United Airlines brags about all LGBTQ+ crew
United Airlines took to Twitter this week to proclaim that an all-LGBTQ+ crew had just completed a flight from San Francisco to Sydney. A video inside the tweet showed two employees unveiling the image of a koala bear – wearing heart-shaped sunglasses – waving an enormous LGBTQ flag on the side of the aircraft.
The airline may have been surprised to learn that for many passengers, safety trumps diversity. Although there were a few who applauded this momentous occasion, for those more concerned with reaching their destination in one piece, it landed like a lead balloon.
Why on earth would we care about the sexual orientation of a flight crew – unless, of course, they were hired in order to check some diversity boxes? And in that case the caring would probably go in the negative direction for the vast majority of people – except, it seems, airline executives.
It certainly doesn’t make me feel any safer about flying. Competence is the only characteristic that matters for airline crews — or for any other jobs.
Next will no food in Coach class. Oh wait.
Will they guarantee that you know who won’t steel my luggage? I mean a “diverse” crew of what evers may mean my luggage and me are not safe.
Kate is right, only thing I ask is a high level of competence.
And with all this inclusion and equity going around, when the draft comes make sure women are the head of the line. Those that have been in the military will understand when I say the physicals will be interesting.
A lawyer I correspond with who is recently retired from the GCs office of a corporation of note said that the impetus for all the woketardery wasn’t coming from the GCs office (who were ignored by the ‘c-suite’ people. He said it was coming from HR and corporate communications. Perhaps corporate communications is a collecting pool of shallow and frivolous people.
The airline may have been surprised to learn that for many passengers, safety trumps diversity.
Also trumping diversity is an aversion to airline employees stomping on your luggage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo
I stated on one comment thread a year or so ago that the airline CEOs would never cave to this sort of nonsense. Boy, was I wrong. What is happening? It’s as if there’s a mental virus going around and it’s infecting those who you thought would be immune to it.
Therre are many fields where competence counts above all else. Airline crews, surgeons, FAA controllers, military pilots, cosmonauts, structural engineers, and many, many more. Everybody KNOWS this. And yet, the mental virus has rotted out that knowledge.
The supposed racism of the Anglosphere is in reality the long-followed custom of selecting people for jobs based on their ability and skill. Ethnicity, sex, or sexual preferences are subordinate to safety and proper performance of the job.
I sincerely hope that there is a hue and cry raised about this. It’s designed to crash our society into a mess of mediocrity much like those we have seen in Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, China, and the USSR. This must not be allowed.
Every member of the LGBTQ+ crowd is a pervert. They worship orgasms more than God. They have gotten away with this crap because of insufficient opposition, a symbol of how America is sinking beneath the waves.
It is disgusting.
How about an all black, trans, autistic airline crew?
Robert Bork in Slouching Towards Gomorrah (1996) makes a big point about unfettered liberty leading to unbounded individual hedonism. Liberty needs to be reigned in, into the bounds reason requires.
I believe he is correct.
I have seen married women with 18 year-old kids abandon their marriages despite no spousal infidelity or friction in order to become “lesbian”. I’ve run into a lesbian couple who sucessfully adopted an infant boy, who will become a guaranteed disaster as an adolescent. Just like sons of single black mothers. The nuclear family, the foundation of all civilizations, is disappearing in the Western world.
I stated on one comment thread a year or so ago that the airline CEOs would never cave to this sort of nonsense.
Looking at the capsule biography of the CEO of United, guy doesn’t seem to be the sort who would have any use for wokery. Maybe corporate communications just does what it feels like and no one disciplines them.
Gee, I wonder if the airline big-wigs might have been concerned themselves about the competence of the all LGBTQRSTXYZ crew.
Notice that they didn’t announce it until the flight was OVER.
From the experience of several family members, most HR departments today are pits of vipers.
JJ said, It’s as if there’s a mental virus going around and it’s infecting those who you thought would be immune to it.
You know, I seriously wonder if that’s it. Some kind of social virus, anyway. I am baffled trying to figure out how so many people abandoned reason, logic and common sense all at once, on so many different grounds, and immediately began demanding that everyone else do so too, right now, or else. It makes no sense. Unless it really is a pandemic of some sort.
