A plane carrying almost 200 passengers did not not have a pilot for over 10 minutes in what was a frightening scene after the first officer lost consciousness in the cockpit while the captain was off using the bathroom, a new investigation found.
The chaos took place after a Lufthansa plane, Airbus A321, was en route from Frankfurt, Germany, to Seville, Spain, in February 2024, according to a report from Spanish aviation investigators that was revealed this week.
The report revealed that the captain said he left his first officer alone with close to 30 minutes of flight time remaining so he could use the bathroom lavatory, noting that his second-in-command “appeared to be able and alert” at the time.
However, when he returned just eight minutes later, the pilot claimed that he could not access the flight deck despite entering the security code five times to gain access to the door.
When an intercom call to the flight deck went unanswered, the panicked pilot plugged in an emergency code.
Shortly after, the co-pilot woke up from unconsciousness.
In a revelation that has stirred alarm among national security circles and outrage among millions of Americans, it has been confirmed that the direct hotline between the Pentagon and the control tower at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) has been out of service since March 2022 — for more than three consecutive years. The confirmation came from Franklin McIntosh, a senior official at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), during an oversight hearing led by Senator Ted Cruz, current chairman of the Senate committee on aviation and transportation.
The exchange was brief but damning. When Cruz asked:
“Is it true that the direct line between the Pentagon, air traffic control, and the DCA tower has been inoperative since March 2022?” McIntosh’s response was clear: “Yes, sir, that is correct.”
n what is becoming an all too familiar scenario over the past month, Denver International Airport lost all communications for nearly 90 seconds earlier this week, Denver7 reported.
As many as 20 pilots flying into the airport Monday afternoon were unable to communicate with air traffic controllers for a minute and half, the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed.
“Part of the Denver Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) experienced a loss of communications for approximately 90 seconds around 1:50 p.m. local time on Monday, May 12, when both transmitters that cover a segment of airspace went down,” according to the FAA.
In a prerecorded Friday interview that was released on Sunday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on “Meet the Press” called for an overhaul of the nation’s air traffic control infrastructure, some of which includes parts that need to be purchased on “eBay.”
“I’m concerned about the whole airspace,” Duffy told NBC News’ Kristen Welker. “The equipment that we use, much of it we can’t buy parts for new. We have to go on eBay and buy parts if one part goes down. You’re dealing with old equipment.
“We’re dealing with copper wires, not fiber” optics, “not high-speed fiber” optics, Duffy added. “This is concerning. Is it safe? Yes. We have redundancies – multiple redundancies in place to keep you safe when you fly, but we should also recognize, we’re seeing stress on an old network, and it’s time to fix it.”
In late February, Elon Musk, while working in his capacity as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency commission, also called for an overhaul of the nation’s air traffic control grid.
Musk posted to X that “the ancient” air traffic control “system that is rapidly declining in capability was made [by] L3Harris.
“The FAA assessment is single digit months to catastrophic failure, putting air traveler safety at serious risk,” he added. “The Starlink terminals are being sent at NO COST to the taxpayer on an emergency basis to restore air traffic control connectivity. The situation is extremely dire.”
Musk went on to note that a $2.4 billion contract from Verizon to upgrade the Federal Aviation Administration’s equipment “is not yet operational.” Shortly after Musk’s post, The Washington Post, pulling from two anonymous sources, reported that the agency was on the cusp of canceling its Verizon contract and giving it to SpaceX.
In more good news that makes you want to travel, a system that Musk says is being run off of diskettes has 6 months of life left. It’s already breaking down
Air traffic controllers in the U.S. have experienced about 1,000 equipment failures a week due to ancient equipment, a former federal aviation official and several airline industry insiders told the New York Post.
The report comes less than a week after a 90-second equipment failure at Newark Liberty International Airport caused air traffic controllers’ communications to go dark, sparking hundreds of flight delays and disrupting travel for thousands for days.
The cause was a single unsheathed copper wire at the air traffic control center in Philadelphia.
“This is a copper wire system, and frankly the FAA is experiencing almost 1,000 outages a week,” one airline industry official told the Post, referring to the Federal Aviation Administration.
“Some outages are worse than others — but the bad thing about them is you can’t predict them.”
Frontier Airlines severed its relationship with a pair of contractors after a viral exchange with a customer in which the two acted like absolute buffoons.
The footage — filmed by the would-be passenger — was posted to social media platform X Wednesday, showing two workers who taunt a man trying to check in at the Frontier Airlines desk.
But, they got filmed by another passenger and their asses are out the door and they’re job hunting tomorrow. FAFO
Lobach’s male co-pilot, an Army flight instructor, directly told her to turn away, and she flew straight into a passenger jet.
“Not only was the Black Hawk flying too high, but in the final seconds before the crash, its pilot failed to heed a directive from her co-pilot, an Army flight instructor, to change course,” The Times reported.
“The Black Hawk was 15 seconds away from crossing paths with the jet. Warrant Officer Eaves then turned his attention to Captain Lobach. He told her he believed that air traffic control wanted them to turn left, toward the east river bank,” The New York Times reported.
“Turning left would have opened up more space between the helicopter and Flight 5342, which was heading for Runway 33 at an altitude of roughly 300 feet,” The Times reported.
And the fatal mistake, as reported by The Times, “She did not turn left.”
A source with knowledge of the situation told NBC News the passenger had removed her clothing and defecated on the seat, forcing the plane to be taken out of service for cleaning.
“Our Teams are reaching out to those onboard to apologize for the situation and any delays to their travel plans,” the airline said in a statement. “Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of our customers and employees, and we appreciate the professionalism of our flight crew.”
The incident follows a series of flight-related troubles for airlines.
Sherry Walker has been a commercial airline pilot for almost 35 years. She says DEI has so completely undermined safety standards that pilots are sometimes afraid to leave the cockpit for fear of what their co-pilots will do unattended.
Those zany female pilots are at it again—only this time, they’re clipping wings and careening down the runway. The latest DEI disaster in the skies is just another example of what happens when identity politics trumps qualifications. But before we nosedive into this latest catastrophe, let’s rewind to a recent “girl power” moment that ended in flames.
You probably remember the Endeavor Air runway fiasco—not just a near-miss, but a full-on crash landing. The plane, proudly manned by an all-female crew, touched down upside down and skidded down the tarmac in a fiery spectacle. Passengers were no doubt reliving their worst nightmares as the aircraft scraped across the ground, proving once again that diversity hires don’t make for safe landings.
The airline industry has been hit hard by the left’s dangerous and deadly DEI movement. The once “friendly skies” are now a crapshoot of confusion, chaos, and calamity. And speaking of DEI disasters, we recently covered a story about an FAA supervisor who actually fed test answers to a group of unqualified minority applicants taking an air traffic control exam.
DEI is slowly but surely destroying this country. It’s gotten so bad—so deeply entrenched in every system—that President Trump has made eradicating it a cornerstone of his administration. And not a moment too soon.
Just look at this latest bombshell, courtesy of a Daily Mail exclusive. They got their hands on a voicemail from a DEI activist and FAA supervisor who, according to their report, handed out critical answers to an air traffic control exam—to a select group of minority candidates.
No wonder the once “friendly skies” have turned so deadly…
DEI activist allegedly caught sharing air traffic controller exam answers with minority candidates in leaked audio obtained by the Daily Mail
Shelton Snow, a prominent figure in the National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees (NBCFAE), was caught in a shocking audio clip promising advance access to test answers
‘There are some valuable pieces of information that I have taken a screenshot of and I am going to send that to you via email,’ says Snow
‘I am about 99.99 percent sure that it is exactly how you need to answer each question.’
The inside information was offered in 2014 to African Americans, females, and other minority candidates, while Whites were excluded to “minimize competition.”
It remains unknown how many candidates benefited from Snow’s offer to secure coveted air traffic controller jobs
Snow stated, “We can give you advance access to test answers,” as reported by DailyMail
But one former NBCFAE member, Matthew Douglas, told DailyMail: ‘I know several people who cheated and I know several people who are controlling planes as we speak.’
🚨 DEI activist allegedly caught sharing air traffic controller exam answers with minority candidates in leaked audio obtained by the Daily Mail
Shelton Snow, a prominent figure in the National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees (NBCFAE), was caught in a shocking… pic.twitter.com/2fjREg98DE
In the latest twist in the DEI scandal that’s rocked the Federal Aviation Administration’s air traffic controller testing, a diversity activist was allegedly caught in a recorded message promising answers to a behavioral examination for prospective controllers — but only if they were minorities or women.
While rumors of the answers being leaked to the National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees have been in the public domain since well before the DEI scandal burst following a collision between a jetliner and a military helicopter on the approach to Ronald Reagan National Airport outside Washington, D.C., in January, the recording of Shelton Snow — a major figure in the NBCFAE — obtained by the U.K.’s Daily Mail seems to confirm those rumors.
“There are some valuable pieces of information that I have taken a screenshot of and I am going to send that to you via email,” Snow said in the message, first published Wednesday.
“I am about 99.99 percent sure that it is exactly how you need to answer each question,” he added.
