Latest / Brian Thomas / IHeartMedia Aviation Expert Jay Ratliff

Transcript

IHeartMedia Aviation Expert Jay Ratliff · Brian Thomas

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  Speaker 1: Talk Station.
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  Speaker 2: 831-55-KERN-CD Talk Station. One of my favorite times of week
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  Speaker 2: begins right now on a Thursday, which is we get
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  Speaker 2: to talk with iHeartMedia aviation expert Jay Raliff. Wow. Unpackaging
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  Speaker 2: the issues we've got to talk about today. We probably
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  Speaker 2: won't be able to get through to him, Jay. It's
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  Speaker 2: always great to have you on the program, my friend.
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  Speaker 1: Brian, it's great to be here, pal.
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  Speaker 2: And I know everyone wants to talk about that Learjet
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  Speaker 2: crash in Florida. The horror of seeing that video is
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  Speaker 2: just like, oh my God, it's gut-wrenching. But let's first
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  Speaker 2: talk about this recent development. Joe just brought it to
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  Speaker 2: my attention. Bomb threats hitting multiple flights in Europe. This
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  Speaker 2: is the second time in a week this has happened,
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  Speaker 2: and it's breaking news as of this morning. Diverted at
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  Speaker 2: least a dozen flights across Europe this morning, the latest
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  Speaker 2: in a string of incidents that have been causing these
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  Speaker 2: types of problems. What in the wide, wide world of
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  Speaker 2: sports is it going on there, Jay?
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  Speaker 1: Well, Brian, several days ago, it was seven flights in
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  Speaker 1: one day that received specific bomb threats. One of those,
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  Speaker 1: only one, had to be diverted. And the thought is, okay,
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  Speaker 1: is this kind of a test to see what's going
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  Speaker 1: to happen? And are we going to see more to follow? Well,
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  Speaker 1: obviously now we're not only seeing more, but we're seeing
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  Speaker 1: more flights diverted, which means that the concern level is
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  Speaker 1: even higher than it was before. So anytime there's a
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  Speaker 1: specific bomb threat and they've got a criteria that they follow, Brian,
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  Speaker 1: the protocol is clear. They're going to land at the
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  Speaker 1: nearest park and remote location, get passengers off as quickly
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  Speaker 1: as they can, and then do a hard target search
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  Speaker 1: through the cabin, rescreening all the bags, passengers, interviewing passengers
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  Speaker 1: if need be. It's a very, very thorough and a
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  Speaker 1: very aggravating process for passengers because of everything that goes
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  Speaker 1: through it.
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  Speaker 2: Just for my listeners to know, we're aware of the
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  Speaker 2: technical difficulties. Having a little bit of breakup in your phone,
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  Speaker 2: but I understand you're in the mountains. So we'll bear
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  Speaker 2: with you because you're coming through mostly clear, Jay. My apologies.
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  Speaker 2: That's okay. Well, and it's easy to call in a
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  Speaker 2: bomb threat. Now we've got the Iranians pretty much saying
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  Speaker 2: any American-affiliated target is fair game. So that's an extra
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  Speaker 2: sort of worry and concern that I would carry with me.
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  Speaker 2: So you think this is really just looking at how
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  Speaker 2: the officials react to these type of threats?
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  Speaker 1: I think it is. I do. And of course, there's
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  Speaker 1: just the heightened security concerns. And the last thing.
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  Speaker 2: You want to do is.
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  Speaker 1: Kind of shrug off a possible bomb threat and something happened.
