Latest / Brian Thomas / IHeartMedia Aviation Expert Jay Ratliff

Transcript

IHeartMedia Aviation Expert Jay Ratliff · Brian Thomas

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  Speaker 1: On the station.
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  Speaker 2: A thirty one on a Thursday Friday Eve and tgif
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  Speaker 2: at is this moment in time, on this day of
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  Speaker 2: the week because I love talking to iHeartMedia aviation expert
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  Speaker 2: Jay Ratliffe, always fascinating and interesting and sometimes quite frightening
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: feeling my feelings about air travel generally speaking. No, I'm
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: not afraid of flying. I'm just afraid of all the
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  Speaker 2: mixed bag I crap that goes along with the Welcome back,
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Jay Ratlef, It's great to have you on, sir, good morning.
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  Speaker 1: It's not my intention though, to shy anyone away from
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  Speaker 1: the great world of aviation.
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  Speaker 2: I know that you're a big fan of flying. You
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  Speaker 2: fly all the time in spite of the news that
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  Speaker 2: you bring to our attention. Now question Jay Ratliff, of
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: sort of tongue in my cheek question. I know they
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  Speaker 2: throw I think frozen turkeys and foul into airline jets
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: in order to figure out whether they can withstand and
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: impact with well birds out in the world. We know
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  Speaker 2: it's happened before and it has brought down airlines, but
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  Speaker 2: they at least test the engines for that. Do they
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  Speaker 2: throw cadavers into engines? Jay Ratliff.
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  Speaker 1: They do not, they do not, They do not.
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  Speaker 2: How is it that someone ended up on the tarmac
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  Speaker 2: and got sucked into an engine? That is wild?
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  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, right now we get a lot of questions, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: really have the answer, don't have the answers we need.
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  Speaker 1: But there's in Denver, what thirty six miles a perimeter fence,
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  Speaker 1: so there's a lot and one of the things at
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  Speaker 1: the remote area of the airport. Somebody can jump the fence,
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  Speaker 1: which apparently did have the barbed wire on top, and
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  Speaker 1: within two minutes they're you know, crossing an active runway
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  Speaker 1: at night at a time when a frontier flight is
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  Speaker 1: taking off, and then of course they end up dying
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  Speaker 1: in the process. And the curious thing to me on
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  Speaker 1: all of this was immediately they came out and said
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  Speaker 1: based on the forensic evidence, they were able to determine
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  Speaker 1: this was a suicide. And of course you don't know
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  Speaker 1: what the mental state of a lot of people could
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  Speaker 1: be at a specific time. And I was just really
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  Speaker 1: surprised that that, excuse me, that was the conclusion that fast,
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  Speaker 1: because you know, sometimes if you're under the influence of something,
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  Speaker 1: you may have no clue where in the world you are.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, just a sad situation. And I feel for
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  Speaker 1: the family of the one that was killed. Certainly the
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  Speaker 1: pilots because I mean you listen to the audio of
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  Speaker 1: them as they were taking off and at the moment
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  Speaker 1: they saw someone and then at the moment they notified
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  Speaker 1: the air traffic control. And the other thing that really
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  Speaker 1: surprised me on that was the airport seemed to close
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  Speaker 1: that runway as they should have, but still allowed other
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  Speaker 1: aircraft to take off in land at the airport. And
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  Speaker 1: I was surprised because typically when you have a medical situation,
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  Speaker 1: and we certainly had it here because the plane started
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  Speaker 1: to fill with smoke and they did an emergency evacuation
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  Speaker 1: on the runway, you'll close the airport. That means all
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  Speaker 1: the aircraft that are taxing stop, everybody stops where you're at,
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  Speaker 1: so that the emergency vehicles can get to the area
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  Speaker 1: they need to get at without pausing at the runways
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  Speaker 1: and getting permission to cross, and the delays that are
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  Speaker 1: encountered with that kind of a thing. So you know,
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  Speaker 1: eventually maybe it was closed, but you know, the fire
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  Speaker 1: crews got there, people were coming down the you know,
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  Speaker 1: the emergency slides of course, we had the group with
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  Speaker 1: their large tan carry bags. You know, forget the fact
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  Speaker 1: that it's filling with smoke, with a fully fueled aircraft
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  Speaker 1: with twenty two pounds of fuel on it. Let's sload
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  Speaker 1: the process so that we can make sure we collect
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  Speaker 1: all of our belongings, because you know, they're the most
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  Speaker 1: important thing in our world.