“Washington Suburban associate members, brothers, and sisters … I know that each of you are eager, very eager to apply for this job vacancy … and trust that after tonight, you will be able to do so,” he said.
“I am asking that you … allow me to provide you with an email that will be extremely crucial in the opening stages of this hiring process,” he added.
“There is some valuable pieces of information that I have taken a screenshot of, and I’m going to send that to you via email. Trust and believe it will be something that you will appreciate to the utmost. Keep in mind, we are trying to maximize your opportunities.”
As the Daily Mail noted, the message came in 2014, after the Obama-era FAA “had controversially replaced its peer-reviewed cognitive exam with a ‘biographical’ quiz asking things like ‘how would you describe your ideal job’ and ‘classmates would remember me as humble or dominant?’
“Critics say the quixotic blend of multiple-choice questions was designed to screen out elite, mostly white students from FAA-accredited college courses who excelled in traditional aptitude tests,” the outlet noted. “Nonetheless, it was proving incredibly tricky for anyone to pass — with a 90 percent failure rate — when Snow decided to intervene.”
A Jan. 15, 2014 email from Snow, who was then president of the Washington Suburban chapter of the NBCFAE, laid out ways to stand out from the rest — including “buzz words” to be incorporated into applications.
“These buzzwords will flag your resume, thereby giving you the advantage over thousands of resumes that may flood the system,” he said.
Meanwhile, an agenda Snow set for a December 2013 “powwow” encouraged members to share that they were with the NBCFAE.
“This is for us to know who our people are in the case that we have one of our own on the board,” the agenda read.
A 19-year-old healthcare worker named Lucrecia Kormassa Koiyan from Loganville, Georgia, has been arrested and charged with a criminal count of exploitation of a disabled person.
The incident came to light after Koiyan posted multiple videos on social media platform TikTok, which showed her dancing inappropriately over patients with disabilities. In one of the videos, she was seen twerking above the head of a seated disabled individual while wearing scrubs and a healthcare worker’s uniform.
A convicted drug dealer who received a get-out-of-jail-free card from the Biden regime has already been arrested again.
Dequan Willard, a 30-year-old Texas man, was granted clemency by President Joe Biden on January 17 as part of a sweeping mass release that included 2,490 federal inmates.
But it didn’t take long for the so-called “nonviolent offender” to show his true colors.
Just seven days later, Willard was arrested again for allegedly violating the conditions of his supervised release, according to Law and Crime.
Police say Jeremy McBride plotted Netherland’s death, planning to kill her and her preborn baby, and then kill himself. McBride allegedly confessed to the crime after he was apprehended by police less than one hour after the shooting. He was not at the residence when police arrived, and law enforcement located him through the use of license plate readers.
2/3
A man is behind bars for allegedly impersonating an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The 37-year-old is accused of sexually assaulting a woman at a motel over the weekend.
The Motel 6 located on Appliance Court in Raleigh is the site of the reported rape on Sunday.
Arrest warrants say Carl Bennett went to the location and committed a number of crimes, including multiple sex offenses.
The banana to the face of a convenience store employee was a violation of her probation for a grand theft conviction on her record. Turner reportedly stole around $800 worth of merchandise from a Walmart.
2/8
Big House Cultivators and Gram Central are proud to sponsor a Black History Cannabis Event this February, celebrating Black culture, history, and advocacy in the cannabis industry. More than just a gathering, this event is an opportunity to learn, connect, and take action in the ongoing fight for equity and justice.
The event will feature two inspiring Black women leaders from Free My Weed Man, Diasporic Alliance of Cannabis Opportunities (DACO) & Black Cannabis Week, both of whom are on the frontlines of cannabis advocacy and community empowerment. Through personal stories and open dialogue, they will share insights on the historical impact of cannabis on Black communities, the barriers still in place today, and the work being done to create a more just and inclusive industry.
2/9
First Baptist Orlando Church announced that Lucy Pat Curl, wife of Pastor Bill Curl, died Wednesday after being severely beaten and knocked unconscious.
The accused attacker, Ronald Davis, 55, reportedly posed as a community service officer and forced his way into Curl’s home.
2/10
“The View” host Sunny Hostin complained during Monday’s show about some resurfacing racially-charged posts made by one of the young men billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk brought in to work on the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project.
This is how embarrassing Texas Democrat Rep. Jasmine Crockett is: Despite sharing the same far-left viewpoints and clout-chasing tendencies as its other members, Crockett has never been admitted to the so-called “squad.”
Perhaps this is her choice, but I doubt it. After all, getting into the club connects you with progressive activist favorites like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar. And it’s not as if they’re especially picky when it comes to membership. All you have to be is young and very liberal. You can be shamelessly corrupt (Omar), anti-Semitic (former Rep. Jamaal Bowman), or both (former Rep. Cori Bush.)
Ergo, there has to be a reason why Crockett isn’t in the group. She told Politico it’s because, campaigning in Texas, the label is poison.
This doesn’t sound right, given the fact that she represents a district so deeply blue it’ll elect … well, her
This latest story is beyond disturbing and has many people asking, “What the hell is happening in our nation’s schools?” But this is actually an update. The alleged grooming and trafficking took place in 2023, but now, the cosmetology high school is being sued.
According to court documents, a Texas cosmetology teacher was accused of grooming and sex trafficking teenagers at a local cosmetology high school. The details of the case are so incredibly disturbing, it’s almost too much to comprehend.
2/16
2/17
Big House Cultivators and Gram Central are proud to sponsor a Black History Cannabis Event this February, celebrating Black culture, history, and advocacy in the cannabis industry. More than just a gathering, this event is an opportunity to learn, connect, and take action in the ongoing fight for equity and justice.
The event will feature two inspiring Black women leaders from Free My Weed Man, Diasporic Alliance of Cannabis Opportunities (DACO) & Black Cannabis Week, both of whom are on the frontlines of cannabis advocacy and community empowerment. Through personal stories and open dialogue, they will share insights on the historical impact of cannabis on Black communities, the barriers still in place today, and the work being done to create a more just and inclusive industry.
Trump Admin Makes ‘Extremely Concerning’ Discovery About Biden EPA – Billions Set Aside for Stacey Abrams-Linked Group
2/20
Texas Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett has become famous in the past year or two for her rants.
Whether she is yelling about “mediocre white boys” who oppose diversity programs or getting in shouting matches during committee meetings, we can always expect her to speak her mind.
That’s exactly what she did when she was a guest Wednesday on “The View.”
Crockett was asked about a broad sentiment among voters that President Donald Trump is keeping his campaign promises, a reality they are rewarding with substantial approval ratings, coupled with a struggling Democratic Party seen by many as too left-wing.
Left: Arianna Davis (GoFundMe). Right: Wilson Wesley Chavis (Prince George County Police Department).
A funeral home owner was convicted of shooting a pallbearer at the burial of a 10-year-old girl who was killed by a stray bullet in Washington, D.C.
2/22
A Bowling Green man has been arrested after police say he stole from a local business.
The Bowling Green Police Department apprehended Jammal Cooper, 38, at 403 Ethan Court Monday, according to the agency’s Facebook page.
Officers say Cooper was identified after leaving a local store where he was previously known to have committed theft. With the assistance of store personnel, officers confirmed his identity and located his residence.
When approached by officers, Cooper attempted to flee but was detained after a brief foot pursuit, police say.
Cooper is currently lodged in the Warren County Regional Jail on the following charges:
Receiving stolen property ($1,000 < $10,000)
Obscuring the identity of a machine (covered license plate)
Theft by unlawful taking – shoplifting
Possession of marijuana
Possession of drug paraphernalia
Third-degree fleeing or evading police
2/23
Here’s another big win for DEI hiring—Mark Brave, New Hampshire’s first black sheriff, just pled guilty to a laundry list of felonies. Shocking? No, not one bit. This is what happens when you focus on checking diversity boxes instead of hiring the best person for the job. Sadly, we see this happening everywhere these days.
2/24
During a Friday appearance on “The Breakfast Club,” Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett made several astute remarks about the United States and the federal government, all while revealing that she actually hates the country she serves. It was a train wreck of an interview
2/25
Don’t forget now, Black History Month still isn’t over. At the University of Hawaii,
Black history and culture are being celebrated at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa with a series of events and collaborations throughout February.
Events include basketball and a special Black History Month Dinner next Tuesday featuring “fried chicken, baked mac and cheese, sweet potatoes and cornbread.”
Normally, associating blacks with fried chicken is regarded as thoughtcrime. But you can’t blame moonbats in Hawaii for resorting to stereotypes regarding blacks, who make up only 2.2% of the population. The important thing is that they bend the knee piously in accordance with their religion, cultural Marxism.
Pro-Farrakhan pastor leading Target DEI boycott calls Black Trump supporters ‘coons’ and ‘runaway slaves’ – White people are shaking their heads
Dr. Jamal Bryant, head of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, recently called for a 40-day “fast” from shopping at Target during the upcoming Lenten season, arguing that the company has “spit in the face” of Black people by ending its commitment to DEI and joining a growing list of prominent companies to do so, including McDonald’s, Walmart and Ford.
This self-proclaimed “super mayor” is now a super loser.