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  Speaker 1: And then, of course, you're worried about how many aircraft
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  Speaker 1: might be impacted. So they're always going to err on
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  Speaker 1: the side of caution, as they should, and that's a
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  Speaker 1: good thing. I'm reminded back in the day, many days,
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  Speaker 1: when I got started in the industry, the FAA told
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  Speaker 1: us on bomb threats that somebody would call in on
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  Speaker 1: the phone, hang up on them, and if they call back,
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  Speaker 1: they're serious. Oh. I never thought that I really didn't
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  Speaker 1: think that was the right approach. I said, somebody calls
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  Speaker 1: in a bomb threat and I'm supposed to hang up
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  Speaker 1: on them to see if they're serious. That seems like
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  Speaker 1: it's kind of testing things. I'm sure it's a lot
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  Speaker 1: different now than it was back in the 80s. But buddy,
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  Speaker 1: that was a concern. But look, we got a lot
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  Speaker 1: of issues right now around the world that's concerning a
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  Speaker 1: lot of people. And we're going to see more of
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  Speaker 1: these types of diversions. And airlines avoiding specific of the world,
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  Speaker 1: if they find that flying in certain sectors is going
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  Speaker 1: to cause problems, it's going to cost them money.
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  Speaker 2: We'll bring Jay Ratliff back and we will dive into
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  Speaker 2: the tragic Lear jet crash in Florida with that young pilot.
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  Speaker 2: Did it fall apart before it started on a past
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  Speaker 2: the speed of sound drive toward the ground or what?
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  Speaker 2: We'll see if Jay's got any insight on that. 835
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  Speaker 2: right now, 55 KRC talk station. 55KRC. Your one stop
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  Speaker 2: for advertising.
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  Speaker 1: 55KRC, the talk station.
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  Speaker 2: You ever been in a cockpit before? No, but Jay
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  Speaker 2: Reitleff has. I heard Media Aviation X will get the
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  Speaker 2: benefit of his company every Thursday for a few segments.
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  Speaker 2: And pivoting over to this insane Lear jet crash. Jay,
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  Speaker 2: I know you've seen the video. And that thing was
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  Speaker 2: going just like a million miles an hour when it
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  Speaker 2: blew up on the earth. The only fortunate thing about
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  Speaker 2: that is people did not feel anything they couldn't have.
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  Speaker 2: It was an instantaneous death. But how did it happen?
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  Speaker 2: Did it start breaking apart before it went on a
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  Speaker 2: supersonic line drive into the ground, or did the plane
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  Speaker 2: fall apart beforehand leading to that? Do we even know?
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  Speaker 1: Brian, it probably came about as the overspeed issue that
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  Speaker 1: took place. You had this flight from Austin headed for
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  Speaker 1: the Bahamas. It was at 35,000 feet and approaching an
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  Speaker 1: area of precipitation where you had some thunderstorms. Now, remember,
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  Speaker 1: they're flying at 35,000 feet, so you're 51 degrees below
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  Speaker 1: zero outside the aircraft. It's a prime setting for icing
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  Speaker 1: on an aircraft. Now, from what we're being told, air
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  Speaker 1: traffic control gave the crew the option of going one
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  Speaker 1: of two ways around the storm they were approaching. And
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  Speaker 1: from what we are understanding from a preliminary standpoint, it
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  Speaker 1: seems as though they opted to take a more direct
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  Speaker 1: approach through it, but at a different altitude. Thinking, well,
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  Speaker 1: we want to get to our destination as soon as
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  Speaker 1: we can. Let's just see if we can go over it.
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  Speaker 1: Problem was this storm, they're cruising at 35,000 feet, topped
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  Speaker 1: out at 50,000 feet. Really no way to get over
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  Speaker 1: it with that Bombardier Lear jet that they were flying.
