Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Commercial pilot warns government shutdown impacting safety, security and reliability of airlines

Transcript

Commercial pilot warns government shutdown impacting safety, security and reliability of airlines · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome back, because many as thirteen thousand air traffic controllers
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: are about to miss their first paycheck, with understandable strains
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: on them and some concerns for aviation safety. Second jobs
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: are becoming a way that some of those air traffic
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: controllers are using to make ends meet. That is the
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: case for a single father named Jack Chris, who drives
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: for door Dash on his days off. Here's some of
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: his conversation with our own Chris van Cleeve. How stressful
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: is life right now with this shutdown?
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Man, so, yeah, man, I gotta I have to
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: choose my words carefully, but it's been incredibly difficult. You
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: can feel the tension and it's heavy and it hurts.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: From the standpoint of a single working dad, how is
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: all of this impacting life at home?
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: That's a great question. It's hard enough just want to
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: work now. When you add in not getting paid, that's
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: when you just like multiply the level of pressure. And
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: you know, air traffic is a safety sensitive position. The
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: margin of era is zero. So if you think about
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: it as pressure on top of pressure when you don't
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: know exactly when you'll get paid based on politics, based
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: on politics.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: For pilot's perspective on this. Captain Dennis Tager joins me now.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: He is the Investor Relations committee chair for the Allied
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Pilots Association, that's the union that represents sixteen thousand American
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: airlines pilots, and thanks for joining us. I appreciate it.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: How do you process what you just heard from that
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: air traffic controller clearly manifestly stressed out about the shutdown.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: It's en raging.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: That's safety culture right there, and right now we are
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: seeing games played with the safety margin at the airlines.
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: You know, that's part of my crew. You know, I
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: fly the jet, so do our sixteen thousand pilots out
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: there for American airlines. And one of my crew members
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: exhibits that kind of stress, we take them off the
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: flight deck so they can get things together, get the
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: support they need so that they can do the job safely.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: This is exactly what we predicted. We've hit the human
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: event crossroad. This government shutdown is impacting the safety, security
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: and of course the reliability of the airline industry. And
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: just today, moments ago, along with another pilot union pilots
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: at Southwest Airlines, over forty thousand pilots, including our union
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: at the Allied Pilots Association, the Union at NetJets, the
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: UPS pilots and Teamster pilots under the coalition of Airline
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: Pilot Association have said sign the Clean Continuing Resolution to
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: clean cr We're not getting in middle of the politics,
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: but when it comes to airline safety and security, enough's enough.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Stop this. Now take care of the political negotiation after
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: you're starting to bring it on home to my cockpit,
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: and as pilots, we're very concerned. Now enough enough, let's
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: stop this.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Denis says, we're speaking. There have been ground stops announced
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: at a major airports along the Eastern seaboard for my
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: audience's benefit. Are those going to become more likely in
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: the coming days if this shutdown drags on.
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, we warned of this, and I live through the
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: twenty nineteen shutdown as many of us did. The delays
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: will start, they will get longer. And here's another cascading
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: effect pilots. As the delays get longer, we're already scheduled
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: many times twelve hours a day plus we get right
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: up against the FA maximum duty day regulation. So we
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: do the term you've heard when you get flights canceled,
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: When mother nature hits government is hit right now, Pilots
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: time out, so you're going to have these delays are
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: going to bleed into pilots timing out, more cancellations. And
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: that's the reliability side, which is extremely important to us.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: But now we've broken into the sound barrier, broke the
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: sound barrier and gotten into the safety and security side.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: Now rest is shure. We're going to do all that
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: we can to keep that safety margin broad and sustain.
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: But the pressure on it, as you just saw in
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: your traffic controller giving his honest view. I mean that's
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: a trained professional saying I need some help, do something,
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: get this fixed. And that motivates us beyond belief because
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: I know that if that man or that woman doing
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: that professional job of controlling my airplane as I travel
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: at near the speed of sound doesn't have their full
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: head in the game, we got a problem.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Dennis. I've got about forty five seconds left. I'm proud
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: of this show. Lots of lawmakers watch it. People who
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: work for lawmakers watch it. You've got the floor. Tell
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: them what you want to know, what you want them
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: to know.
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: Sign the clean cr that's our position so that we
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: can continue to do the job of providing safe, secure,
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: reliable air travel. Take care of the political debate, a
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: righteous one as it is, but don't use the airline
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: safety system and security system as a pawn in this process.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: We're pleading, we're demanding, enough's enough, take our lead, get
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: this done, and you can move on with the rest
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: of the country's work.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: At a stage, I appreciate the time. Thank you very much.