Dolton “Dictator” Tiffany Henyard suffered a landslide loss in Tuesday’s Democratic primary after more than a year of seedy scandals, wild antics and haughty remarks that finally caught up to her at the ballot box.
The under-fire Illinois mayor finally ran into her kryptonite — voters in her own Chicago suburb that overwhelmingly picked village Trustee Jason House as the Democratic nominee.
With all precincts reporting, House notched nearly 88% of the vote while Henyard gained a measly 12%, according to Cook County election results.
2/28
Sadly, his internet fame likely gave Charles McDowell a bigger and better opportunity to become a very dangerous predator.
Fast forward seven years, and McDowell is back behind bars, this time for something far more horrific—sending naked photos to a minor. The man who was once just a funny meme now stands accused of preying on and abusing innocent children.
To be clear here, the Verizon communication system to air traffic control is breaking down very rapidly. The FAA assessment is single digit months to catastrophic failure, putting air traveler safety at serious risk.
The Starlink terminals are being sent at NO COST to the taxpayer on an emergency basis to restore air traffic control connectivity.
A dramatic near-miss at Chicago’s Midway Airport forced a Southwest Airlines plane to abort its landing after a small jet unexpectedly crossed the runway.
A video of the shocking incident has surfaced, showing the Southwest aircraft performing a last-second “touch and go” maneuver to avoid disaster.
The close call is reminiscent of a similar situation at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in December, when a Delta jet nearly collided with a plane carrying the Gonzaga men’s basketball team.
The Midway incident adds to a growing list of aviation scares in 2025. While data shows air travel remains statistically safe, a series of crashes and near-misses have raised public concern.
WATCH:
This year’s aviation chaos started January 29, when a mid-air collision over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., killed all 67 people aboard an American Airlines regional jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter.
The crash, which occurred during the plane’s final approach to Reagan National Airport, is under investigation by the NTSB, with early findings pointing to possible air traffic control failures, miscommunication, and the helicopter flying at an incorrect altitude.
The tragedy deeply impacted the figure skating community, as several young skaters and their families were among the victims. Meanwhile, a victim’s family has filed a $250 million lawsuit against the FAA and the U.S. Army, citing negligence. The incident, along with recent aviation safety concerns, has led to a decline in public confidence in air travel.
More recently, a Delta Connection flight from Minneapolis flipped upside down while landing at Toronto Pearson Airport on February 17, with 80 people on board. While all passengers survived, 21 were injured, including a child and two adults who were initially in critical condition.
Delta offered each passenger $30,000 as compensation, though at least one survivor has since filed a lawsuit against the airline. Investigators are looking into weather conditions and crew experience as possible factors in the crash.
Here are some of the most notable aviation incidents this year:
January 29 – The devastating crash in Washington, D.C., resulted in 67 fatalities.
January 31 – A medevac jet crashed in Philadelphia, killing seven people.
February 6 – A regional airline flight in Nome, Alaska, went down, claiming 10 lives.
February 14 – A fatal crash in Pierson, Florida, took the life of the pilot.
In total, 88 people have died in seven aviation incidents in the U.S. in 2025, according to Fox4.
This story stinks and is getting worse the longer they don’t release the names/gender/race/whatever of the pilot. They are hiding something and it must be bad to go on this long. If it was a white man, it would have been revealed last week
The mystery surrounding the latest Delta Airlines crash just keeps deepening. The crash itself was shocking to witness—and it’s nothing short of a miracle that no one died.
But in today’s world, where the skies feel less friendly than ever thanks to progressive ideology that has taken over corporate America, it’s no surprise that when a crash happens, all eyes turn to DEI.
And that’s not a stretch. Delta Airlines has made no secret of going all-in on their DEI agenda—a move that just so happens to coincide with a sharp decline in consumer confidence with the airline industry.
This is from Delta’s DEI website. An airline OBSESSED with the race and sexual preferences of their workers. Think the passengers who almost died in Toronto give a flying FUCK about if the pilot blows dudes or the flight attendant’s great grandma was a non binary Native American? Just land the damn plane right side up. Look at their site it’s insane: https://delta.com/us/en/about-delta/diversity
What’s most suspicious is that Delta still refuses to reveal who was at the controls on that disastrous day. Yet, based on the biographical breadcrumbs they’ve dropped, people are drawing their own conclusions—and frankly, who can blame them? That said, it’s important to note that nothing has been officially confirmed.
But here’s where it gets even stranger—for the first time since the Toronto crash, the mainstream media has started sharing details about the female co-pilot. Of course, they didn’t release her name—because transparency isn’t exactly a priority here.
What they did do was gloss over the captain’s experience in a measly two sentences. Meanwhile, they poured out paragraphs to build up the female co-pilot—painting a glowing picture that feels more like damage control than reporting.
CBS News learned the first officer graduated from a university with an accredited and well-respected aviation program, and so was able to start working with fewer than 1,500 hours under a Restricted Air Transport Pilot certificate. She crossed the 1,500-hour mark and earned her full ATP certificate in January 2023, which is the highest-level pilot certification in the U.S., before completing training last April, and has been flying for Endeavor since then.
Delta says her flight experience “exceeded the minimum requirements” set by federal regulations.
She passed all of her check rides and there were “no red flags” about her pilot skills, a source familiar told CBS News.
Why is Delta Airlines being so tight-lipped about who was actually flying that plane? It’s a simple question that deserves a straightforward answer—especially after a crash this serious. Yet, instead of transparency, we’re getting silence, vague statements and selective puff pieces from the media. Why the secrecy? If this was just an accident with no underlying issues, there should be no need for smoke and mirrors. The more Delta dodges, the more it looks like they’re hiding something.
It’s remarkable that they haven’t identified the pilots. It’s almost like they are trying to hide who they are. I bet if they were two white guys, the names would have been out the day of the crash.
In Marxist regimes, no one suffers more than the people whom Marxists deceived on their way to acquiring power. The poor, whose interests Marxists claimed to protect, experience only deeper poverty, exploitation, and oppression.
The Western world’s recent obsession with diversity, equity, and inclusion policies constitutes a similar phenomenon, which stands to reason. After all, DEI rests on the same ideological foundation as Marxism.
Wednesday on the social media platform X, the prominent conservative account “End Wokeness” posted a disturbing pair of older tweets from Endeavor Air suggesting that the operator prioritized all-female crews.
Endeavor Air was the operator of the Delta Connection flight 4819, which suffered a harrowing but non-fatal crash Monday when one of its passenger jets lost a wing, erupted in flames and rolled upside down after landing on a Canadian runway.
“We’re committed to delivering more ‘unmanned’ flights like these,” a 2017 Endeavor Air tweet read. A photo of four women, two of whom appeared to be dressed as pilot and co-pilot, accompanied the tweet.
On the same day that a Delta Air Lines plane had a crash landing in Toronto, one of the company’s senior executives was quoted defending its diversity practices.
Delta Flight 4819 was involved in an accident at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Monday afternoon.
Pictures of the plane upside down on the runway swiftly went viral as the company revealed that there were 18 injuries, including two people in critical condition, but no fatalities.
Toronto was dealing with fast winds and winter weather at the time of the crash.
The incident came after multiple other high-profile aviation accidents and as the industry faces criticism for diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
Those dynamics were at play with the Toronto crash, as well.
In June 2018, then-Fox News host Carlson covered the topic, saying, “The Obama administration pressured the FAA to meet abstract diversity goals. Now nobody bothered to explain why diversity is a relevant criterion for air traffic controllers. No one will explain it now.”
Carlson explained that the FAA added a biographical questionnaire to the air traffic controller application process, which he said gave more points to would-be controllers who lacked a scientific background or who had been unemployed for the previous three years than they did to licensed pilots.
“In other words, the FAA actively searched for unqualified air traffic controllers. That is insane, and they knew it was insane when they did it, but they did it anyway,” he said.
In an email Carlson said he obtained, the executive who created the biographical questionnaire “admits that the test he devised has nothing to do with finding the best air traffic controllers. If you want good air traffic controllers, find people with experience. That was his advice. The FAA ignored this, and used the biographical screen anyway. … Compared to diversity, your safety meant nothing to them.”
Last year, I reported on a tip from a United pilot that a near-fatal incident in Houston was the result of a fired employee being rehired through their DEI program
I was told I was a lying racist.
The Houston 767 incident report is out. I was 100% right:
“The first officer’s training records showed inconsistencies in airplane handling as recent as a few months before the accident. He received an unsatisfactory performance rating and, upon re-evaluation, a satisfactory rating with a condition to recheck after 90 days (instead of 9 months). This was due to, among other things, marginal performance with landings.”
it’s not just in the ATC towers, it permeates the air travel industry. I want meritocracy to get on a plane. Give me the best and most qualified. Fuck their color or anything else. Be qualified
As The Daily Signal previously reported, under President Barack Obama’s administration, the FAA scrapped a skills-based test and a certification program, and replaced it with a biographical questionnaire to attract more diverse applicants to become air traffic controllers. The FAA previously drew most candidates from the military and a group of 36 colleges that offer air traffic control programs.
