An American Airlines pilot operating flight 1479 from El Paso to Phoenix has quite a run in with air traffic control. He consistently fails to read back instructions, and gets grumpy – and later passive aggressive – as controllers try to avoid confusion.
- When air traffic control gives an instruction to “American 1479,” then you acknowledge the instruction with “American 1479.” That way everyone knows the instruction is read by the correct aircraft.
- And when you’re given a runway assignment for visual approach at an airport that has more than one runway, you read back which runway you’re planning to land on! We’ve seen recent incidents of planes having to go around too close to the last minute when attempting a landing on an occupied runway. And we’ve seen an American Airlines 777 cross the wrong runway in front of a departing Delta 737.
When Phoenix approach tells the pilot of this flight, “expect [runway] 25L” the pilot repeats “25L” but doesn’t acknowledge with his call sign. Then the pilot is offered runway 26, which is accepted – again no call sign. The controller has to remind him to “verify that’s you.”
Then when the pilot is given clearance for visual approach to runway 26, he acknowledges “Cleared for the visual approach, American 1479.” This time he used the callsign – but didn’t repeat which runway he was supposed to land on.
The pilot did not like being called out on this stuff,
Uh, we got a communication problem. Are you hearing this radio clear? Because I’m saying what I need to say but something’s not happening.
And the controller offers to have a very serious conversation on arrival:
American 1479, if you need a phone number, you can call in and we can talk about the case, but you misread the last three transmissions without a callsign and without a runway assignment. You need a phone number?
The American pilot responded, “I am not gonna waste my time.” But he immediately starts a throw down with the next controller once he’s talking to the tower. He very slowly articulates his callsign (American 1479). He’s given clearance to land, offering more sass in response, and the (new) controller says “Are you okay? You seem very hostile.”
This just isn’t the calm, measured demeanor you want at the controls. I share this because it was riveting to listen to and because what really struck me here is, you’re worried about diversity hiring being what leads to less than the best in the cockpit?
(HT: JonNYC)
We’re all entitled to bad days. He could have just found out his wife was cheating on him or whatever.
BUT that’s no excuse. You’re a professional with many souls on board and you have to act like it at all times. That’s why we trust pilots with our lives.
This is bad.
Diversity hiring isn’t about putting unqualified people in jobs just to achieve diversity. It’s about NOT just assuming that white men are the most qualified for a job.
@Christopher Raehl – when done well or correctly that is accurate.
@Mike – when you’re having a bad day you need take yourself out of the cockpit. It’s hard to have that level of self-awareness!
The funny part is once he’s on the ground tower gives him the phone number anyway…
Actually, it sounds like this guy may be a diversity hire… Honestly though, who cares? Everyone has bad days where things get under your skin easily. The controllers who’ve normalized accepting mediocre read backs are the root cause, happens all the time and most never bat an eye.
I remember United’s Live ATC Channel 9 – seems that when its not busy, some pilots & controllers will leave out “repetitive” information when its obvious. OTOH I’ve heard the JFK stuff and they most certainly leave off callsign except for flight #. I have a feeling that’s happened here with this pilot… ATC was not very forgiving about it too… so they both dug in their heels.
Am I the only one who thinks FAA needs to get involved here? This guy is endangering safety by not following protocol
@haolenate: When I was current as a private pilot (in another millennium) it was common to abbreviate a call sign after first use. I might be “Cessna 714XY” on first contact on a frequency and just “4XY” thereafter. Leaving the airline off the call sign is similar. But I had to give at least the abbreviated call sign to prevent confusion.
The tower gave him the number and the magic words “pilot deviation”. Could not tell from the context if it was him that might have a deviation or someone else whose deviation made him mad. Either way someone is going to get to have some very not fun conversations with some very serious FAS folks…
Highly unprofessional for someone who gets paid a lot of money to be professional. He should really be pulled from the cockpit and counseled to see if he is pilot material. Somebody like that risks creating a mini Tenerife.
American 1479 is passive aggressive and hostile and “doesn’t want to waste [his] time.”. 9 times out of 10 that’s an entitled middle aged white guy approaching retirement. That maybe different in the air, but that’s what it’s like here on the ground
Fire him. Period.
Ugh. Another entitled white guy, the worst. Expects everyone to cater to him and when they don’t he’s a victim. I bet he wears a red hat on weekends. POS. I’m surprised he doesn’t ask for the manager.
@Doug walker
You sound like you suffer from a major case of white envy.
A lot of people think they can get away from following proper protocol because it shouldn’t apply to them due to an entitled attitude. It is similar to people not following police commands. This pilot needs to go in for unpaid retraining. I’ll bet the pilot will not do this again if the retraining is rigorous enough.
Probably legacy America West.
They were the deets of the industry for so long that only the worst worked for them.
He has an Aussie accent, for what it’s worth. Don’t think he’s a diversity hire, but a pissed-off dude with an attitude.
kimmiea, that is a british accent
@Return: I’m English. Beckingham, Kent. And you?
