Hey wolfpup did you change your avitar?
If I’m on a plane, I don’t want the pilots talking about political bullshit. I’d rather they talk about the weather, or turbulence.
You never flew in or out of the old Hong Kong Kai Tak Airport. No comparison
Aspen, Colorado airport.
I, too, would prefer that my flight crew be superhuman and never make mistakes or feel the need for casual conversation. That not being the case, however, and since we do have to deal with ordinary humans, the FAA imposed the sterile flight deck rule banning idle chatter in critical phases of flight, typically below 10,000 ft where the focus is mainly on takeoff and landing operations. When at altitude and in cruise with automatic systems doing all the work, casual conversation is quite reasonably permitted.
In truth, the rule is often bent or broken, but this asshole was violating it in such a blatant way that it’s a case study in precisely why the rule was written in the first place.
I don’t want a superhuman flight crew when I fly, just a competent one. Not so sure about mistakes. No mistakes please.
I imagine the unspoken (with some spoken and written, too) rules and the dominant “vibe” at most(?) of the big US airlines is:
“When using the public-address system a captain is expected be a starched company shirt and to communicate only the bare necessary information along with perhaps a soupçon of milquetoast pleasantries”
Whereas anyone who has flown more than a few times on Southwest can tell you the flight crews and the cabin crews pretty much have carte blanche (well, they USED to anyway!) to have some fun with their announcements and try to give the passengers a chuckle or at least a smile. SWA is known for this. They seem to be encouraged to be a bit of the loose cannon.
So if the captain in question, while landing in Austin on a fall Friday night ahead of the next day’s Texas A&M vs. Texas game, had instead announced something like:
“Let’s go UT! Hook 'em 'Horns!!”
He might have pissed off a few A&M passengers a bit but’s it’s good-natured fun that would get mostly laughs and cheers and be fine and dandy to SWA brass.
Maybe he thought that’s what he’d get from his “let’s go Brandon”?
In my experience it’s not common for pilots to use ANY frequency for “personal agenda”. Radio communications are supposed to pertain to matters of flying airplanes. Sure, in low traffic environments there might be a little more chatter, but airline pilots going into/out of busy hubs should be all business and in my experience that’s usually what happens.
Spewing politics on ANY aviation frequency is a no-no. Doing so on 121.5 is against the regulations. No, not common, not permitted, and potentially something the FAA can penalize you for even if nothing bad happens.
Seriously, it’s like calling up 911 to propagandize the operator. Except, as I noted, doing so prevents someone with a genuine emergency from using the frequency until the asshat shuts up, AND it ties up the frequency for every tower and facility within radio range.
Using 121.5 for anything but an actual emergency would qualify as a “mistake” in my view.
I haven’t heard the flight crews do it, but the cabin crews often try to put some jokes into the standard safety announcements to get people to listen. Has always worked for me.
Post-pandemic I’ve heard a flight attendant say basically that if you have a problem don’t take it out on us. All my flights were fine but I can imagine that they are under stress during some of them.
I’ve flown Southwest often to Chicago in winter and they often make jokes about having your shorts and flip flops ready after they announce some bone chilling temperature at Midway, that’s fine and all in good fun, but political statements are definitely a bridge way too far.
I agree.
Agreed, though I suppose if they’re only on the in-flight system and the entire flight is composed of like-minded individuals, it might not be TOO terrible. When relatives of mine were heading to the 2017 Women’s March in DC the day of the Inauguration, it quickly became apparent that every single passenger was headed to the March. (This was true on my flight as well. It was amazing.) On their flight, the flight attendants said, “Since today’s the Inauguration, we’d like to dedicate a song to our new Commander-in-Chief.” There was a collective horrified gasp from the passengers…until they heard the opening strains of “You’re So Vain.” The entire cabin broke into cheers.
Was it appropriate? I dunno. But the people on that flight really loved the airline that day. I think it was Southwest.
On every commercial flight I recall (disclaimer: Most recent was many years ago), the standard safety announcement, including life vest instructions and demo, were always pre-recorded, and thus very scripted. The flight attendants stood in the aisles and demonstrated the steps for donning the life vests as the recorded message stated them. In one flight however, the recorded script stupidly stated some steps not in the order they were to be performed. It was something like “Pull down on the tabs to inflate the vest after securely fastening the buckles around your waist.” The attendants couldn’t demo that along with the script!
Those safety instructions are mandated by the FAA for all flights, I think. Even when I flew with some pilot friends in little 4-seater Cessnas or Cherokees, the pilot always briefed me before the flight on how to evacuate in case of an emergency – like, if you can’t get the door open, maybe you can climb over the back seat and get out through the baggage compartment hatch.
On the commercial flights, the pilots’ announcement were always live, not recorded, and often more light-hearted than the recorded safety lectures. These were usually delivered while the plane taxied toward the runway. One pilot delivered his entire spiel in a fake Transylvanian Count Dracula accent.
I assume that those flights had some sort of screens. SW flights have never shown movies, so prerecorded announcements would be impossible.
Gosh, I wonder if the homosexuals were in a tour group or something; if not, indeed, what are the odds? Now I’m wondering if I (a homo who usually travels alone) am instantly clocked by every pilot. I try to keep it all pretty low-key, but they may be on to me. Need to butch it up more.
What’s a grande, anyway?
Not necessarily! I don’t recall what airline it was on. (If they’re demonstrating how to use life vests, it was probably on a flight between California and Hawaii, so probably not Southwest.)
The safety lecture and life vest demo were pre-recorded, but audio only. No video. For the life vest demo, the flight attendants stood in the aisles and demonstrated the actual steps along with the lecture.
I’v flown on Southwest several times between San Jose and Phoenix and gotten a live demo on how to find, wear, and inflate a life vest, usually prefaced with, “In the extremely unlikely event of a water landing…”
In case you have to ditch in Lake Havasu?
It occurs to me that Southwest being based in Dallas, Texas, is probably a contributing factor in answer to the OP’s question. It’s true that the holding company for American Airlines is also located nearby, but only Southwest has the distinction that their principal cofounder, Herb Kelleher, was the kind of Texas nutcase who would create a very unconventional airline culture indeed. There’s this, for instance:
That same article also says:
In 1968, Texas businessman Rollin King and his lawyer, Herb Kelleher, formulated a plan to create the world’s weirdest airline … Armed with the motto “Long Legs and Short Nights,” Kelleher hired a troupe of attractive women, gave them uniforms consisting of “hot pants and go-go boots,” and encouraged them to “cheerlead” passengers. When the company went public in 1977, just days after carrying its 5 millionth passenger, its stock was listed on the NYSE as simply “LUV.”
Kelleher was determined to define a unique culture at Southwest that reflected his own outsize maverick personality, and felt that this was a large part of the airline’s success.
Also from Kelleher’s bio on Wikipedia:
Kelleher’s outrageous personality created a corporate culture which made Southwest employees well known for taking themselves lightly but their jobs seriously.
Yeah, well, except maybe for the “taking their jobs seriously” part, as per some of the examples above that genuinely jeopardized safety. Kelleher remained an influence at SWA long after his retirement, and died in 2019. But the culture he created seems very much alive, and to that extent my guess is that even these safety transgressions will be dealt with by “taking them lightly”.
Overweight woman, I assume. Which, for this kind of douchebag bro, probably means any woman who’s not a size 2.