“The Obama administration implemented a biographical questionnaire at the FAA to shift the hiring focus away from objective aptitude. During my first term, my administration raised standards to achieve the highest standards of safety and excellence,” the Trump memorandum says. “But the Biden administration egregiously rejected merit-based hiring, requiring all executive departments and agencies to implement dangerous ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ tactics, and specifically recruiting individuals with ‘severe intellectual’ disabilities in the FAA.”
The memorandum continues: “On my second day in office, I ordered an immediate return to merit-based recruitment, hiring, and promotion, elevating safety and ability as the paramount standard. [Wednesday’s] devastating accident tragically underscores the need to elevate safety and competence as the priority of the FAA.”
Critics have said the policy that originated under Obama and was revived by former President Joe Biden gives more points to applicants who have not been employed for the past three years than to an applicant who has been a pilot or a veteran with an air traffic control-related military background. During his first term, Trump discarded the policy in 2018, but Biden reinstated it.
“When you are flying on an airplane with your loved ones—which everyone of us in this room has—do you pray that your plane lands safely and gets you to your destination?” Leavitt asked reporters rhetorically on Friday. “Or do you pray that the pilot has a certain skin color? I think we all know the answer to that question. As President Trump said yesterday, it’s common sense.”
The spokeswoman said the Trump administration still believes it is safe to fly in the United States. Still, she said, the memorandum is intended to “deliver accountability.”
Brad Mims, Deputy Administrator at the FAA in 2023:
"We need a diverse group of air traffic controllers to bring distinct perspective to handle the ever-changing aerospace landscape. I'm calling on students and alumni from HBCUs, Hispanic serving institutions, and tribal… pic.twitter.com/aTtWRI93v0
“In 2023, based on internal statistics at [the Federal Aviation Administration], there were 503 lapses of in-air traffic controller decisions, which was up to 65% over the previous year,” Kobach said. “And The New York Times reported also in 2023 that there were 300 near collisions in the preceding 12 months, which was double what it had been a decade earlier. So, these decisions about whom you hire have consequences.”
The attorney general then praised President Donald Trump’s immediate action against DEI initiatives.
“I think President Trump got it right when he immediately ended the DEI hiring in the FAA and in the air traffic controller world. But we want the best people. Whether it’s my pilot, my air traffic controller, or my surgeon, I don’t care what skin color they have,” Kobach said. “All I want is the most competent, skilled person because their decision could end my life in a second. I think most Americans would agree with that.”
In 2024 alone, FAA data reported that the Reagan Washington National Airport experienced at least eight near-midair collisions, according to The New York Times. The FAA has consistently said that due to a lack of air traffic controllers on the Eastern Seaboard, it has had to limit the number of flights allowed through the region.
The plane involved in the collision carried 60 passengers and four crew members. Three soldiers were on the helicopter, and it was reported that no one survived the incident. Newly confirmed U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that both aircraft were following their designated flight paths during the incident.
I hate to fly as it is. Now I trust it even less than before. Not to mention the DEI Air Traffic Controllers who can’t keep the planes from running into each other.
A small plane crashed near Northeast Philadelphia Airport on Friday — just days after a horrific midair collision in Washington, DC claimed the lives of 67 people, according to reports
The plane reportedly hit several buildings and cars before going down near the Roosevelt Mall near Cottman Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard just after 6 p.m., WPVI reported. Multiple casualties have been reported.
Video footage captured heavy smoke in the area with debris sprawled in the parking lot of the mall as local police and fire responded to the scene, according to footage captured by Fox29.
1 year ago 11 Republican Attorneys General wrote a letter to the Biden administration, expressing their frustration with the new DEI practices affecting the Federal Aviation Administration.
Recent Rash Of Crashes Turns 2024 Into Deadliest Year For Aviation Since 2018
The commercial aviation industry faced a turbulent week with four plane crashes, making this one of the deadliest years since 2018. The most shocking mid-air aviation disaster occurred on Sunday when a Jeju Air 737-800 jet crashed at Muan International Airport in South Korea.
Amid the latest mid-air mishaps and several others, onboard passenger fatalities on commercial flights have risen to 318 this year, according to Bloomberg, citing data from Cirium.
This marks the highest death toll since 2018, when 500 lives were lost—a year defined by the first of two fatal Boeing 737 Max crashes.
The landing gear failed. I bet the landing gear assembly crew were DEI hires.
(FOX NEWS) — A Jeju Air flight skidded off a runway in South Korea and collided with a concrete fence, killing 179 people, the Associated Press reported, citing the country’s National Fire Agency (NFA).
More Woke and DEI failure. How many planes are suspect though because of this going on for the last few years. It’s not like you can pull over on the side of the road. It’s why I don’t want to get on another Boeing plane.
Top airline manufacturer Boeing dissolved its global diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) division amid significant financial losses, union strikes and scrutiny over safety and production issues, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
The reorganization, which reassigned its DEI staff to Boeing’s employee experience division, reflects CEO Kelly Ortberg’s focus on consolidating operations as the company grapples with a number of problems, according to Bloomberg.
Sara Liang Bowen, who previously helmed Boeing’s DEI department, announced her departure on Thursday, Bloomberg reported. In a LinkedIn post, Bowen expressed pride in her team’s work, acknowledging both its challenges and accomplishments.
“The team achieved so much — sometimes imperfectly, never easily — and dreamed of doing much more still,” Bowen wrote in a farewell post on LinkedIn.
Critics argue such policies encourage discrimination by favoring certain demographics, and this scrutiny is part of a larger trend, with activists targeting corporations and calling for a shift away from DEI priorities, the outlet stated.
The National Transportation Safety Board issued “urgent safety recommendations” for some Boeing 737 planes including the 737 MAX.
The agency said that some flight controls can become jammed.
An actuator that is attached to rudders on some 737 NG (Next Generation) and 737 Max planes could not work, CNN reported. Pilots on board a United Airlines flight in February said their rudder pedals were stuck in a neutral position.
No one was hurt and the pilot controlled the aircraft using the nosewheel steering system, USA Today reported.
The actuator was manufactured by Collins Aerospace, according to the NTSB.
The issue crops up in cold weather.
“When the incident actuator and an identical unit from another airplane were tested in a cold environment, the actuators’ function was significantly compromised. Investigators found evidence of moisture in both actuators, which failed testing. Collins Aerospace subsequently determined that a sealed bearing was incorrectly assembled during production of the actuators, leaving the unsealed side more susceptible to moisture that can freeze and limit rudder system movement,” the NTSB said, according to USA Today.
There were more than 350 defective parts sent to Boeing but how many were used is not clear, The New York Times reported.
Collins Aerospace responded with a statement to the newspaper which read, “We have and continue to work closely with the N.T.S.B. and Boeing on this investigation. We are supporting Boeing and operators to mitigate operational impacts.”
The company said the actuator is part of a system that “includes layers of redundancy.”
The NTSB said Boeing had a procedure in place if the rudder jammed.
United Sets New Diversity Goal: 50% of Students at New Pilot Training Academy To Be Women and People of Color
United Airlines is only major U.S. airline to own flight school: United Aviate Academy
United Aviate Academy plans to train 5,000 new pilots by 2030 – at least 50% women or people of color
Scholarship commitments from United and JPMorgan Chase ensure highly qualified, motivated, eligible applicants won’t be turned away for financial reasons
United Aviate Academy now accepting applications; and aims to enroll first 100 students this year
As if I needed another reason not to fly, I don’t want unqualified pilots or mechanics. I want to get there safely and not crash.
Of course, DEI and woke ruin everything they touch. Get woke, go broke
First, it was unions, then DEI, and now unions again. No wonder they can’t keep their planes in the air or bring back astronauts from the ISS.
Boeing Management has let the company go to shit. Get rid of the unions and the diversity and build a plane that I trust getting on. Competition is a good thing, it makes better products at cheaper prices, unlike Unions.
SEATTLE—Boeing’s BA 0.89%increase; green up pointing triangle biggest labor union went on strike, halting production of its best-selling jets and dealing the latest blow to the struggling aerospace giant.
Thousands of machinists who build Boeing’s 737, 777 and 767 jets walked off the job shortly after midnight Pacific time Friday, after rejecting a labor deal struck between the union’s leaders and Boeing’s executives. The contract offered 25% wage increases over four years.
Union leaders of the 33,000-member International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers chapter said about 94% of their members voted to reject the contract and 96% voted to go on strike. The officials said they would seek to return to the negotiating table with the company.
The strike will deal a financial blow when Boeing is bleeding cash and piling up debt following January’s Alaska Airlines accident in which a door plug blew off a 737 MAX jetliner in midair. A prolonged stoppage threatens to further strain the industry’s supply chain and exacerbate jet shortages for airline.
If you won two free plane tickets, where would you go?
Nowhere.
Travel is such a piece of crap anymore (Crowdstrike anyone) that I’d prefer not to travel by air.
Let’s see, TSA hassle, waiting in lines to be in a tube with a bunch of people I’d never choose to be with, being a mule that has to haul around your life in a box while you are gone, no. Then going to places that I don’t really want to go to (or I would have) while having to live out of a suitcase.
On top of that, Boeing just paid mega millions for building faulty airplanes so I don’t trust them either (DEI anyone?).
