Safety and Accountability

In Aviation 

Without Accountability 

There is No Safety

There is No Security

There is No Justice

If anyone is wondering why tires are falling off planes, pilots are skidding off the runway, engines are burning up due to ingested plastic,  women are being sexually harassed and raped, and individuals are killing themselves in the airline industry, it all comes down to one thing. Accountability. Or rather...lack of. 

Unfortunately there is no accountability in Aviation because the FAA is the tail wagged by the airlines, laws protect the rich and powerful, and bad behavior is allowed to continue. Professionalism be damned. 

There was a time that the NTSB released the cockpit voice recordings. When the public knows what's going on, they speak out and change happens. Today the voice recordings are not released to the public.  Robert Sumwalt's February 7, 2023 article, The Full Story of the CVR explains why.  He stated in that article: 

"By law, NTSB is prohibited from releasing the actual audio recording. This is the result of events following the August 1988 crash involving Delta 1141 at DFW Airport. NTSB found the pilots failed to set the flaps before takeoff and crashed immediately after liftoff. Following a year-long Freedom of Information Act battle with a local Dallas TV station, a judge ordered NTSB to release the actual recording. It was played on the air. To put it mildly, it was a bombshell. There was nearly 8 min. of what the official NTSB transcript described as “non-pertinent conversation between the flight crew and flight attendant” who was visiting the flight deck during taxi-out.

However, the actual recording revealed that content wasn’t non-pertinent at all. It revealed the extent of the crew’s unprofessional and casual attitude. ″We forgot to discuss about the dating habits of our flight attendants so we could get it on the recorder in case we crashed. Then the media would have some kind of a juicy tidbit,″ one crew member said. “We gotta leave something for our wives and children to listen to.″

How could anyone assert that the content of their language wasn't pertinent? This crews' unprofessional attitude was at fault for this accident. Unfortunately when we don't hold people accountable, nothing will change. Isn't professionalism something we expect of our flight crews, airline management, and aircraft manufacturers? If you haven't done so yet, you should read Dr. Tony Kern's book "Going Pro The Deliberate Practice of Professionalism" Unfortunately, professionalism has fallen off the grid. 

Today, not even the attorneys get to listen to the CVR to defend passengers or employees because airlines erase it, and by the time litigation gets to discovery, it's too late. There is no accountability. The legal process takes too long. But, as they say, "boys will be boys" and "what happens in the flight deck stays in the flight deck." But should this be allowed to continue?

Last week I joined a hearing via zoom regarding the continuation of Christine Janning case against SWA who was assaulted by the naked masturbating pilot. Sara Hammel wrote a detailed and shocking article on The Landing regarding this case. But what I learned from that hearing is that there is no accountability. 

During the hearing it was clear that nobody was arguing against what transpired. Not the union. Not the company. Not even Michael Haak. But they are arguing semantics and how the complaint was written. They are all vying for a legal loophole to remain unaccountable and if they get away with this, the behavior continues. 

This is not the first time Captain Haak behaved badly. This is the culture of SWA. Remember the story of the two pilots who were fired at SWA for flying naked and were terminated? The first part is true... they were flying naked, the second part is that they both got their jobs back. And how could that happen? Because, it wasn't fair that others were doing far worse at the airline, so claimed Captain Jim Austin. He also knew all the bad actors and he deposed the parties involved, providing a detailed record. At this point, I will just show the highlights of one, of many documents, from a hearing of which Captain Brink Cobb, the Union Grievance Chairman was testifying. 

Naked Pilots. Blow Jobs. Fights. Threats. Racial Attacks. FBI. Breaching Secure Areas and more...

Following was asserted in the transcripts. Only those with arrest records and FBI investigations have been fully investigated. These are the words from Captain Jim Austin and Captain Cobb's hearing. 

None of the Following Pilots 

Were Disciplined or Discharged!

• CA Jim Austin - Reported and investigated by SWAPA and SWA for flying naked while at controls of aircraft. (Flight attendant reported them Redacted).

• CA John Boobas - Reported and investigated by SWAPA and SWA for flying naked while at controls of aircraft. (Flight attendant reported them Redacted).

• CA Sumner Wyall - Reported for flying naked while at controls of aircraft.