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  Speaker 2: So don't be that guy, Lord Almighty, I can understand
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  Speaker 2: why this does not happen. Who in the hell would
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  Speaker 2: bother climbing a fence and walk out of the tarmac anyway,
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  Speaker 2: except somebody who maybe has lost their faculties or perhaps
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  Speaker 2: big warning here, maybe somebody who's there to intentionally do
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  Speaker 2: nefarious acts on the airport. That's what worries me. Jay.
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  Speaker 1: We've talked about stowaways how many times over the years,
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  Speaker 1: and these are people that have been able to jump
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  Speaker 1: a fence, get across the air grounds, approaching aircraft totally unseen,
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  Speaker 1: and they crawl up into the wheel well of the
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  Speaker 1: aircraft and attempt to stow away to wherever they're trying
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  Speaker 1: to get to. And invariably eighty percent of those.
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  Speaker 2: People die in the proces hypothermia, loss of oxygen, or.
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  Speaker 1: There's not enough. So I mean, it's just it really
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  Speaker 1: gets horrific. But the sad situation is we see that
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  Speaker 1: and the thought is, well, wait a minute, you know,
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  Speaker 1: this is somebody just trying to stow away what have
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  Speaker 1: been somebody that was there to put something on the
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  Speaker 1: aircraft and then leave undetected. And that's why we really
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  Speaker 1: need to upgrade in a lot of areas the security
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  Speaker 1: that we have on the perimeters of the airport. Now,
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  Speaker 1: there's a lot of stuff that goes on out there
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  Speaker 1: I won't talk about, but I can't tell you that
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  Speaker 1: we can do a better job at trying to get
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  Speaker 1: the security upgraded. And I really thought a number of
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  Speaker 1: years ago when we had the Alaska Airlines employees steal
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  Speaker 1: a plane and taxi that plane and then take off
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  Speaker 1: without being stopped, that that would be the wake up
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  Speaker 1: call for people to say, you know what, we need
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  Speaker 1: to do something here so that we can prevent this.
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  Speaker 1: Because Brian, we're spending all this money inside the airport
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  Speaker 1: on security, and I'm glad we all right, but doesn't
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  Speaker 1: stop anybody who obviously can walk across the tarmac of
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  Speaker 1: many airports. We have airplanes all over the country and
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  Speaker 1: access in aircraft taxi that aircraft and then take off
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  Speaker 1: before we have the opportunity for a military intercept if
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  Speaker 1: they're trying to crash into a target. So, I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: There's just a lot of things here that are settling,
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  Speaker 1: and sometimes we tend to focus on other areas versus
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  Speaker 1: what I think is the most important area. And yeah,
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  Speaker 1: so we'll see where things go. We will do that.
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  Speaker 2: We got more topics over with Jay. The metronome is
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: ticking for some reason. I'm quite sure where that's coming from.
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  Speaker 2: But more we see the talk station. Have you ever
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: been in a cockpit before? Jay Raylfazi's iHeartMedia aviation expert.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: We are blessed with his presence every week Thursday morning,
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: eight thirty, the close of the show and pivoting over
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: great topics. You have this morning humanoid what's put the
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Southwest Airlines flight being delayed? Right?
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  Speaker 1: Love? They had a humanoid robot that was a passenger
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  Speaker 1: flying and it was youah, yeah, this this little robot
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  Speaker 1: was giving kids high five in the gate area and
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  Speaker 1: everybody was positive to take pictures. And they had a
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  Speaker 1: seat that eventually was going to be for this contraption
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  Speaker 1: and uh yeah, So the preparing to board the Southwest
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  Speaker 1: flight when somebody comes up and says, what powers this.
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  Speaker 2: Particular anticipating my question is like, is this looking am
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  Speaker 2: ion battery?
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  Speaker 1: Lessian battery? So they're thinking time out here. So they
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  Speaker 1: spent an hour trying to figure out if they should
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  Speaker 1: allow this thing with the sizeable lithium battery that it had,
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  Speaker 1: And what ended up happening was they allowed it to board.
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  Speaker 1: They took the battery out and that was the only
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  Speaker 1: way that it could board fly. But yeah, so it
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  Speaker 1: was really cool until somebody asked that question question and
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  Speaker 1: then everything stopped and yeah, delayed the flight about an hour.
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  Speaker 1: And I think in the thirty five years I've been
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  Speaker 1: doing this, Brian, that's probably my first robot delay.