Even if you had the total first-class package, the flight part is over relatively quickly and you are stuck somewhere until you can get home. You still have to wait in the airports and if there is a delay, you are as screwed as everyone else
This is like the travel question a few days ago. Get a nice summer house and enjoy a relaxing time
Instead of waiting at an airport with flights canceled by computer glitches, I’m up in the mountains where it is 30 degrees warmer than home. The food is grown on organic farms nearby and traffic is rare. The only sound I hear while typing this is birds chirping and my dog is at my feet.
I traveled for business for many decades. It was a time when you got service and comfort. Those are long gone now replaced by inconvenience and a general lack of concern by the service and travel industries.
There isn’t much to make me want to get on another cattle car to go wait in lines.
I also grew up in Central Florida before Disney World was built. I watched people pay exorbitant prices to wait for hours in the blazing sun for hours. I went at night or in the 2 weeks that are the Florida winter when my friends who worked there gave me tickets. That isn’t my idea of fun either.
I’d still like to hear from those who like it. It counter balances my position
I’ve been on vacations as a kid, with that family growing up. I was kind of a tag along and did what my parents decided mostly. We went to the beach a lot growing up in Florida. That meant I grew up next to Disney World. Heck, we didn’t even have Disney until 8th grade for me. My memories there are of playing alone next to the ocean in my own world.
Then came vacations with a different family, my wife and kids. We traveled around the world. They were good times that I’ll remember while taking one kid fishing everywhere and the other doing anything to keep her from being bored. There was no time to recover or recharge my social battery.
Later in life I did stuff like sailfishing in Costa Rica or going to F1 in Italy and again they were good, but stressful trying to catch planes and waiting in huge crowds. I still had to rush to catch planes and was a mule hauling luggage around the world.
As always though, my introvert self comes out. Vacations where you are always on the run and trying to make everyone happy wore my social battery out to the point that I’d need a vacation to recover from vacation.
Now, I just go to the mountains where there aren’t many people and I can relax without having people acting like tourists or waiting in line. I have my stuff in my place and I can do gardening and tree trimming out in field with no one telling me what to do.
Not having the next deadline or trying to catch the next plane is my favorite.
Photographs show that a central window pane is shattered with cracks in several areas, but investigators have been unable to determine what caused the damage.
🚨✈️ VIRGIN ATLANTIC BOEING WINDSCREEN CRACKS AT 40,000 FEET, FORCING RETURN TO UK
A packed Virgin Atlantic Boeing jet's windscreen cracked at 40,000 feet on a flight from Heathrow to San Francisco, forcing a return to the UK.
modern hotel thermostats are, in a word, a pain. Well over a decade ago, we noticed the kind of thermostat where you were supposed to put your room key into a slot to keep the air conditioning (and sometimes the electricity!) running, which meant when you were out of the room, your A/C wouldn’t run and when you got back, the room would be uncomfortable. That one was easy to override because just about ANY card worked in the slot ;-).
As modern technology got more advanced, they started building motion sensors into hotel thermostats, which meant that not only did you have to be in the room for the A/C to work, you had to be moving around…so if you were sleeping and woke up in the middle of the night, the room could be uncomfortable because unless they were sleepwalking, no one had moved around in several hours.
And then there are the thermostats with upper or lower limits that you can’t bypass so the room won’t get warmer or colder than the hotel wants. Oh great, that way we can be uncomfortable in our room while we’re wide awake, too!
Fortunately, electronic-savvy travelers have made it their business to figure out how to override these nuisance thermostats so we can be in our hotel rooms more comfortably. Here are some hacks we’ve found (only found; we haven’t “invented” any) for some of the most popular brands at some of the more popular hotels:
NOTE #1: Of course, the hotels don’t want you to mess with their thermostats. Besides potentially using up more energy than the hotel intended, you run the risk of breaking their thermostat, like these people did – and frankly, the hotel may or may not hold you responsible for the repair bill. Your Mileage May Vary as to whether it’s a good idea or not to try to bypass the controls set by the hotel – but if you think it’s OK, here are some ways to do it.
Remember when flying was the safest form of travel? Then came woke and DEI. I bailed on traveling this week because I hate the planes, the travel experience and their safety track record.
Twelve passengers and crew were injured on a Qatar Airways flight after a packed Boeing passenger jet plunged mid-flight.
Eight passengers aboard a commercial Boeing Dreamliner jet required hospital treatment upon landing in Ireland on Sunday.
The aircraft had reportedly suffered turbulence en route from Qatar, according to official statements.
“Qatar Airways can confirm that flight QR017 a Boeing B787-9 from Doha to Dublin has landed safely,” Qatar Airways stated in a post on X.
“A small number of passengers and crew sustained minor injuries in flight and are now receiving medical attention.”
The jet was on its way from Doha to Dublin when it began shaking as it flew over Turkey.
Airport authorities confirmed that the jetliner landed on schedule just before 1:00 p.m. at Dublin Airport.
“Upon landing, the aircraft was met by emergency services, including Airport Police and our Fire and Rescue department, due to 6 passengers and 6 crew [12 total] on board reporting injuries after the aircraft experienced turbulence while airborne over Turkey,” they said in a statement.
One dead, others injured due to severe turbulence on board a Boeing aircraft from London to Singapore.
UPDATE: The picture is today the video included is not from the Singapore Airlines flight today. Instead, it's from a flight from Pristina to EuroAirport Basel in 2019. pic.twitter.com/M1DMrkyVZD
‘Plus size travel’ activist calls out Seattle airport staff for making her walk up jet bridge, refusing to push wheelchair
Following a trip to Seattle, prominent “plus size travel” activist and self-described “proud fat girl” Jae’lynn Cheney claimed that her request to access a wheelchair service was ignored, and that she had been instead forced to walk up part of the jet bridge between the plane and the terminal.
In a TikTok video, Cheney alleged that when she deplaned, an employee was waiting, but upon realizing that she’d be pushing her, “started to walk away with the wheelchair while making comments about my size.”
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which handles claims of retaliation against workers who blow the whistle on their employer, received the complaints of retaliation between December 2020 and March of this year, according to a table of figures compiled last month by officials at the agency.
The documents, obtained exclusively by Al Jazeera via a freedom of information request, do not provide details of the alleged workplace violations or alleged retaliation by Boeing in each case.
However, 13 of the complaints were filed under a statute that protects whistleblowing related to aviation safety, specifically.
Bag and tag? Meet name and shame. Here’s a list of airlines ranked by bags mishandled per 100, or BMPH. FYI: All five airlines lose at least one bag per every 200 bags handled.
JetBlue (0.52 BMPH) — It’s been on my no-fly list since it moved my flight to an earlier time without warning.
Spirit Airlines (0.53 BMPH) — Anyone else think they’d be higher up on this list?
Alaska (0.57 BMPH) — No excuse for a smaller airline, IMO.
United Airlines (0.73 BMPH) — Who remembers the viral “United Breaks Guitars” video? So good.
And at No. 1: American Airlines (0.76 BMPH) — American sits at the top … of a massive pile of lost luggage. It misplaced 800,198 bags in 2023, or nearly one in every 100 bags it handled. Talk about emotional baggage.
One bright spot:
Without a single lost bag at Japan’s Kansai International Airport (KIX). Yup, officials there say they haven’t lost a customer’s bag since 1994. The workers confirm it but say it’s NBD; they’re just doing their jobs! I wish U.S. baggage handlers had the same idea — then, we wouldn’t need an AirTag in every bag!
h/t Kim Komando
I’ve all but given up on traveling. Whatever there is to see is not worth the hassle that comes along with it. For me, that goes beyond the airlines, it’s an introvert thing anymore, me wanting to be alone in my home.
Having to live the first part of your trip without luggage, the hassle of dealing with the airlines to find it and the delays on the other side of the trip is a big downer. I’ve done it.
I’ve been to Japan. It’s a 17 hour flight time trip, 24 including the airport waits. It was nice, but not worth it just to find a place that won’t lose my luggage.
Sure, it’s easy to say get woke and go broke, but when you have Bud Light, Target, Disney as real world examples it can ring true. They are all just different flavors of ass tasting ice cream.
Now we have Boeing and Ford.
FORD
Ford loses $132,000 on every electric car it builds, or $5 Billion a year. Henry Ford is turning in his grave.
First published JoNova; Ford CEO Jim Farley still plans to push forward with his loss making electric vehicle strategy. (dumbass)
Ford just reported a massive loss on every electric vehicle it sold
By Chris Isidore, CNN Updated 2:10 PM EDT, Thu April 25, 2024
New YorkCNN —
Ford’s electric vehicle unit reported that losses soared in the first quarter to $1.3 billion, or $132,000 for each of the 10,000 vehicles it sold in the first three months of the year, helping to drag down earnings for the company overall.
Ford, like most automakers, has announced plans to shift from traditional gas-powered vehicles to EVs in coming years. But it is the only traditional automaker to break out results of its retail EV sales. And the results it reported Wednesday show another sign of the profit pressures on the EV business at Ford and other automakers.