I hope I stay immune.
So very bizarre, yet, unfortunately, not at all surprising.
Imagine any corollary:
United Airlines announces an all virgin crew.
United Airlines announces a crew that only has sex in the missionary position.
United Airlines announces a crew where every member has cheated on their spouse.
United Airlines announces an all male, heterosexual crew who have each had more than 50 intimate partners.
What kind of people boast about their sex lives in public and what type of corporation celebrates that behavior and what sort-of society accepts this as worthy of praise?
Hmm…6 months from now let’s check their stock prices.
On a similar subject:
Andrew Klavan makes the very valid point that Christian churches displaying the Pride flag are guilty of sin.
From the wikipedia entry on the seven deadly sins:
From the same entry, here are the seven virtues. Which list would you prefer your airline celebrate?
Rufus,
In a similar vein, article today at Campus Refom, stated how students at Emory are becoming disillusioned with how the school really doesn’t adhere to its Methodist calling. They were stating how the school even promotes Satan.
Not surprising at all as almost every such college is now CINO….Christian in name only. I think the Methodists veered left long ago. Speaking as one who was raised Methodist.
Methodists in the US are splitting up over moral issues, just like many other Christian denominations. Here in North Carolina, as many as one-half of Methodist congregations are expected to depart the UMC by the end of this year.
Face it folks, it seems we’ve been sliding inexorably in this direction since what–1969? Personally, I blame Elvis, he started it.
I suppose it could be useful information if you were planning to flirt with a flight attendant.
More worrisome is this (from the Powerline link):
Considering the shortage of pilots already due in part to vaccine mandates, adding further irrelevant criteria has to compromise competence deeply.
I’d note the spate of recent “near misses.” The one at JFK, as I understand it, involved a woman pilot who made a wrong turn into the path of an incoming plane. This is not to say women are less competent pilots, just that criteria other than competence are bringing women and POCs into the cockpit. Scary.
You’d think a smart airline exec would make exactly the opposite brag, that the only criterion is competence, but these are the times we live in.
RTF– My theory about the United Airlines wokery is that they’ve started hiring all their employees from Disney.
BTW, apropos of the seven deadly sins, do you remember Mordred’s song from Camelot— “The Seven Deadly Virtues”?
“The seven deadly virtues, those ghastly little traps
Oh no, my liege, they were not meant for me
Those seven deadly virtues were made for other chaps
Who love a life of failure and ennui
Take courage– now there’s a sport
An invitation to the state of Rigor Mort
And purity, a noble yen
And very restful every now and then
I find humility means to be hurt
It’s not the earth the meek inherit, it’s the dirt
Honesty is fatal– it should be taboo
Diligence, a fate I would hate
If charity means giving, I give it to you
And fidelity is only for your mate, ha!
You’ll never find a virtue unstatusing my quo
Or making my Beelzebubble burst
Let others take the high road, I will take the low
I cannot wait to rush in where angels fear to go–
With all those seven deadly virtues
Free and happy little me has not been cursed!”
Here it is, sung by Roddy McDowall:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT3x2yi05Hs&ab_channel=glenn
In other news from the Pride front, Hershey is being threatened with a boycott because “the brand featured a transgender woman in an ad campaign for International Woman’s Day 2023. The chocolate meltdown came to light after the Pennsylvania-based candy company brought back its ‘She’ bar — known as ‘Her’ in Canada — in an effort to ‘celebrate the women changing the future,’ according to the candy giant’s website. The wrapper features the faces of five women who were selected to be part of the cacao-fueled empowerment campaign. One of the featured candy-promoters is Fae Johnstone, a Canadian transgender rights activist, who celebrated her selection on Twitter.”
https://nypost.com/2023/03/02/boycott-threat-over-transgender-hersheys-womans-day-promo/
I bet Neo is glad– at least this once– that she can’t eat chocolate.
I don’t fly much. Now it is rapidly going to zero. AMTRAK… can be costly and may fly off the tracks… Think I’ll drive.
DIEversity is a staple of class-disordered ideologies.