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  Speaker 1: So what ends up taking place is they enter into
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  Speaker 1: this high precipitation setting. You have ice quickly accumulating on
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  Speaker 1: the wings. They do have de-icing on technology, but, Brian,
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  Speaker 1: so easily that can be, you know, overdone from the
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  Speaker 1: standpoint where it can't keep up. What happens then is
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  Speaker 1: you have that airflow over and under the wing that
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  Speaker 1: provides the constant lift. That's now gone. So you have
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  Speaker 1: an airplane that goes into a stall where it's falling
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  Speaker 1: out of the sky. Now, typically, a stall, absent of
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  Speaker 1: any contaminants on the wing, you know, 10,000 feet, they'll
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  Speaker 1: just nose it down. They regain control. They fly on
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  Speaker 1: the way they go. The problem here is they could
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  Speaker 1: not control the airplane because of the ice that was
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  Speaker 1: on the wings. So as it's falling fast, 20,000 feet
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  Speaker 1: in a minute, you have the situation where it starts
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  Speaker 1: to overspeed. And the first officer or the co-pilot, she
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  Speaker 1: was relaying the information to air traffic control that they were,
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  Speaker 1: in fact, in an overspeed situation. That means exceeding the
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  Speaker 1: aircraft's specifications as far as the maximum allowable speed. They
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  Speaker 1: can't control it. They're going faster and faster. The impact
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  Speaker 1: to the ground takes place, and you're right, the video
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  Speaker 1: was horrific. The audio was, I think, equally so. But
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  Speaker 1: we're finding the NTSB is telling us parts of the wing,
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  Speaker 1: some of the controlling surfaces, three to four miles away
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  Speaker 1: from the impact zone. Yeah. So that tells them that
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  Speaker 1: apparently that aircraft was coming apart before impact, which further
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  Speaker 1: indicates that this crew had absolutely no chance to control
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  Speaker 1: that aircraft. Wow.
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  Speaker 2: The horror. I did the audio. So, so chilling. You
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  Speaker 2: have someone reciting the Lord's prayer in the background, you know,
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  Speaker 2: that they saw the writing on the wall on that one.
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  Speaker 1: Uh, you know, a lot of people on social media, Brian,
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  Speaker 1: excuse me, are going after this 20 year old girl
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  Speaker 1: and whether or not she should have been flying. Uh, look,
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  Speaker 1: she had 1300 hours. She learned to fly before she
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  Speaker 1: learned how to drive. Uh, she was a very competent
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  Speaker 1: pilot and, um, Brian, if the black box, which this
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  Speaker 1: aircraft should have had one, if it survived in any
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  Speaker 1: way where they can locate it and glean any information
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  Speaker 1: from it, that's great. But if it's not able to
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  Speaker 1: be retrieved, the data that this first officer provided to
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  Speaker 1: air traffic control during moments of distress is absolutely incredible.
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  Speaker 1: She sounded like a seasoned veteran when she was giving
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  Speaker 1: a lot of the play-by-play of what was taking place.
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  Speaker 1: And that recording is going to help investigators as they
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  Speaker 1: try to determine sequence of events on exactly what was happening.
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  Speaker 1: A data recorder would tell the investigators, okay, the aircraft
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  Speaker 1: was going at this speed at this moment, this angle
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  Speaker 1: of attack. I mean, all of the data is there.
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  Speaker 1: If they don't have that, they're going to have to
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  Speaker 1: rely on radar information and this firsthand account of what
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  Speaker 1: was going on throughout the course of this timeline. And remember,
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  Speaker 1: They came out of the clouds, headed for the ground.
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  Speaker 1: I think they had like 90 seconds before impact. This
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  Speaker 1: was just an unbelievably tragic situation. And I'm just, the
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  Speaker 1: miracle is that nobody on the ground got seriously injured.
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  Speaker 1: But once the aircraft impacted the ground, they declared an
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  Speaker 1: evacuation of that area. Part of it had to do
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  Speaker 1: with the fumes and other things, but Brian, some of
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  Speaker 1: it had to do with the fact that you had
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  Speaker 1: people that were rushing to render aid They found that
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  Speaker 1: they could do nothing, and they became spectators. And there
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  Speaker 1: have been times in the past, and you and I
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  Speaker 1: have talked about this, where some of those spectators look
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  Speaker 1: down and see a piece of the aircraft.
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  Speaker 2: They'll take it.
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  Speaker 1: They do, just as a souvenir, just as a memorial,
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  Speaker 1: just as something to connect them to the event. The
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  Speaker 1: problem is that could be a critical piece for investigators,
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  Speaker 1: and they've tried to remove everybody out of there so
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  Speaker 1: they could treat it, in essence, as a forensic crime scene. Wow.
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  Speaker 2: Anyhow, I don't understand people's motivation sometimes, Jay. Anyway, it's
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  Speaker 2: not for me to understand. It's just for us to
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  Speaker 2: deal with the reality of it. Real quick here, we've
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  Speaker 2: got a minute or so.