Leave it to View from the Right Wing to politicize something after reporting it relatively factually. What’s diversity have to do with what this pilot did?
@Return, sorry, I wasn’t meaning to sound testy, but a Brit to a Brit. And it’s Beckenham, but my mobile doesn’t know the difference 😉
Cheating..funny! I thought of divorce 1st thing. Worst Captains I flew with were in the middle of a divorce. Knowing they are going to be taken for 50% to 80% of their lifelong earnings put them in foul moods & very distracted.
This whole Notion that he’s a diversity hire thus his attitude is just Dumb. I actually know the guy. He’s an acquaintance of a friend. He’s retiring next year thus could care less I suppose. He’s 64 and NOT a diversity hire. He’s white. Not that race should even be a topic of discussion, but I couldnt ignore the ignorance of the guy who said he’s a diversity hire thus why he’s grumpy. Like cmon
@Rich As a pilot flying a little Cessna yes, after initial contact, with your current controller, it’s common to drop the Cessna, Piper etc and the full call sign and say “2CV” if that’s the last 3 on the tail. But, it’s 100% never acceptable for a commercial flight to drop the carrier before their call sign. DL, AS, AA etc could be operating the exact same flight numbers and the Controller needs to hear the carrier in front of it.
@Gary, Please explain how he takes himself out of the cockpit when he has a bad day? Does he just pull over on the side of the road, declare an “emotional support” emergency and request to land at the closest airport???? SMH
This pilot was 100% in the wrong and the one thing you never want is a phone number by the controller with the words “possible pilot deviation.”
But what’s worse, is the conversation he’s going to have with the Chief Pilot.
Weird that folks think I’m calling out this pilot as a diversity hire, when the point is the opposite. Focus on DEI and pilots is misplaced, and this guy is an example of why.
Wow
Back to the days when everything is brown people’s fault
“ Actually, it sounds like this guy may be a diversity hire…”
What the hell does that even mean? Please enlighten us.
The vast majority of pilots are white men
The vast majority of ATC are white men
The vast majority of Boeing execs are white men
They’re all white men
And yet DEI is somehow obviously the problem.
Ahhh yes. I forgot.
White men = amazing in every way
The rest of us are diversity hires and inferior
On a serious note
Many people don’t understand that having a high IQ has nothing to do with your emotional stability or behavior
Being smart does not mean that you’re not an ass.
Being smart does not mean that you can control your emotions.
Look at Elon Musk.
These callbacks prevent accidents, and are thus important
Failure to do these is problematic
Maybe he is grumpy BECAUSE he has to fly with a diversity hire. I was a pilot for a minor airline who had the pleasure of flying with a “diversity” hire. Couldn’t fire him because that is racism. Only could let him control the aircraft during clear DAYS (never at night) and wind either calm or down the runway. I couldn’t wait for the month to be done as it was exhausting having to perform all the work as he missed radio calls constantly and needed several read backs to get the clearance right. I had to take a 6 month recurrent check with this guy who was doing his one year probationary ride. He could not even fly an ILS approach with both engines operating with a flight director (just a basic warm up maneuver before the fun stuff like engine fires and jammed controls). To give him more time, instructor told me I was going to fly now and got an engine failure right after takeoff. Instead of following procedure, Mr. DEI, without any announcement or command from me, reaches over and pulls the good engine back to idle which causes us to crash. He fails his check and I am told to get rescheduled for another check. They gave this guy 10 TEN additional sim sessions and still could not pass. Got fired and company immediately sued for discrimination.
Second story…Had a girl who could not pass the simulator portion of the check so they said she could do it in the airplane as the sim was just a catagory C and we did an 85-15 in the sim and finished in the airplane. On takeoff, engine was simulated failed and she pushed the WRONG rudder. If the instructor hadn’t been on his toes they would have crashed. She failed the check…six days later she is in class at Fed Ex.
I can understand why some may initially feel like this is much ado about nothing. If that’s you, check out the details of the Tenerife Air Disaster, which was caused by a confident, experienced man (KLM’ airlines chief instructor, actually) who did exactly this sort of thing with take-off communications. With a couple of assumptions and miscommunications he caused the destruction of 2 747’s and
the horrific deaths of 583 people. including himself.
The “Cautionary Tales” podcast recently did an excellent two parter on that story.
The entitled pilot needs to be docked pay and suffer consequences for this.
Well what about a little tic for tac.
American 1479 sky harbor Tower.
Descend an maintain 5000 feet.
That’s what I remember from fourth years ago.
Of course, *from reading the comments, it is apparent that the real issue is not the words that were spoken or to whom but the race of the people involved. Finally, we have people brave enough to speak truth. Actions do not matter, words, intentions, thoughts and ideas are all absolutely inconsequential when weighed against the race of their source. Phenomenal logic. Just.. breathtaking. *sigh
So, you take a white man illustrating a disregard for safety related communication and authority (two major no nos in aviation) as a reason that we shouldn’t take steps to assure qualified candidates who aren’t white men get jobs? How does that work there Gare?