“Our flight deck should reflect the diverse group of people on board our planes every day.”
Diversity of individuals, minority of one. #HateLovesAbortion
the Pride flag are guilty of sin
Albinophobia. Ironically, the politically congruent (“=”), the #NoJudgment #NoLabels, the Pro-Choice ethically religious, have socially distanced themselves and trans/homosexual elites from others in the spectrum through an adulterated banner with the same albinophobic roots.
We now live in a society in which the type of people you like to have sex with is of interest to your employer.
What I don’t understand is what advertising execs think offending women is a good way to sell product.
Doesn’t count unless all the air traffic controllers who handled the flight are ALSO LBGTQ+…not to mention mechanics and ramp agents.
Cicero,
“Robert Bork in Slouching Towards Gomorrah (1996) makes a big point about unfettered liberty leading to unbounded individual hedonism. Liberty needs to be reigned in, into the bounds reason requires.”
Quite possibly Bork got that insight from Edmund Burke,
” Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites, — in proportion as their love to justice is above their rapacity,—in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption,—in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves.
Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.”
Neo says, “Why on earth would we care about the sexual orientation of a flight crew – unless, of course, they were hired in order to check some diversity boxes? And in that case the caring would probably go in the negative direction for the vast majority of people . . . . ”
I can imagine some people might care because of a long-standing stereotype of flight attendants (and pilots) of either sex or any sexual orientation as promiscuous. It wasn’t that long ago that a gay Québécois flight attendant named Gaëtan Dugas was (incorrectly) identified as “Patient Zero” of the AIDS epidemic of the early 1980s– i.e., the person who brought HIV infection to North America. Although it is now known that AIDS arrived in the United States before 1982, Dugas was identified as the source because 1) he developed symptoms of AIDS earlier than some other infected gay men (he died in 1984 at the age of 32); and 2) he was extremely helpful in tracing his network of partners for the CDC, providing names and addresses for many of these men. The network was expanded further because others remembered Dugas’ distinctive name.
In regard to the stereotype of flight attendants as party girls and boys, see the following: http://folklore.usc.edu/promiscuous-flight-attendants/
Dugas was identified as the source because 1) he developed symptoms of AIDS earlier than some other infected gay men
He developed symptoms in 1980, earlier than all but a few. In 1981, the CDC was able to retrospectively identify one case which appeared in 1978 and seven which appeared in 1979. Later, there was identified a mysterious case of a young man who had fallen ill in 1969 who apparently infected no one else before he died.
The late Mr. Dugas was no more than one degree of separation from 40 of the first 200 cases identified. He also informed investigators that he figured he’d slept with about 250 men a year from 1972 onward. He continued visiting bathhouses even when his chest was covered in Kaposi’s lesions.
Sooner or later, the odds will dictate that an organization or person that virtue-signals the importance of their preferences over the primary mission objectives, will have a catastrophic failure because they were no longer prioritizing concerns that are mission critical. The slaughter of the innocents will be the consequence.
It does not surprise me that HR departments are behind prioritizing these incentives. HR is a service that is classically subservient to corporate operations – but because of lawsuits, their position has been elevated to the C-Suite in most corporations, meaning they have a seat at the board table and attend all senior management meetings with an equal, and usually over-assertive, voice. I have sat through many of these meetings and watched these know-nothings swing corporate decision options. Their influence is disproportionate to their contribution.
They are similar to the Accounting and Finance function, which is another department that is normally subservient to corporate operations, and which also enjoys disproportionate influence to long-term corporate objectives. Their bottom-line, make-the-Quarter philosophy has stripped many industries of their vision and long-term value proposition.
The Oil Business and Health Care are two prime examples that come to mind, where quality and value have been driven from the business in favor of short-term success. If you are pissed about the quality of your health care choices, look there. A Bean Counter is likely to be at the bottom of it. If you don’t believe this, find a Medical Professional at ‘doctor’ level and ask them about it. Ask them about their pay cuts and working conditions, too.
Wasn’t the original point of the movement just wanting to be left alone and wanting what happens in the bedroom to stay in the bedroom? Now gayness has to be positively proclaimed. It becomes the calling card of corporations and countries. That it’s done so indicates a real emptiness at the heart of society.