The EV unit, which Ford calls Model e, sold 10,000 vehicles in the quarter, down 20% from the number it sold a year earlier. And its revenue plunged 84% to about $100 million, which Ford attributed mostly to price cuts for EVs across the industry. That resulted in the $1.3 billion loss before interest and taxes (EBIT), and the massive per-vehicle loss in the Model e unit.
The losses go far beyond the cost of building and selling those 10,000 cars, according to Ford. Instead the losses include hundreds of millions being spent on research and development of the next generation of EVs for Ford. Those investments are years away from paying off.
And that means this is not the end of the losses in the unit – Ford said it expects Model e will have EBIT losses of $5 billion for the full year.
After stating that DEI/DIE was the most important part of their business, they just burned through $3.3 billion in one quarter cleaning up the mess:
Top jet manufacturer Boeing reported on Wednesday a net loss of $355 million in the first quarter after months of scrutiny over recent safety issues.
Operating revenue declined 8% year over year in the first quarter, from approximately $17.9 billion to $16.6 billion, with the company burning more than $3.9 billion in free cash flow in the time frame compared to $786 million a year ago, according to Boeing’s first quarter earnings report. Recent scrutiny of safety with Boeing products began in January after an Alaska Airlines flight had a door plug fly off mid-air, resulting in an emergency landing and an investigation into the company’s quality assurance.=
“Our first quarter results reflect the immediate actions we’ve taken to slow down 737 production to drive improvements in quality,” Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said in the report. “We will take the time necessary to strengthen our quality and safety management systems and this work will position us for a stronger and more stable future.”
Boeing reported an over $3.3 billion operating cash flow loss in the first quarter, compared to a $318 billion loss at the start of 2023, according to the earnings report. The decline in profits led to a core loss per share of $1.13 for shareholders in the first quarter, lower than the $1.27 loss in the same time frame last year.
There are only two companies in the world capable of building and exporting the largest type of civilian aircraft, the “jumbo jet”: Boeing and Europe’s Airbus.
Since 1992, Boeing has gone from enjoying 70% market share to falling behind Airbus in orders and manufacturing.
2/n
Manufacturing aircraft is very expensive and technically challenging.
Only about a thousand large civilian aircraft are sold every year, so margins are small despite government subsidies, unlike say cars or microchips.
Any advantage or efficiency is crucial.
3/n
It was thus disastrous when, in 2018-19, two new Boeing airplanes crashed, killing 345 people in total.
And, since January 2024, Boeing planes have seen a series of incidents, some nearly catastrophic, including a mid-air nosedive that injured over fifty people.
4/n
These two series of incidents are unrelated.
But both stem from succession failure: when the power and skills to succeed in a position within an organization are not passed down from one person to their successor, especially including tacit and informal knowledge.
5/n
Succession failure in the engineering offices caused the two fatal crashes, as Boeing ended up designing and then delivering planes that, essentially, were programmed to crash themselves during a particular set of circumstances.
Which they then did, twice.
6/n
To date, nobody has been held responsible for the series of fatal errors.
But that is because no error on its own was fatal, just the combination of them, which no engineer at Boeing recognized in time or had the authority to act on, if they did recognize it.
7/n
Boeing is not the same company it once was.
Its non-technical managers and executives favored new factories in South Carolina rather than its core Seattle factories, where experienced workers were unionized and more expensive.
Go here to find out about them trusting the MBA mentality instead of the people who knew how to build planes, solve problems and run a company.
They got infected by DEI also and woke ruins everything it touches
These days, the US aviation industry is like watching a disaster movie, but this is no film—it’s real life, and it’s unfolding right above us. The latest “movie disaster” unfolded on the runway in the DC Swamp. Two planes, one from Jet Blue and the other from Southwest, nearly collided. You could hear the panic crackling through the air traffic control tower as they scrambled to handle yet another near-miss moment.
southwest + jetblue planes nearly collided on the runway at Reagan airport in DC today
ATC directed the southwest plane to cross a runway where the Jetblue plane was already cleared to takeoff
Sadly, the situation in the control tower reflects this diversity emphasis, but not in the way we’d hope. The chaos up there sounds like it comes from a diverse group, alright—at least their panic is inclusive. The real trouble seems to circle right back to the left’s DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) agenda, which prioritizes charity over excellence. This shift in focus is hitting us where it hurts, turning our air traffic control towers into scenes from the movie “Airplane!” And that’s no joke for anyone who’s up in the air. This should scare the heck out of every single American traveler.
This will seem matter of fact for those who are introverts because it’s as normal as waking up. I thought that I’d write down the journey that I took to discover this pleasure.
Before I knew I was introverted (although I suspected it) I was traveling for business in the IT industry. My job rarely required a team so I found myself traveling alone a lot. While there was some sense of anticipation before the trip (that I’d learn to loathe), the return home was a recover trip from the people I had to deal with either in groups or one on one.
Inevitably, this would find me in an airport lounge/restaurant or a hotel before or after my business meeting with no one else in town. I’d already flown for hours while reading a book (before movies on flights and well before wifi), so dinner was just an extension of that.
I suppose I could have sought out others, but it was simpler and easier to eat and go back to preparing for my meeting or whatever the agenda was the next day. The people I was meeting usually lived in the city I was visiting so they had families. Once business was done, I had wrapped up any further association in my mind. If I had multiple meetings, I needed to plan for the next day so it was dinner alone usually.
I love to read and books have been my best friend before video games or electronic distractions on trips (and still are). I’d get lost on a spy novel and was identifying as the protagonist by mid flight on my way out of town. I was imagining myself as Edward X. Delaney, Jason Bourne or Mitch Rapp depending on the decade
To continue reading while eating seemed normal to me. I didn’t know it wasn’t, until people I worked with thought it was odd for me to order a table for one. Some of them refused to eat if they had to do it alone, but I wanted to eat and to not be bothered by conversation that was just banter. I could also be finished on my schedule rather than putting up with someone else’s agenda.
By now, I’d realized that if I ate alone, I didn’t have to mess with others during or afterwards. It started to become a pattern for me.
I also worked on the trade show tour, meaning you’d have to spend a week with people you never associated with back in your home city. It seemed obvious to me that I didn’t really want to eat with them, although protocol forced me to at times.
Since trade shows tended to be in towns with night life, like Las Vegas, at the end of the day the extroverts couldn’t wait to rev up to some drinking, gambling and other cavorting. I’ll get to that later.
As I transitioned to Analyst Relations, there were conferences that resembled the structure of a trade show. Work all day together and then be stuck in a city not home to anyone and most gravitated to socializing including eating together.
DRINKING
Alcohol is the grease in the gears of socializing. It turns introverts into extroverts if only even for a night. I did imbibe early in my career, but life decisions caused me to stop. It changed my socializing as dramatically as that decision.
I’d also gotten married by then and saw first hand the shenanigans that went on during travel. Almost 100% was fueled by drinking and nothing would have happened sober. So I looked at this as just another opportunity to be alone.
LET’S GO OUT!
At the end of the day in trade shows, in fact before the end of the day the topic of conversation was what bar, party, other place (strip club for some) they would all go to. While still a reader and having my social battery worn down by the end of the day (and knowing I’d have to face these people the next day(s)), I had to think of an escape to be alone. It of course was to recharge and to get away from people if only for a short time.
My counter offer was who wants to work out. I’d wait until they were neck deep in wanting to order their first drink so I knew full well I’d be rebuffed. Never once did anyone take me up on it. By then, my goal was to eat alone, not to accidentally wind up that way.
Now, even though I’m retired, I actively try to eat alone on travel, but also at home. I enjoy the nightly meal with the family left in my house, but I’m still as happy to read while eating. It doesn’t seem strange to me, but my extrovert friends and family don’t and never will get it.
Things I’ve learned.
It’s just fine to eat alone. Don’t be shamed into thinking there is anything wrong with it. Just like some people have to small talk or have company, others prefer the opposite.
You are never alone if you have a book. Surfing the web is quick and random. A book draws you out and can take time to develop the characters and affect your emotions.
If you learn to be ok by yourself, life will be a lot easier to manage.
On our way into Portland, our pilot was on final approach. A few hundred feet off of the ground, he pulled up and hit the power and I knew we were going around.
Later, he said over the intercom that even though we were cleared to land, there was another plane on the runway.
When I say hell, of course I mean Portland. It’s a shithole now. Oregon is beautiful, but for some reason all the shit not in California or Washington is in Portland. It’s the required trip to the family.
All I hear or read is about problems with Boeing jets, DEI in Air Traffic Control and parts falling off of jets because maintenance workers require diversity. I don’t want to get on a plane, but there is no way out. I figured the statistics are with me and if some shit does go down, my rare flights should exempt me.
When I get there, I’ll get to deal with a city rampaged by Antifa, BLM and many other miscreants. Other than SF, it is the homeless capital of the world, not to mention walking on the streets to the freak show and shit on the sidewalks.
I’ve scheduled some posts and meme’s to enjoy, including stories and observations of mine. It’s a look into my head when I put these out. I’ll cover introverts, the gym fashion show, sibling hell, lots of meme dumps and other stuff.
I may get a post in about my adventures while there, but no promises. Maybe I’ll keep some readers, like Ellie K, a new subscriber. With all the shit I post, I’m surprised she’s still there, but there you go.
