody that might have been impacted
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  Speaker 2: or coming from a specific area, and the airline said no,
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  Speaker 2: it would cost too much money. These are the same
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  Speaker 2: airlines where the executives pull hamstrings running to the microphones
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  Speaker 2: talking about how much they care and how safeties are
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  Speaker 2: number one concerned and how blah blah blah blah. But no, no, no, no,
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  Speaker 2: no no. If that were the case, actions would actually
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  Speaker 2: support those kinds of claims which are too often do
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  Speaker 2: not true.
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  Speaker 1: But I mean, we do have no fly list I mean,
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  Speaker 1: lists are created all the time. It doesn't seem to
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  Speaker 1: be a big ask. You got a person who's obviously
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  Speaker 1: identified that airline itself can ban and does ban individuals
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  Speaker 1: from flying. Ever, again, let's say just have them share
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  Speaker 1: the information like a central database. It doesn't seem like
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  Speaker 1: that huge of an ask.
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  Speaker 2: Jay, It's not, but it requires effort, money and time,
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  Speaker 2: and airlines have pushed back on this from day one.
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  Speaker 2: And the thing that is just blowing more brain cells
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  Speaker 2: than I can afford to lose is aren't you caring
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  Speaker 2: enough about your employees that you would want to keep
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  Speaker 2: somebody that has assaulted I mean, what happens if somebody
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  Speaker 2: assaults a passenger because there's too much to drink or
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  Speaker 2: whatever on one flight, gets on another flight and critically
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  Speaker 2: injures a passenger or another flight attendant. I would just
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  Speaker 2: think from the legal standpoint of what we like to
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  Speaker 2: prevent us from being liable for something, that there would
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  Speaker 2: be a a lot more consideration on what you can do.
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  Speaker 2: But airlines have resisted this, and even in Europe they're
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  Speaker 2: talking about some of the legal hoops they are going
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  Speaker 2: to have to jump through may make this an impossible task,
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  Speaker 2: but the idea that there's consequences for those kinds of actions.
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  Speaker 2: And again, during the pandemic, we talked about this, but
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  Speaker 2: a lot of those were just over verbal disputes and
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  Speaker 2: disagreements and you know, those kinds of things. But when
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  Speaker 2: it comes to assault, totally different ballgame, and I should
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  Speaker 2: have totally different consequences.
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  Speaker 1: Amen, brother, I share that all day long.
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  Speaker 2: All right.
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  Speaker 1: Pivoting back one more, the force retirement age for pilots.
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  Speaker 1: This issue, I guess has come up again. We've talked
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  Speaker 1: about this one before too.
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  Speaker 2: Jay Ratley, Well, during the you know, the shortage of
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  Speaker 2: pilots and the things that we saw with the pandemic
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  Speaker 2: and everything, it was recognized that we need more pilots
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  Speaker 2: and we're forcing them to retire at sixty five. And
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  Speaker 2: a lot of these men and women are in great shape,
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  Speaker 2: and yet we're forcing them and their experience out of
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  Speaker 2: the flight deck. And that's really become a pro So
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  Speaker 2: we thought that the easyest thing to do would be,
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  Speaker 2: you know, and Lindsey Graham was trying to really push
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  Speaker 2: this a number of years ago, simply raised the retirement
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  Speaker 2: age from mandatory sixty five to sixty seven. It used
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  Speaker 2: to be sixty from the nineteen fifties, and in two
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  Speaker 2: thousand and seven that was pushed to sixty five. And
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  Speaker 2: I think now sixty seven would be great, but a
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  Speaker 2: lot of the airlines are resisting it. The Airlines Union
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  Speaker 2: is resisting it, and I don't understand why. So it's
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  Speaker 2: got to happen. And now we're seeing more bipartisan support
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  Speaker 2: for this, and Brian, I'm really holding out hope here
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  Speaker 2: that something's good is going to happen, because what we
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  Speaker 2: have are seeing far, far, far too often is that
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  Speaker 2: we have experienced pilots that were kicking out the door
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  Speaker 2: that could do the job I think for another five years.
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  Speaker 2: But at least if we raised it from sixty five
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  Speaker 2: to sixty seven, it would allow us to you know,
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  Speaker 2: slow down some of the understaffing that's taking place right
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  Speaker 2: now with a pilot shortage.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I guess it seems to me to be well,
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  Speaker 1: it's this, this this issue suggests that the pilots themselves,
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  Speaker 1: I would hope, are regularly subjected to some sort of
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  Speaker 1: medical tests, the cognitive tests, to make sure throughout their flying,
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  Speaker 1: whether they're thirty years old or sixty five, that they
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  Speaker 1: have the wherewithal to fly the plane.
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, they have their you know, their their physicals
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  Speaker 2: that they go through and you have to prove that
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  Speaker 2: you are fit physically mentally to fly and where you go. Now,
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  Speaker 2: sometimes we're a little soft on the mental side of
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  Speaker 2: the evaluations, but it's still there. It's still something that's
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  Speaker 2: in the process. But it's easy for us to do
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  Speaker 2: that and I don't see it as being a problem.
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  Speaker 2: But for some reason, there's been so much pushback from
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  Speaker 2: the lobbying group with with airlines that this thing is
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  Speaker 2: really never pardoned me gotten off the ground, And it
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  Speaker 2: makes no sense to me because it solves a lot
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  Speaker 2: of problems. Plus it allows us to make maintain a
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  Speaker 2: lot more experience on the flight deck because we're bringing
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  Speaker 2: in a lot of really young pilots. So you know,
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  Speaker 2: there's just nothing about it that I don't think is
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  Speaker 2: an issue. But you know, hopefully we'll wake up one
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  Speaker 2: day and we'll actually see this, you know, initiated where
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  Speaker 2: we've got pilots that are going to be able to
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  Speaker 2: fly past the you know six age of sixty five.
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  Speaker 1: Well, as we go into the next break here, I
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  Speaker 1: just have to observe you. I guess there was some
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: physician up in Washington, DC. That gave Joe Biden clean
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: bill of health, and we all know how well that
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  Speaker 1: went out. Anyhow, Jay ratlift, don't go away. We got
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  Speaker 1: a couple issues with United and some wake turbulence injuring
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  Speaker 1: some people. So we'll hear from eight forty eight here
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  Speaker 1: fifty five KRCD talk station Brian Thomas with iHeartMedia aviation
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: expert Jay Rattle, pivoting over artificial intelligence in the airline world,
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  Speaker 1: most notably United Airlines, I guess is using AI to
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  Speaker 1: upgrade their system to deal with delayed and canceled flights.
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  Speaker 1: This is a positive use of AI, Jay, I think.
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  Speaker 2: So they've got something called every Flight as a Story.
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  Speaker 2: It's a program using artificial intelligence to keep passengers updated
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  Speaker 2: on delays to their flight. And the thought is we
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  Speaker 2: can provide this in a timely fashion. It gives passengers
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  Speaker 2: the opportunity, sometimes quickly to change the reservation to another option,
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  Speaker 2: so that saves their connection. But what they want to
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  Speaker 2: do now is enhance that even more so that you
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  Speaker 2: can communicate not only that there's a delay, maybe a
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  Speaker 2: mechanical