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  Speaker 2: It has to be you've talked about. They have those
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  Speaker 2: fire bags on the airplane, so if your phone were
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  Speaker 2: to catch fire, or your vape or whatever else is
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  Speaker 2: a lithium ion battery, at least it'll fit inside the
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  Speaker 2: bag and hopefully result in fire containment. I doubt you
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  Speaker 2: can fit a humanoid sized robot into a bag.
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  Speaker 1: Well, unless you could get somehow of the battery off
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  Speaker 1: of house it's on fire, I doubt that's going to happen.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, our flight attendants have turned into firefighters
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  Speaker 1: in addition to everything else that they do at least
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  Speaker 1: risk managers, you better believe it. And one of the
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  Speaker 1: things that they deal with is airlines are constantly telling us,
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  Speaker 1: please keep those power charging devices underneath the seat in
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  Speaker 1: front of you, so that if they do start to overheat,
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  Speaker 1: you can immediately notify a flight attendant who can do
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  Speaker 1: what they need to do. It's also the reason that
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  Speaker 1: if your computer or phone or something gets stuck into
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  Speaker 1: a seat and they cannot retrieve it, they immediately declare
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  Speaker 1: an emergency land that airplane fast, because if it were
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  Speaker 1: to overheat at that moment where they're unable to reach
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  Speaker 1: it and obviously put it in a fire suppression, then
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  Speaker 1: you're talking about something that could actually cause an onboard fire.
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  Speaker 1: So we've seen many flights over the last couple of
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  Speaker 1: years that have had a device that somebody drops accidentally
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  Speaker 1: gets stuck into a seat, they can't get it out,
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  Speaker 1: and they call make an emergency request and they land
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  Speaker 1: that airplane so mechanics can get there and retrieve that
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  Speaker 1: fearing that of course it might overheat, catch on fire
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  Speaker 1: and catch the seat on fire and then create all kinds.
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  Speaker 2: Of problems, crazy stuff, crazy stuff.
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  Speaker 1: You know that.
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  Speaker 2: There's so many of those devices out there, and you
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  Speaker 2: know every single person on an airplane has one these days.
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  Speaker 2: I'm just surprised that there aren't more fires than we
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  Speaker 2: hear about it.
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  Speaker 1: The airplane well, I'm just thankful they're there for the
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  Speaker 1: most part, being kept out of the carry on luggage
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  Speaker 1: or they, excuse me, the check luggage, because it especially
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  Speaker 1: at the gate area where they're taking these bags from
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  Speaker 1: us at the gate area and checking them, saying you
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  Speaker 1: don't have anything in here, you know, blah blah blah, no, no, no,
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  Speaker 1: we're fine, and off it goes. And how many times
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  Speaker 1: in the rush of the moment, might you forget put
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  Speaker 1: my phone, or put my laptop, or put something in
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  Speaker 1: my carry on luggage that's now underneath the aircraft, which
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  Speaker 1: could of course overheat. And we do have fire suppression
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  Speaker 1: systems in the cargo area, thank god for that. That's
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  Speaker 1: an NTSB recommendation from a whole bunch of years ago,
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  Speaker 1: so that we can try to carry any sort of
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  Speaker 1: a fire. But the lithium batteries burn so hot the
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  Speaker 1: fire suppression systems. I won't say are ineffective, but they
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  Speaker 1: certainly don't do the job that we'd like them to
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  Speaker 1: do given the intensity of that heat.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: Isn't that the truth? A couple of stories about Spirit Airlines,
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: including a positive thing from Popu John's related to Spirit
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: That More with Jay Ratliffe coming up next, Don't Go
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: Away Rhino Shield great product, Ryning Shield. If your home deck,
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: commercial building needs a new pain or you just want
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: to update your curb Appeal eighty nine. If you do,
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: you have k CD Talk Station by Thomas with Jay Ratliff.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: I heard me the eighty AH expert and fellow motorcycle rider.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: I saw your post on Facebook the other day, Ja,
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: I'm glad to know you ride motorcycles. Maybe someday, if
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: you and I are in the same neighborhood with our bikes,
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: we can get a ride together. That'd be really cool.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: It be enjoyable. My Hurley is my stress reliever after
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: a day of flipping stocks and talking aviation, So yeah,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: it gets me away from everything and gets me unplugged.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: That's awesome. I could use a fellow rider. All the
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: guys that used to ride with moved out of town
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: over the years, so I find myself wanting anyway pivoting
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: over looks like Papa John stepping up to the plate
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: involving Spirit Airlines. How does this work? But not everything
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: going on swimmingly with Spirit Airlines folding sad news for airfares.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: But let's start with the good news.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Papa Ja has come out with the promotion saying, look,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: all of you have to have all those freaking flyer
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  Speaker 1: miles on Spirit. Obviously they're not good for anything, so
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: prove to us you've got an account, come in, We'll
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  Speaker 1: give you a free pizza for your freaking flyer miles.