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  Speaker 1: Pick one.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know. Why would American Airlines return to Haiti?
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  Speaker 2: Is there really a market there for flights in and
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  Speaker 2: out of Haiti?
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  Speaker 1: There is. There's a leisure component there. And you also
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  Speaker 1: have people that are going back and forth to rent
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  Speaker 1: to hotels. for charities and different types of organizations to
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  Speaker 1: be there to assist certain parts of Haiti to rebuild.
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  Speaker 1: I know Sherry went down there one time for a
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  Speaker 1: week after an earthquake. to render aid. And that's something
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  Speaker 1: that we have organizations around the world that continue to do.
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  Speaker 1: Probably two years ago, there was such unrest that there
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  Speaker 1: was a lot of gunfire that was erupting around the airport.
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  Speaker 1: Airlines were warned, okay, be careful. And we had Spirit Southwest,
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  Speaker 1: excuse me, Spirit American and JetBlue that got shot at
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  Speaker 1: In a short period of time, in fact, there's pictures
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  Speaker 1: on Google, images you can look where there are bullet
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  Speaker 1: holes in the side of the Spirit Airlines coming through
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  Speaker 1: the overhead compartment. It's very scary. And airlines quickly stopped
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: flying there. But the fact that they can return there
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  Speaker 1: is going to be needed. They can obviously, A, make
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  Speaker 1: money doing it, but, two, restoring service to an area
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  Speaker 1: that drastically needed that resumption of commercial air service. And
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  Speaker 1: I'm really glad to see it. Wow.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: Well, I think it would be easier to fly to
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  Speaker 2: the Dominican Republic and then take a bus. But what
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  Speaker 2: do I know about the whole area? I don't. Take
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  Speaker 2: a cruise.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Go to Miami and just cruise there.
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  Speaker 2: There you go. Well, I can imagine any profit they
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  Speaker 2: made off of an airplane full of people flying to Haiti,
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  Speaker 2: repairing bullet holes in an airplane probably exceeded any profit margin.
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  Speaker 2: My thought, my theory. More with Jay Radler. We've got
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  Speaker 2: quite a few more to get in, and we'll also
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: find out how good it is a day to fly.
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  Speaker 2: 845 right now, 55KRC, the talk station.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: 55KRC.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: Could you use a talk station? Tech Friday with Dave
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: Hatter and Jack Windsor from the Ohio Press Network. Tomorrow
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: on the 55KRC Morning Show, Jack, of course, not real
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: happy about the election results, but pivoting back over, Jay Ratliff.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Warnings for Frontier customers?
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  Speaker 1: Yes, they've noticed a string of phishing emails that are
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  Speaker 1: going out to many of their frequent flyers that looks
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: like a Frontier email. people are responding and sadly providing, uh,
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  Speaker 1: personal information, including credit card information. Uh, apparently they got
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  Speaker 1: hacked a while back and they, they let everybody know that. And, um,
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  Speaker 1: They have actually had this happen so many times, they've
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  Speaker 1: dedicated a portion of their Frontier website to warn customers
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  Speaker 1: of this. So, obviously, if you're a frequent flyer Frontier,
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  Speaker 1: you get an email from them that looks official where
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  Speaker 1: they're asking for any sort of information, just reported as phishing, spam,
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  Speaker 1: what have you, so that, you know, fewer people can
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  Speaker 1: fall for it because sadly we see this, especially as
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  Speaker 1: we approach the holidays, Southwest has had several in the
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  Speaker 1: years past that look just like a Southwest airlines type thing.
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  Speaker 1: American has Delta. The latest one happens to be frontier
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  Speaker 1: and it's apparently fooling a lot of people, which is
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  Speaker 1: why they put that warning out.
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  Speaker 2: It just keeps getting worse and worse. We hear about
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  Speaker 2: that stuff from Dave Hatter all the time, Jay. So
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  Speaker 2: I'm glad you brought it up.