About pride in general, though: it’s an open question whether advanced societies really could devote themselves wholly to humility, or whether they should. Can pride be completely eliminated from society? Should it? Pride, like competitiveness, has its place and its uses and is closely connected to individualism and individual achievement.
The passengers on the United flight from Maui got an exciting taste of affirmative action.
The two pilots were newbies and were sent back to training.
[Name redacted] just told me about a B-triple-seven off Maui that almost crashed two nights ago. Both pilots became disoriented and pulled out of a dive 300 feet above the water, pulling two and a half G’s. …
I’m just home from Denver training center. There are some real horror stories out there about United, but management is hell-bent on just ignoring what is going on. The investigation is still on-going. … but the Captain of the Maui flight was brand new. There was a new-hire First Officer, and my understanding is that we almost lost an airplane for no good reason. Both have been sent back to go through the 4-week course. …
The new-hire first officer on my fleet is a nightmare. It took him 50 hours to get through Initial Operating Experience. Worse yet, talking to his instructor, out of his 25 landings in the simulator, 15 ended up in the dirt. Not one of them was on the centerline of the runway. They said his radio work is like that of a private pilot. He has no situational awareness.
I don’t fly United but Southwest seems to be adopting the same insanity. Where is Herb Kelleher when we need him?
@ Mike K > “The two pilots were newbies and were sent back to training.”
What idiot okayed that combination?
Who let them loose without proper training in the first place?
Most states require that new teen-age car drivers have to spend a certain amount of time and/or mileage driving with an experienced driver in the passenger seat before they can get their permanent license.
I’ll take my travel chances with the kids in the car from now on.
GB @ 7:37 pm:
Thank you for surfacing that Edmund Burke quote. I was trying to think of a way to answer Cicero about our Funders understanding and appreciation that the public virtuousness required for successful governance in a republic also demanded that the individual citizens corral their personal demons and promote their internal angels to the extent practical. Burke’s phrasing is almost musical in reply to this issue.
With respect I think Neo’s question is irrelevant. When so many governmental and regulatory power centers are heavily LGBTQABCDE+ indoctrinated the company not only has to show they don’t discriminate, they have actively showcase the favored group. The same jackassery goes on in the military with “all female” crew of this, that, or the other platform. People don’t understand how off track the military is, in part, because of diversity garbage. Lotta people gonna die needlessly if we go against a near peer. I spent 29 years in the Navy. Best advice I had was from a Special Warfare Operator who’s team we were supporting. “When you start believing your own bullshit it’s gonna end bad.”
I assume that the major airlines still have professional standards committees. They are established to deal with issues of pilots not measuring up to normal standards. They can’t punish poor performance, but they do have the clout to bring the performance issues to Flight Managers (pilots who are essentially management and supervise a number [30 to 40] of pilots in a domicile.) The majors have a Vice President of Flight Ops who is over all the Flight Managers.
When I was still flying the VP of Flight Ops was pretty powerful. Issues, especially safety issues, usually got resolved pretty quickly when brought to his attention.
We had some issues when they first began hiring women. They were hiring just about any woman who could meet the minimum experience qualifications. (College degree 1500 hours with a commercial and instrument ticket) Some were sent out of the training center who weren’t really ready. They were sent back post haste. In those days all new hires got two chances to complete initial training and go on the line. Plus, all new hires were on probation for the first year on the line. There was attrition. I don’t know what percentage it was but a few, both men and women, didn’t make it through the training or first year. The system was working.
It’s almost inconceivable to me that anyone in management would sacrifice standards. Their safety record is one of their most valuable assets. Additionally, with social media allowing instant communications of problems, they must realize that they can’t hide their problems.
One of the big reasons that corporations have gone woke is that they have been under pressure from Democrat-dominated Blackrock, and Vanguard and Fidelity weren’t far behind. IIRC, Vanguard may be backing off of this.
Here in the Valley of the Sun (Phoenix/Mesa), a whole lot of pilot training has always happened and continues to happen. One reason is that the nearest cloud is in Colorado. There’s a lot of pilots who are licensed for instruments and multi-engine, but it’s a big jump from there to a commercial license.