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  Speaker 1: So it's just they're trying to have some fun with it.
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  Speaker 1: It's great publicity. I mean, it's it's a great story,
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: but you know it's it's nice because you can and
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: of course Jet Blue also at a thing where they said, look,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: if you can prove you were a displaced Spirit passenger, yeah,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: show us your itinery and for ninety nine bucks will
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: get you out of where you're going back back home.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: So you know, we're still we're continuing to see some
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  Speaker 1: really good field stories human regards to the aftermath absolutely
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: where you know, hats off to Jet blue, of course,
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  Speaker 1: I will quickly say thank you. And yes, it is May,
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  Speaker 1: which is the second slowest travel month of the year,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: which means most of your airplanes are only about half full.
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  Speaker 1: So it's not like you're you're booting off the big
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: revenue people, but you know, you're coming to the to
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: the aid of people that are strained it And I
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  Speaker 1: like that. And yes, I love the Papa John story
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  Speaker 1: where you can actually convert miles into pizza.
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  Speaker 2: Why not not good for anything else? Anyway, I love it. Well,
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  Speaker 2: that's a good feel good story. And another field good stories.
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  Speaker 2: The other industry personnel stepping up and you know, offering
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  Speaker 2: condolences and expressions of concern and care, and I get
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: all that, and that's wonderful. Sadly, apparently the airline the
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: airlines themselves are not joining in the feel good celebration.
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  Speaker 2: Apparently fairs have gone up.
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  Speaker 1: Oh they feel good. Yeah, behind closed doors, they're doing
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: a snoopy dance. Because we've already seen and a lot
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: of competing markets that the fairs have almost doubled in
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: some markets. We're seeing this out of Minneapolis in some
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: markets that were that were uh spirit airline routes that
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: the the Now that Spirit has gone, the competitors have
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: increased their their fares considerably because that competition from that
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: specific carrier is no longer there. And that's one of
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: the things you deal with when you're talking about UH
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: low cost carriers. They helped keep fares lower, and sadly,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: because Spirit is no longer around, the fairs in the
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: markets that they had are going to go up as
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: a result. And it's unfortunate. And that's why if you
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: did see an American United or see another low cost
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: carrier gobbled up by a larger carrier, and we started
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: to see a further reduction in the number of airlines flying,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: you know, fewer seats, the affairs are going to go up.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: And you know, anytime you have airlines that overlap, like
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: when I was with Republic Airlines, when Northwest absorbed US,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: there was a lot of overlapping routes and they flew
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: to the same cities and combined, they weren't going to have,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: you know, nine flights Today going into lax they might
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: have five or four. So you see a reduction in seats.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: And anytime that happens supplying demand, the number the higher
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: the price and Sadly, that's what we're seeing now, and
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: we're not done with this airline consolidation thing. I think
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: we're going to see some merger candidates may roll out
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: by the end of this year. I think some low
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: cost carriers could be involved. It will allow them to
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: strengthen up their balance sheet and become stronger. But sadly,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: it's going to take seats away from us. And you know,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: we're not at a point we're seeing airlines created coming
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: off the sidelines and starting. So as a result, we're
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: stuck with what we've got, and I think that number
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: is going to only going to continue.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: To drop drop along with the price of fuel going up. Anyway,
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: let's stop. Uh we could touch on a couple more topics,
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: sadly out of time, and I always like to close
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: up with hub delays. How's it looking out there for
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: air travel?
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: Jay Brant? Looks like Chicago, excuse me, you know, Boston
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: and New York or the two airports with weather related
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: delays we're seeing they could be minimal other than Boston.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: So I mean, if you picked today probably one of
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: the better travel days of the week that we've had.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: And if yeah, so well off to a good start,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: except for the those two problem children.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: Jay Ratliffe, I look forward to our future motorcycle ride.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: I will look forward to next Thursday and another edition
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: to this wonderful segment. Enjoy your week, my friend, and
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: as always end on best of health and love to
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: you and your bat