The history of Boeing over the past thirty years is a story of a critical American institution that sold off its engineering culture and embraced an asset-light focus on margin instead of product vision, and then executed that strategy poorly. In 2024, Boeing is producing fewer planes than it did a decade ago and faces an onslaught of headlines about spectacular accidents, nagging regulators, and disappointing earnings.
A large part of the issues can be traced back to the Boeing-McDonnell Douglas merger in 1997. The deal seemed like a good idea at the time. By 1996, McDonnell Douglas commanded only 4% share in U.S. commercial aviation, and its production lines were languishing. Meanwhile, Boeing had a $100 billion backlog, and needed more assembly capacity to ramp deliveries and fulfill its orders. Yet in the event, the joke on Wall Street became that “McDonnell Douglas bought Boeing with Boeing’s money.” McDonnell Douglas CEO Harry Stonecipher and John McDonnell, the chair of McDonnell Douglas’ board, became the largest shareholders of the combined entity after a stock swap worth $13 billion and they brought McDonnell Douglas’ bureaucratic defense contractor culture of margin-focused, risk-averse financial engineering with them.
But DEI is only part of the problem. Historically, Boeing has achieved great results by centralizing authority and control in the hands of the most exceptionally talented engineers. Today, the culture at Boeing is the opposite: listening sessions with the downtrodden, coddling the broken, and tiptoeing around the oppressed. Authority diffused throughout an entire organization’s hierarchy is no authority at all; accountability to technical results becomes challenging, if not impossible, when managers are serving two masters.
Meanwhile, management is rearranging deck chairs to make them more diverse. In 2022, Boeing tied managers’ incentive compensation to the ‘diversity’ of their interview slates, meaning that their bonuses depended on whether or not they considered women, racial minorities, and the disabled for positions they were hiring for. In Boeing’s Global Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (GEDI) 2023 Report, Sara Bowen, vice president of GEDI, Talent Intelligence, and Employee Listening, wrote: “We know diversity must be at the table for every important decision our company makes — every challenge we face, every innovation we design. Equity, diversity and inclusion are core values because they make Boeing — and each of us individually — better.”
The continuing and almost daily airline incidents in recent weeks, with planes repeatedly being forced to make emergency landings because of mechanical failures, has too often been blamed by the media on Boeing and the airplanes it builds, when almost all of these mechanical problems have had nothing to do with that airplane manufacturer. Once Boeing sells a plane to an airline, it becomes the airline’s responsibility to maintain it and keep it airworthy. Boeing itself might have serious management and quality control problems making its new planes suspect, but when older planes fail it is not Boeing’s fault. For example, all of the recent failures at United were clearly due to failures of United’s own maintenance staff, failures quite likely instigated by that company’s decision since 2020 to make race and gender the primary qualifications for hiring, not skill, talent, or knowledge.
We are now seeing the same phenomenon at American Airlines (AA), which since December has experienced its own string of flight emergencies:
December 6: 2023: An Airbus plane made an emergency landing at Phoenix when the flight crew reported one of the plane’s flaps had failed.
December 6, 2023: A different Airbus was forced to return to Phoenix because of low oil pressure in one engine.
December 23, 2023: An Airbus A319-100 was forced to make an emergency landing because of a brake issue detected during take-off.
January 8, 2024: A Boeing 787 made an emergency landing in Los Angeles due to an as yet unclarified “mechanical issue.”
February 29, 2024: An Airbus A321 was forced to make an emergency landing when one engine stalled in flight and could not be restarted by the crew.
February 29, 2024: A Boeing 777-200 on its way to Madrid had to turn back to Boston due to a cracked windshield
March 11, 2024: An Airbus A321 had to turn back to Raleigh-Durham airport because a sensor told the crew a cargo door was still open.
March 13, 2024: A Boeing 777 made an emergency landing in Los Angeles when the crew detected low pressure in one of the landing gears.
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A United Airlines flight that departed from San Francisco International Airport Friday morning lost a panel, which was discovered after landing in Oregon, the Rogue Valley International Medford Airport confirmed to KRON4.
Flight 433 landed safely at Medford Airport around 11:30 a.m., according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The missing panel has not been found. At this time, it is unknown how the panel fell off the plane. No damage to the plane was reported, and normal airport operations resumed, Medford airport officials said.
United did not declare an emergency landing as there was no indication of damage to the aircraft during the flight. According to the airline, there were 139 passengers and six crew members on board. The plane involved was a Boeing 737-800.
This afternoon, United flight 433 landed safely at its scheduled destination at Rogue Valley International/Medford Airport. After the aircraft was parked at the gate, it was discovered to be missing an external panel. We’ll conduct a thorough examination of the plane and perform all the needed repairs before it returns to service. We’ll also conduct an investigation to better understand how this damage occurred.United Airlines Spokesperson
I can tell Boeing how it happened. It’s just like the others that just happened. When you hire based on diversity, you get crappy quality. Hire on meritocracy and the planes won’t fall apart in mid air. Don’t let it be lost that it was United, who leads the industry in this farce
Buried below are the words that the DHS allows illegals to fly without ID’s. That tells you a lot. They controlled groups of people in Germany during the 1940’s by putting them on trains and taking them to camps. This is the digital train ride.
According to the MSN, the CAT-2 scanners incorporate facial recognition technology by capturing real-time pictures of travelers and comparing them against their photo IDs. They will be expanded to every federal airport.
These units have been deployed at nearly 30 airports nationwide and are expected to expand to 430 federal airports in the coming years.
For now, it’s optional for passengers. How long will that be the case?
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Office of Field Operations, officers take biometric photos of passengers prior to boarding a flight at Houston International Airport on February 12, 2018. ..Photographer: Donna Burton
A bill, The Traveler Privacy Protection Act, has been introduced with bipartisan support. It calls for the government to end the invasive policy and stop expansion without congressional approval.
After the bill was announced, that’s about the time that DHS decided to move ahead.
Storage of the Biometric Data
According to MSN, “The TSA emphasizes that photos are not stored after a positive ID match, except during limited testing for evaluating technology effectiveness. This testing involves two to four weeks at specific locations, with data collected and submitted to the DHS Science and Technology Directorate for independent analysis.”
Allegedly, TSA won’t keep the data, but how long will Homeland Security and other entities keep it, and who can control what they do with it?
This is the DHS that lets illegal aliens fly without IDs. They aren’t trustworthy and don’t care about the safety of the people. So, why are they doing it?
It’s no secret that the US airline industry is currently plagued with scandal, fear, and a lot of turbulence. Much of the turmoil is linked to their obsessive focus on the left’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) agenda. DEI prioritizes factors like skin color, gender identity, and sexual orientation over actual skills and talent in their hiring process. Let’s look at four recent examples of failed DEI hires.
This is one of the craziest things I’ve ever read.
First, the FAA gave secret code words to students in the Black Caucus of Federal Aviation Employees to put in their resume that would skip them to the front of the line.
In another instance of the signals to go to the front of the line was to say the high school class you received your lowest grades in was “Science.”
Yes, they literally shot you to the front of the line if you said your worst grades were in Science.
I don’t even want to get on an airplane right now. Between DEI in the Air Traffic Control and woke pilots, not to mention sudden deaths from the Covid Jab the pilots were forced to take, it’s a gamble now to fly.
A new report from AAR Corp., a company that provides aviation services to commercial and government operators, MROs, and OEMs, warns that the aircraft mechanic shortage has reached a critical point.
The company’s 2023 Mid Skills Gap report urges employers to “break down silos” and collaborate with high schools, colleges, non-profit organzations, and elected officials to expand early access to aviation maintenance curriculum and training.
“Mid skills” describes careers that require industry certifications but not a college degree, including aviation mechanics, according to officials with AAR, which has been putting together the report since 2011.
The 2023 report includes several suggestions to increase the number of aviation mechanics, including:
Work with lawmakers and state agencies, nonprofits and educators to launch a national campaign to raise awareness of aviation careers.
Encourage training programs to teach people with industry experience how to instruct others to build the faculty population.
Ask lawmakers to pass common sense immigration policies that allow aviation companies to recruit talent from abroad to meet demand and keep airplanes flying safely.
Make it easier for veterans to quickly transition their skills to appropriate industry jobs.
Push to eliminate restrictions on AMTs taking the FAA general exam as pilots can do with their written exams. Getting these exams completed early will lead to increased certifications for the industry, officials noted.
Increase training capacity by creating programs to make experienced retirees instructors in education programs.
So far, no airliner passengers have died from air traffic control DIE. But The New York Times has been running a long series of hair-rising articles about recent near misses due to bad air traffic control, such as:
How a Series of Air Traffic Control Lapses Nearly Killed 131 People
Two planes were moments from colliding in Texas, a harrowing example of the country’s fraying air safety system, a New York Times investigation found.
Why? There’s a shortage of air traffic controllers who make it through training, so the ones who do are overworked. The Timesreports:
Yet training is difficult; many aspiring controllers fail…. From 2011 to 2022, the number of fully certified controllers declined more than 9 percent, even though traffic increased. Based on targets set by the F.A.A. and the union representing controllers, 99 percent of the nation’s air traffic control sites are understaffed.
