There must be a phrase to describe a company talking to me like a modern day mom encouraging her 9 year old.
Nothing would be more fatal than for the government of States to get into the hands of the experts. Expert knowledge is limited knowledge: and the unlimited ignorance of the plain man who knows only what hurts is a safer guide, than any vigorous direction of a specialised character. Why should you assume that all except doctors, engineers etc., are drones or worse?
To manage men, to explain difficult things to simple people, to reconcile opposite interests, to weigh the evidence of disputing experts, to deal with the clamorous emergency of the hour; are not these things in themselves worth the consideration and labour of a lifetime? If the Ruler is to be an expert in anything he should be an expert in everything; and that is plainly impossible. Wherefore I say from the dominion of all specialists (particularly military specialists) good Lord deliver us.
First, to those travelers and their families / friends inconvenienced
by the recent events, I am very sorry. I recognize the difficulties of not
making it to a destination on time, losing track of luggage and putting up with
long lines and waiting in sometimes uncomfortable conditions.
The reasons seem to generally boil down to:
1. Very bad weather across the country.
2. A technology system employed by the company that was unable to handle those bad weather disruptions.
I flew home yesterday from Austin to Phoenix at 7 am. We had
no passengers in the cabin other than two extra pilots and one flight
attendant.
Why would this happen? There were hundreds of people with
tickets waiting to travel on this route for over 40 hours. Every non-stop the
day prior was canceled.
It was simple: we needed two other flight attendants on board
to carry a full load of passengers. The ones scheduled to work the flight never
made it to Austin the night before. 143 people in seats require 3 trained flight
attendants. No others were available and the decision was made to move the
aircraft back to Phoenix where it could, so to speak, stay in the fight to
return the airline to normal operations.
Least bad choice in the situation.
I was on my 5th day of working what was originally
a 3 day trip.
Things started to look difficult on the night of the 23rd. We
were running late into Oakland. We had several passengers requesting we hold
their connecting flight to Oregon. Unfortunately that flight departed before we
arrived. We will often delay connecting flights but in this case I am guessing
that the crew was running out of time to work. Another inflexible rule is crew
rest. We are allowed to work only a certain number of hours during the day.
Often a replacement crew can be assigned, but it wasn’t this time. I think the
entire system was pretty well stressed at this point, 2 days before Christmas.
The next day I reported for work in the morning and waited
for a while in a base lounge. There were sandwiches and donuts and Santa hats
available to those of waiting out delays. No supervisors, though.
Back to the weather. It was horrendous in areas. Very cold
and very windy in many states. One of my co-pilots said he saw a mechanic
trying to work in those conditions the day before. Simply putting oil in an
engine was very hard. He said the guy could barely get his fingers to work
opening a latch.
A lot of equipment was frozen. Baggage handlers and tug
drivers worked in extreme conditions. Ice slows down everything. And while we
deal with this stuff every winter, the huge arctic blast of air that arrived
the other day was very unusual. Not just because of the temperatures and winds
but also because of the huge area it affected.
Another storm was affecting the Pacific Northwest. Freezing
rain hit Seattle, Portland, and Spokane. It shut down those airports for
extended times. The 737 is a fantastic machine. It handles very bad weather
very well. Freezing rain is another matter. We are not allowed to takeoff or
land in it when the intensity is reported greater than light. This is a rare
occurrence.
More bad weather was hitting Southern California. The clouds
and visibility were too low for safe landings in San Diego on the night of the 23rd.
Many planes had to divert to other airports. Again, a rare occurrence in this part of the country
I can’t speak to the technology issues that let us down this
time. There are some very smart people who will analyze all this going forward.
I can tell you I spent about 4 hours total on phone hold with my schedulers.
Changes will be made to address that.
Through all this, the passengers I saw were amazing and
patient. Maybe it was the spirit of the season. I am very proud of the people
who fly on us and help me earn a living doing something I love. It is a job
that keeps me happy.
Except, I guess, when there’s a lot of ice, wind, storms, low
clouds, sitting around airports, waiting in hotels and most heartbreaking of
all: walking through the back of an empty 737 at 36,000 feet.