So they’re here training for that. And to feed themselves they do basic pilot training. Your 15-hour solo pilot is guided by the 300-hour guy. And there’s a whole lot of retired senior pilots who are teaching the 300-hour guys.
I know a couple of these guys. Back when there were a lot of problems with Asian airlines, I asked one of them. He spent a lot of pre-covid time in Shanghi teaching pilots for the Asian airlines. And he would not, nor would he let his wife fly on any of them.
One of the things airlines have learned is that Captain = God puts planes into holes in the ground. They now teach a way of crew interaction that gives co-pilots a lot more confidence in speaking up when they see a problem. But in Asian cultures, that Captain = God thing is much more deeply ingrained. It is very difficult to change that.
Flying in the US is entirely different culturally. A lot of US pilots got their private license at 16, after spending all their free time washing planes and sweeping out the FBO offices and hangars to earn an hour of flying time. They’ve been flying for years before they go to work for an airline.
Not so in Asia. Sons of influential people get into the pilot training programs, and they’re hard to get out if they don’t have the skills.
The result of all of this has been that US pilots had to fly for the Air Force or Navy for years, or they racked up many hours before joining an airline program. It wasn’t easy to get in, and it was easy to get booted.
Now . . . there’s a pilot shortage. The military isn’t supplying them the way they used to. And the HR departments are pushing, pushing for DIE candidates. At best these newbies will lack the years of flying culture their predecessors had. At worst, well . . . .
My friends, the retired pilots now teaching, look over both shoulders before they mutter, “I don’t really need to fly anywhere, anymore. And I won’t.”
I saw the videos that United posted, and they looked more like a San Francisco pub party than a plane flight.
https://twitter.com/VirginAustralia/status/1629695969435734017
(h/t here)
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2023/03/01/fly-the-rainbow-skies-n534206
NOTE: I had searched for the video again with “united lgbtq crew” and the two top results were Powerline and Neo! Had to go to my bookmarks to find the HA post.
Could just be because DDG lists my own reading choices first, but still….
Some things I have NOT seen reported anywhere yet: did the passengers know they were getting a “special” crew? Were the tickets sold by invitation only? The party had “amenities” that must have cost a fortune; how paid for them if not the passengers?
This is not the first United Pride Flight, BTW, with the same kind of festivities and hosting by the airports; thanks to the magic of the interwebz:
https://thepointsguy.com/news/united-lgbtq-flight/
Dec. 09, 2021
I didn’t look for a 2022 flight, but United is down with the struggle, so there probably was one.
https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/company/global-citizenship/LGBTQ.html
UA is listening to its customers — some of them, anyway — although this writer apparently wasn’t invited to be on the carefully orchestrated 2021 flight.
https://www.who.com.au/pride-flight-united-airlines-san-fransisco-to-sydney
I don’t know what those options are; hopefully, it means you can choose to skip the Pride flights with the gender equity crews.*
Bonus from Not the Bee: when published on 2/27 this ad was supposed to be a parody, not a prediction.
https://twitter.com/citizens_sanity/status/1630217694224973824
FWIW, I don’t begrudge the LGBTQ+ community a party flight, if the airline wants to host one and only willing passengers are on-board (No Kids); I DO object to airports spending what is essentially public money on their own virtue-signaling; and I definitely object to lowering quality standards for pilots and crew if that has been happening.
Comment round-up with more questions, to which I think we know the answers:
https://thepostmillennial.com/united-airlines-blasted-for-hyping-all-lgbtq-crew-in-pride-partnership
Yeah, Dinesh nails it. It’s propaganda even if you DO believe in it yourself, UA.
Another question: how do the cisgender binary troglodytes at the airline feel about this special treatment for ONE particular type of passenger?
*And finally, what goes on during the flights that necessitates such a ticketing option? Does this mean all the passengers for some flight have selected that option, or are there non-nonbinary option selectors on the same flight? I’m curious because I used to work in our church’s local mission office as the booking agent for our missionaries going home, and I definitely would want to know the answer to those questions if I was doing that now.