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  Speaker 1: Dave's all over that stuff. And it's, you know, we
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  Speaker 1: really can't do enough to, uh, You know, to get
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: around it. You and I talked last week about the
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  Speaker 1: travel expert that got a lot of her miles stolen,
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  Speaker 1: and it was because she used the same password in
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  Speaker 1: everything that she had. And I'm sure that doesn't make
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  Speaker 1: Dave happy. No.
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  Speaker 2: He's warning people about that all the time.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Anyway, JetBlue, a smaller carrier, discount carrier, are they going
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  Speaker 2: out of business, Jay?
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  Speaker 1: They have indicated that they're hiring some restructuring experts.
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  Speaker 2: Reorg.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, when I tell students, when you see that word,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: you know, strategic alternatives, restructuring, backpedal quick. Now, JetBlue is
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  Speaker 1: very quick to come out and say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
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  Speaker 1: We're not looking at filing bankruptcy, but there might be
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  Speaker 1: down the road the option that they're going to have
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  Speaker 1: to take up doing Chapter 11. Now, consumers, repeat, anybody
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  Speaker 1: has a reservation, future reservation on JetBlue, just relax. You'll
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: be fine. it's the investors, the people that think, hey,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: JetBlue stock is down really, really low. Let me grab
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: a bunch of it. And they're the ones that would
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: get absolutely hammered when that announcement comes out, if it does,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: and that stock drops like 70%. So you've got to
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: be very careful here if you're looking at buying any
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: of that stuff. But Brian, a lot of this is
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: in the news. And my concern is that for people
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  Speaker 1: that fly JetBlue from other airports, we don't have them
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: here at CVG yet, you... If you have a future reservation, relax.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: You're going to be okay. I mean, unless they file
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: bankruptcy and severely cut their route map. But they've been hurting.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: That's one of the reasons they tried years ago to
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: merge with Spirit. It wasn't allowed under the Biden administration.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: And they just really went back to frontier. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: they've done everything they could to try to do something
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: to merge with somebody. And they've just not really had
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: much luck. And sadly, their debt is really starting to
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: escalate to the point it's concerning a lot of people,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: which is why these experts have been called in.
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  Speaker 2: It's not comforting flying on an airline carrier that is
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: on the verge of financial collapse. I'm sorry. I just... I.
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  Speaker 1: Always think almost every carrier is filed Chapter 11 at
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: one time or another. I mean, American Airlines has done it.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: United did it. I mean, there's just different times when
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: they need that to just hit the reset button, sadly,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: at the expense of their creditors and shareholders. But it's
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: a common practice. And from our side of the counter
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: as passengers, you really don't notice anything different. No, I just.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: Think about maintenance and upkeep. You know, if you're running
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: on lean margins, it's like, are they cutting corners in
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: the areas that matter most? That's all, Jay. It's just me.
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  Speaker 1: Well, let's hope the FAA does an extra vigilant job
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: of staying on top of that, if that's the case.
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  Speaker 2: Which they apparently are with regard to certain Boeing 787s. Oh,
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  Speaker 2: this is not good, Jay.
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  Speaker 1: You mean the headline that says if it gets hit
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: by lightning, it could explode? Yeah, that's very unsettling. God.
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  Speaker 1: They have found the FAA has part of a sealant
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  Speaker 1: that's being used for the fuel tanks. is faulty to
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  Speaker 1: the standpoint that if a certain Boeing 787 aircraft gets
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: hit by lightning, there is a chance that that sealant
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: could ignite that happens to be in the fuel tank,
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: which would cause the airplane to explode. Now, they have
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: ordered inspections. This, again, affects a very specific type of aircraft.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: If you're flying Boeing today, don't worry. But it's the
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: 787s that they're looking at right now. If they were
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: extremely concerned, they would immediately ground that aircraft and say,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: nothing flies until this gets addressed and fixed. The worry
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: level for the FAA is not high enough for them
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: to do that, which tells me that they don't look
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  Speaker 1: like this would be a a real high threat level
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: type thing where there's going to be an over-concern. It
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: is an issue. They want it checked. They want it resolved.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: And they're going to have it taken care of as
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: quickly as possible. And airlines will comply. But, boy, you
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: see that headline, and it's sure going to get your attention.