A lot of industries were getting by before Covid by keeping competent baby boomers employed into their dotage. But air traffic controllers have a mandatory retirement age of 56, so the oldest controllers are now Gen-Xers born in 1967. The coming Competence Crisis is on track to hit air traffic control earlier than many other professions.
But of course there’s no mention in the Times of how the Obama administration sabotaged the old test for selecting the most promising candidates for training in order to hire more blacks. That’s just too off-narrative for Times subscribers. They don’t pay good money to have their worldview about who are the Good Guys and who are the Bad Guys in any and all situations undermined.
Many naive people assume, after all these generations, that affirmative action doesn’t mean lowering standards, it just means what it was originally sold as in the mid-’60s: expanding recruitment to find nontraditional diamonds in the rough.
The CEO of Alaska Airlines said new, in-house inspections of the carrier’s Boeing 737 Max 9 planes in the wake of a near-disaster earlier this month revealed that “many” of the aircraft were found to have loose bolts.
In an exclusive interview with NBC News senior correspondent Tom Costello, Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci discussed the findings of his company’s inspections so far since the Jan. 5 incident, in which a panel on one of its Max 9 jets blew out midair on a flight carrying 177 people.
“I’m more than frustrated and disappointed,” he said. “I am angry. This happened to Alaska Airlines. It happened to our guests and happened to our people. And — my demand on Boeing is what are they going to do to improve their quality programs in-house.”
So, as I predicted in 2008, after a moderate first term helped Barack Obama get reelected in 2012, in 2013 Obama let loose his people to pursue their agenda of Diversity-Inclusion-Equity (DIE).
White House officials decided in 2013 to purge the hiring list of over 1,000 graduates of the air traffic control course at colleges like Arizona State who had also passed the cognitive exam for hiring. Instead, it made air traffic control job-seekers start over with a new “biographical” test to “add diversity to the workforce.”
This was in response to complaints from the National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees that only 9.47 percent of FAA workers were black compared with 17.6 percent in the federal civilian workforce. “Thus, the FAA would be required to increase their complement of African American workers by 8.13 percent to reach parody [sic] with the Federal Civilian Workforce.”
This is not a parody.
The Obama administration’s new biographical test was blatantly rigged to boost blacks and hurt whites by leaning in to anti-black stereotypes. From the lawsuit against the FAA filed by the Mountain States Legal Foundation:
…a candidate could be awarded 15 points, the highest possible for any question, if they indicated that their lowest grades in high school were in science…. In contrast, an applicant was awarded only 2 points if they had a pilot’s certificate and no points were awarded for having a Control Tower Operator rating or having Instrument Flight Rules experience…. In addition, one question on the Biographical Questionnaire awarded an applicant 10 points, the most available for that question, if the applicant answered s/he had not been employed in the prior three years. Another question awarded 4 or 8 points if the applicant had been unemployed five or more months in the prior three years. Statistics from the Department of Labor indicate that African Americans had the highest unemployment rate in 2010–2014.
Even the federal organization that made up this absurd biographical test reported to the FAA that it hadn’t been validated.
I’ve never wanted to get on a plane less than I do right now. They have crazy people in Air Traffic Control with mental issues and DEI ruining aircraft maintenance. A pilot who couldn’t qualify other than through diversity almost crashed his plane because he shouldn’t have been flying to begin with.
Diversity and woke ruins everything it touches, but in this case a plane is coming down soon because some assholes think that equality and diversity is more important than skill and training.
I drove over the holidays to see some family. It was only 4 hours, but in the time, I passed a double digit number of cars abandoned on the highway with highway patrol stickers on them.
What did they have in common? They were all either pieces of shit or treated like shit. How these people even attempted to take a trip is beyond me.
I get if that what you have is all you can drive, but at least have the car checked before you leave. It costs way more to have it towed and to have your means of getting to work out of commission.
It’s cheaper and a hell of a lot less hassle to deal with to rent a car for a long trip if yours isn’t going to make it. Hell, Jiffy Lube will tell you if your POS needs something fixed when they try to up sell you from an oil change.
For the rest of us that made it, those cars broken down by the side of the road cause traffic to mess up or slow down unnecessarily.
Moral of the story, don’t ruin your trip, your next week(s) and our trip when it’s easier to take care of your vehicle properly.
I dated a flight attendant who survived the Dallas Crash where they discovered wind sheer. She made it when only about 30 of 300 survived. She was at the back of the plane. I read that you have a better chance of surviving statistically in the back of a crashing plane.
I’d just rather not crash.
I’m exercising my Covid excuse not to go somewhere right now by just not flying.
I have relatives in Denmark. In my last visit, I got a lesson about how the Nordics were better because of Jante’s Law.
Definition:
Jante’s Law describes a set of cultural norms common in Nordic countries emphasizing collective well-being and group accomplishments, and disapproval of touting individual victories.
The concept of the Law of Jante—Janteloven in Denmark, Jantelagen in Swedish, Jante laki in Finnish and Jantelögin in Icelandic—while it is simply a part of the cultural oxygen that everyone here breathes, was laid out in stark terms in a 1933 book called “A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks” written by Danish-Norwegian author Axel Sandemose.
In it, Sandemose satirically conjectures that Danes are so happy because their highest aspiration is to be average, and he mocks the fictionalized small town people from the village where he grew up.
People with low expectations always achieve them.
EUROPE’S FAVORITE SPORT
Of course we then got into the favorite sport of Europe. Some think it is Soccer/Football, but it really is America bashing. Wherever I go in Europe, that place is always better than in the USA, the food, the culture, the history or whatever. I get told this while they are wearing Levi’s, smoking Marlboro’s and drinking Coke. Because of Jante, life was better there.
When I’d had enough, I pointed out that there was this muslim problem in their country. They call them the new Danes. Those are the one’s not born there. They immigrated, but won’t assimilate, won’t speak the language (or if they do, not properly, the biggest sin to be discriminated against) and suck off the hind teat of social welfare. Since I pointed out the obvious, I got no push back.
PREDICTING THE BOW AND ARROW ATTACK
I got an earful about gun murders in the US and other problems we had. I was told how guns were outlawed in the Nordics so this wasn’t a problem in the hygge place.
I finally broke and said that human nature is not equal. Some are more naturally gifted intellectually, athletically and with more good or evil in their motivations.
My statement in 2016 was if you take away the guns, they’ll use a bow and arrow. If you take that away, they’ll use a knife. If you take that away, they’ll use a stick. People are not equal and that is behind America’s Exceptionalism. It’s also behind the hate of the attack yesterday.
I’ve never been popular with them, being the only real American they are related to. I decided to not make myself less popular, only because of respect for my wife and ended the conversation.
Within days, this happened in the UK, where guns are banned.
Human nature doesn’t change. Love and hate don’t change either.
OSLO—Several people were killed and others were injured by a man using a bow and arrows to carry out attacks in the Norwegian town of Kongsberg on Wednesday, local police said.
“The man has been apprehended … from the information we now have, this person carried out these actions alone,” police chief Oeyvind Aas told reporters.
“Several people have been injured and several are dead,” Aas said. He declined to comment on the number of casualties.
The attacker was a radicalized Dane who randomly shot at people. The reason will come out, but won’t be reported in the mainstream media (MSM).
I don’t think this guy was even a New Dane. The story says he was radicalized.
This morning, William Shatner will ride aboard Blue Origin at 90 years of age to be the oldest person ever in space. He missed being the first actor in space by a week as the Russians did that to shoot a movie.
Anyone who knows Star Trek fully gets that the red shirts are the ones who get it on away missions.
He isn’t the first Star Trek Alumni to go to space, just the first one that is alive. Some ashes of Scottie and Gene Roddenbery were sent up a few years back.
There is always the Who is the best Star Trek captain or best series. I am in the TOS camp. The rest use the TOS playbook, but with less daring, panache, creativeness and conquest. For Picard, Sisko, Janeway and Archer fans, they wouldn’t be Captains in the running if there wasn’t a Kirk, end of story.
Even in the movies, the best one is always the Wrath of Khan. It has the best villain, ironic ending and mano a mano story.
I have been a huge Trekkie all of my life. I was alive and watched it during it’s actual first run. When Chekov discovered the Botany Bay on Ceti-Alpha 5, I had goose bumps in the Theater.
The only thing that bothers me about this is that the Enterprise NCC-1701 was a cool ship. Blue Origin looks like a flying dick.
I get to make a long drive today. This is what it’s going to look like in feeling except I’m alone. I first thought that this guy was by himself, but I’ll pretend it’s his dog, who would probably be a helluva lot more quiet.
FWIW, I’m looking to get another truck after I’m through with my current car. I’ve enjoyed them every time I’ve owned one. You get to sit up high and see everything. You are also further away from others that way.
The partner next to me today will be no one. My company is an audible book. The title is Algorithm’s to live by, by Brian Christian. It is mind blowingly complex thinking, but really helps you in life and will turn your mind internally by a mile.
I do get to see the rest of my family and dog when I get there and look forward to it. I love them, but being alone lets me re-charge my social energy.
Delusions of Adequacy 