@ Gordon & JJ > thanks for the “front line” information, although it’s not highly encouraging.
There isn’t any indication (yet) that the Pride Crews are less than qualified for their jobs, but there are concerns arising about flight crews and pilots in general that need to be addressed sooner rather than after the first fatal tragedy occurs (which it almost certainly will).
I’m sure Transportation Secretary Buttigieg will get right on that.
So will we soon be looking at flights being canceled because there’s not quite enough diversity on board?
Or not enough equity.
Or too many white people?
File under: Sorry, try again tomorrow. Or maybe try another airline…
“How about an all black, trans, autistic airline crew?”
And, do not ignore the needs of “the differently abled.” We joke about instructions at the bank drive-though being in braille, but how long will it be until Boeing is required, either federally or “socially,” to include braille on their instrument panels, and additional display screens for speech-to-text to accommodate the deaf?
I think I am quite safe in predicting that substituting social condition, race, sex, or other Social Preference Characteristic for competence will result in more than one commercial airliner augering in (which, very certainly, will not be publicly attributed to the flight deck crew, mechanics involved in maintenance, nor scheduling and support personnel). I can easily protect myself by refusing to patronize any commercial enterprise, especially airlines, which engages in such self corruption, but in the case of aircraft, I will now have to be concerned about being under them when the moment comes.
This is just one more step upon the road to more widespread societal collapse, which the Left desperately wants, but will deeply regret when it fully arrives. I’m reminded about Heinlein’s “bad luck” prophesy, but I doubt he anticipated it being performed so deliberately and vociferously.
I’m sure Transportation Secretary Buttigieg will get right on that.
The Trans Sec (referred to by Althouse’s commenters as Buggergig and ButteredEgg, among other creative re-spellings) is presently working on getting a certain problem railway to change its name to the Queerfolk Southern. All tank cars henceforth will be painted in a tasteful assortment of rainbow designs; the crews will be made up exclusively of Alphabet People; and the signal lights will be changed to pink, baby blue, and white so that the transhumans don’t feel left out. Oh, and Sam Brinton will be a special guest on the first Pride run, wearing AOC’s Met Gala “Tax the Rich” gown (see https://nypost.com/2023/03/02/aocs-met-gala-appearance-likely-violated-law-house-ethics-chair/ ). “They” will then demonstrate how not to dispose of nuclear waste.
Why does an employer need to know about its employees sex lives? Isn’t it illegal to ask that information? I aklways wondered what people who major in College with degrees in Gender Studies, LGBTQ studies, Women’s Studies etc do for a livingwhen they graduate and I now realize that they find work in the HR Departments in mid to large corproations and come up with absurd rules to follow and required seminars on “DEI” to take.
Kate – “From the experience of several family members, most HR departments today are pits of vipers.” My former boss who was laid off back in 2018 told me recently “HR (the Gatekeepers) is not your friend”. Simple but very true.
I am transgender, and I couldn’t care less about the gender or sexual preferences of the people I deal with, as long as they don’t denigrate or assault me over mine (which, especially on the right, is sadly far from a given).
People on the right seem as likely to call anyone who’s transgender or gay a “pedophile” or “a wannabe rapist” or at the very least “mentally insane and should be locked up” as those on the left are to call anyone right of center a “fascist”.
“Why does an employer need to know about its employees sex lives? Isn’t it illegal to ask that information?”
it’s not illegal to ask afaik, but it is illegal to discriminate based on it. So it’s a very touchy subject. If you as an employer know an employee is homosexual, and fire them for any reason, you’re now liable to be sued for wrongful termination as the (former) employee can claim it was really because of their sexual orientation.
That’s why more than a few homosexuals make it known very loudly, and whenever they can, what they are (or one of the reasons, for a lot of them it is their entire identity).
For transgender people, it’s often more tricky as they need different facilities. E.g. a transwoman needing a flight attendant’s uniform may have to have one custom made as confection sizes are less likely to fit her.
For me, with an office job, that’s not much of a problem, though whether I need to comply with male or female dress codes would be a question HR would need to ponder if we had dress codes (we don’t, not beyond “dress nicely, business casual preferred).