• CA and Chief Pilot - Steve Dalton - Reported for flying naked while at controls of aircraft.

• CA Rick Duke and Chief Pilot and Management Check Airman - Reported for oral sex while at controls of aircraft from Flight Attendant Redacted.

• CA and Check Airman Tom Lakin - reported for being drunk and exposing himself and “ball walking” through the lobby of the Ontario hotel.

• CA Sam Cohn - Reported for having oral sex in an airport jetway.

• CA TJ Rueschenberg - Reported and investigated for assault of Flight Attendant Redacted.

• Nevada court records show captain Rueschenberg was charge with two counts of sexual assault, and over the course of a year, entered an Alford guilty plea in criminal court for his conduct. 

• TJ Rueschenberg won his grievance hearing and was reinstated at Southwest. 

• CA John Priess - Investigated by FBI for hate crimes/racial violence and threatening an African American Flight Attendant (Flight attendant was paid 7 figures for her silence, but nothing happened to Priess.)

• Management pilots CA John Otiker and CA Bob Torti raced their cars in Dallas HDQ parking lot and crashed, penetrating the Dallas Love Field Airport security boundary fence and prompted an Federal investigation for the security breach.

• CA Alan Tellam Phoenix pilot got in fist fight in employee parking lot with another pilot and threatened to kill him. 

• CA Don Renfro was being stalked by ramp agent got in fist fight in PHX employee parking lot, and the ramp agent was never disciplined. 

Good Moral Character?

To hold an ATP a pilot must be of good moral character. Morality is subjective and depends upon who the judge and jury are. But... an arrest record for assault and the Captain speaks volumes. How is this even possible? The bottom line is that this behavior does not belong in the flight deck, and I can't imagine what the pilots would do if they were naked and an emergency occurred. Would they deal with the emergency or get dressed first, sacrificing the safety of the passengers?

Imagine if SWA Flight 1380 had not been Captained by Tammie Jo Shultz and her amazing first officer, Darren Elliser? What if a couple of SWA naked management pilots were up there instead, or one or both were getting blow jobs when the fan blade took out the window, a passenger, and half their systems were not functioning. I would imagine the outcome of that flight would have been quite different. If you have not read this book you should and you will see the need for professionalism at all times, especially when you least suspect it. 

 

Captain Jim Graham perjured himself in court on multiple accounts, he violated federal law, so says the judge and the administrative review board, both of which indicates lack of morale character.  I filed a report with the FAA, and yet he was promoted to CEO of Endeavor... proving that lying and violating federal regulations in the industry is okay. The FAA did nothing. The FAA has done nothing to reach out and place a thumb on this behavior at any of the airlines.  Yet, if a pilot has one glass of wine at their daughter's wedding and gets a low level DUI, despite never drinking otherwise, they will be classified as an alcoholic, placed in the HIMS program and their life destroyed, as the FAA designates them an alcoholic. Where is the justice. 

The Future

What happens with Christine's case, and others like hers, will dictate the longevity of the piloting profession. Pilots, managers and CEOs who behave with such lack of professionalism are placing lives in danger. Southwest Airlines and SWAPA (Southwest pilot association) should end this, and say enough is enough. Hold your people accountable. Set an example. Move on. Everyone has been bought off to silence the facts, and now they might just escape.  

After observing the efforts of both SWAPA and SWA to avoid accountability, I think Christine could file a discrimination case against the company for treating her different than all these men, and another against the union for not supporting her in the same manner they did her male counterparts. The reason for these new claims would be to present this new evidence. Now that she has new information to base her claim, and the statute of limitations clock starts anew. Then all this trash gets made public. Unless of course the parties involve want to simply do the right thing. 

I want to thank Captain Jim Austin for enabling these events to come to light. While he profited from his bad behavior, the transcripts he made available will hopefully help stop this behavior in the future. Time will tell. 

AIR21 The Whistleblower Law 

If you haven't done so yet, please sign the petition to change the AIR21 statute. The solution to eradicating bad behavior is to hold people accountable. 

Dr. Karlene Petitt
PhD. MBA. MHS.
A350, B777, A330, B747-400, B747-200, B767, B757, B737, B727