Nice way to slide in totally unnecessary reference to diversity hiring. At least I know what is driving your worldview now.
And what do you think that is @Squaky?
Who brought up WOKE junk.
The AA driver was WRONG!
Work with the Controller and if there is a problem, settle it ON THE DECK !
I did NOT comment on this situation in the past ??????
Is his nickname Kiwi? If so, I have stories!
Wow, most of the commenters here need to re-read the last paragraph of the article, or take a class on reading comprehension. What Gary said about diversity hires is not what you thought he said. Allow me paraphrase: People should not be worrying about diversity hires, they should be worrying about people like this pilot.
All…keep in mind that responses you are hearing from Flt 1479 are coming from two different sides of the cockpit. It isn’t entirely clear to me, but after nearly 40 years of flying for this outfit, I would venture that the PF (pilot flying) was the Captain & the quickly belligerent pilot with an accent was the PM (pilot monitoring). When you do not communicate every piece of information the controller needs to hear back, you are making their job difficult and adding unnecessary risk to the equation. Sometimes the other pilot will say something you don’t want them to say. Controllers tend to look at a flight as being one pilot, but it is two or more personalities up there and many times the fellow that squeezes the mic button say’s stuff the other guy doesn’t agree with. In the end, I believe the Captain of this flight took over the situation on taxi in and I’m near certain there were unpleasant repercussions with attitude adjustments for the offending pilot. All the stuff about DIE from some is just ignorant. Being a master of the air is not exclusive to white males. I’ve flown with MANY underrepresented women and people of color and would put their skillset up against any other person. The airplane is blind and does not care who is providing the surety at the controls.
As a commercial pilot for 45 years, I don’t see any reason for the Brasher warning. Seems excessive.
This is what happens when you have inexperience in the cockpit. I see it and hear it every trip. We are about to have a generation of pilots who do it (not very well) for the money rather than having a passion for flying. Keep the experience in the cockpit or these kids are gonna kill hurt some people!
@el pecee
Exactly! I had to read the author’s line a few times to realize that. He should really edit his article and use your exact wording.
If I were his chief pilot and caught wind of this, I’d bring him in, write him up and send him back for retraining just as a punishment. There is no place for that kind of stuff at the airlines. And if he gave me any sass like he did those controllers I’d fire him on the spot and let him try to fight his at back for his job with ALPA if they cared to defend that kind of behavior.
The profound ignorance that’s on display with DEI being slipped into a post about an old bitter white guy sticking his foot into his mouth is stunning. I’m surprised no one is blaming vaccines…..
Those that cherry pick a female or non white pilot struggling in training yet ignore the fact that the same is true about white male pilots are missing a key point. A certain percentage of all pilots struggle and squeak through training. No correlation to skin color or gender. It’s generally a mix of attitude and aptitude. Once a pilot gets hired with today’s minimum hour requirements he/she is in a training pipeline that will make him/her a safe pilot if they have a good attitude and commitment to the profession.
News flash, due to supply and demand the time to upgrade to Captain has never been quicker, lower experience levels in the cockpit is a fact of life. Obviously the potential for more incidents or accidents could result from this. Again, nothing to do with skin color or gender but everything to due with attitude and training. If anything, a pilot from a DEI background that can navigate the complexities of getting hired by an airline and pass the training and deal with the occasional racism/ignorance that still exists from a few dinosaurs could very well possess a level of maturity that someone who hasn’t overcome the obstacles a DEI pilot from a non traditional background has. A diverse pilot group is better for the profession than a less diverse one.
Gary, your observation is spot on.
I’m an old white guy with 40 years as an airline pilot including about 5 years as an instructor.
@JohnW. Kinda like the profound ignorance of all these people saying he “slipped DEI into the post.”. The author wasn’t complaining about DEI.or saying it was responsible for this unprofessional pilot.
@JohnW. Ahhh crud. I hit POST before I was finished. For the record, I was agreeing with you. It’s amazing that the mere mention of DEI set off people immediately recounting personal/anecdotal tales about specific pilot candidates who were wholly unqualified being given special treatment and allowed to progress to higher levels of training anyway. I guess it’s just another trigger word/topic, regardless of context.
Right you are @kluge…. there are plenty of white males that have struggled and needed extra training and there are plenty of women or people of color that are outstanding pilots and didn’t struggle as much as some of their white male counterparts have. Simple fact is the airlines have always hired pilots from all kinds of backgrounds and total pilot hours, there is no formula that provides superior pilots….there was a period in the late 60’s when the Major Airlines hired pilots with just a few hundred hours( supply and demand) ….As long as they were less than 32 years old and male and preferably white….discrimination was the norm back then!…..
To succinctly clarify….., once a pilot is hired it’s all about attitude and the quality of the training….there are great pilots from any background, gender or race.