But which toilet block I should use is a touchy subject for some people. Luckily there are plenty of them around and I just find an empty one, duck in and out quickly so I don’t upset anyone.
JTW,
All well and good for you. However, the real issue here presented here is UAL sacrificing competence in the flight deck in order to virtue signal?? Anytime someone is publicly touted for the racial/sexual/ethnic boxes they check rather than what that person is actually capable of doing, sends up red flags. And in the case of airline cockpits, hundreds of lives are at stake. How far UAL has fallen since the tragic episode of UAL232, where shear talent saved many lives:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a10478/the-final-flight-of-united-232-16755928/
“How far UAL has fallen since the tragic episode of UAL232, where shear talent saved many lives…”
Just FYI, it should be “sheer” talent. And although the opportunity to select among multiple airlines is limited in many markets, I wonder if UA will see a decline. They certainly won’t be seeing me.
I wonder how these diversity programs at United and other airlines are going to work out. Flying is a cognitively demanding job, and on top of that men generally have better spatial perception than women. Are the airlines going to just let the trainees who can’t make the grade quietly wash out of the program?
For some reason I’m reminded of a quip that the late John McKay, the then coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers made about his team: “You know, 2 or 3 plane crashes and we’re in the playoffs.”
“Here in the Valley of the Sun (Phoenix/Mesa), a whole lot of pilot training has always happened and continues to happen. One reason is that the nearest cloud is in Colorado. There’s a lot of pilots who are licensed for instruments and multi-engine, but it’s a big jump from there to a commercial license.”
Are you sure of that? Yesterday, at the car dealerships in N Scottsdale, looking east, the mountains were snow capped. And down here, the water from the rain the night before hadn’t evaporated yet (for the most part, it doesn’t sink in), which causes major detours around the large pools when walking the dog in the open space to the south. (Which is where I need to go right now – the dog is doing her “I need to shit” dance right now)
That said – just checked the video from our other house, in NW MT, and the ground was completely white there. Checked it yesterday, and it was only half covered. I did that after a guy at the car dealership told me the guy in the next office was from the other end of the state (Billings) and they had several feet of snow on the ground there to shovel.
But, yes, most of the time, the Valley is mostly cloudless. It’s just that this is Monsoon Season.
Bruce, I do love those Scottsdale downpours. Two inches in half an hour! Decades back the developers may have leveled off the arroyos and creek beds, but Nature has not forgotten where they were, and will remind us in dramatic fashion.
@Gordon
Our subdivision backs up to the Phoenix Reach 11 open space. There are apartments backed up to it all the way down almost to Scottsdale Rd. Almost all built in the last 5 years. The change in runoff is stark – with little gullies running south towards my (Hayden-Rhodes) Aqueduct, getting deeper every year.
The funny thing is that we are in a 100 year flood plain. That requires flood insurance for a mortgage loan. In the middle of one of the driest states in the country. Never mind that urban Phoenix and surrounding communities all require significant flood mitigation for new construction of almost any type (partially consisting of large settling ponds ) strewn throughout the area, often disguised as parks. You might be tempted to ignore it, but my step son got caught in his F-250 in a big rain, driving into his house SE of Tucson last near, got stuck in the high water, which ended up destroying the truck’s wiring.
I remember being taken down to see the Salt River as a child when there was water in it. Big excitement. — Flash flooding in Arizona is very dangerous. High water in dry creeks can come up very fast.
People on the right seem as likely to call anyone who’s transgender or gay a “pedophile” or “a wannabe rapist” or at the very least “mentally insane and should be locked up” as those on the left are to call anyone right of center a “fascist”.
Don’t give performances in elementary school classrooms and at the children’s room at the library and people will be less inclined to do that. #problemsolvingability
So, now, if *anything* goes wrong with United, some lawyer will point to this as proof that United doesn’t care about competence. Lost luggage? Corkscrew into a cornfield? No matter, we’re diverse.
Art Deco
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2023/03/03/lgbtq-activist-mayor-linked-to-buttigieg-arrested-for-child-porn-n1675339
Strap on those seat belt. You’re in for a bumpy ride!
Always sit in the back so you’ll be last to the crash!