By SUSAN PAYNTER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST
February 11, 2004
The separation of church and flight hit another air pocket last Friday when the pilot of an American Airlines 767, an apparently fervent fellow with God as his co-pilot, followed his weather/altitude spiel by asking all Christians aboard to raise their hands.
Now, at any time since, say, the era of Lucky Lindy, this might have been an unlucky move to make in the air.
But surely, in the nervous and multiculturally touchy time since 9/11, you've got to wonder if pilot Rodger Findiesen's brain didn't experience a sudden loss of cabin pressure during takeoff from Los Angeles.
Moments after takeoff, Findiesen told those apparent non-Christians who had not raised their arms that they just might wonder why their seatmates were so crazy as to raise a hand like that in public. Then he suggested that they use the rest of the 4 1/2-hour flight to New York to ask the hand-raisers about their religious beliefs.
Discomfort ensued and several passengers had complained before their Samsonites struck the carousel at JFK.
Not that captive strangers might not relish an entertaining cross-country comparison of the Bible and the Quran, for instance, if they chose to skip the in-flight movie. But it seems that many on board actually expected a pilot, not a spiritual facilitator.
Findiesen also announced that he'd be available after the flight to answer any questions. Maybe something along the lines of, "Are you taking anything that might hamper your ability to operate heavy machinery?"
"He had recently been on a Christian mission to Costa Rica and I guess he wanted to share his emotions," AA spokesman Tim Wagner told me on Monday. "Some passengers were made to feel uncomfortable. Our policy is to make all passengers and employees feel comfortable at all times since we operate in a society with many individuals of diverse backgrounds. We have a long history of supporting diversity."
AA employees undergo sensitivity training when it comes to diversity. And one aspect of that training is to keep in mind how they would feel if a situation were reversed.
Probably there are at least a few Muslim pilots, for example, among the 11,000 who fly for AA. Imagine the holy heck that might break out in the aisles if one of them asked all the Muslims on board to raise their hands and share their beliefs with their seatmates.
Wagner said the incident on Flight 34 is under investigation. Findiesen isn't scheduled to fly again anytime soon. And the results of the inquiry will not be made public. "It's a question of whether his judgment was appropriate while on duty," Wagner said.
Actually, no, that's not in question.
It wouldn't have been appropriate even before we started eyeing each other's turbans and yarmulkes warily across the aisles. And it sure isn't appropriate now.
This is a time in which the Court of Appeals upholds the contested right to a Christian fish symbol as a workplace screen saver one minute, and then rules against "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance the next.
This is a time when, even unspoken, those little biblical prayer cards that Alaska Airlines slips in with the plastic silverware tend to polarize the frequent fliers who praise reverence among the condiments from those who resent getting a prayer like a Cracker Jack prize.
This is a time when Southwest Airlines finds itself in court over the claim of an implied racial insult three years after a flight attendant thought she was being cute when she said, "Eenie, meenie, minie, moe, pick a seat, we gotta go."
So surely a call over the intercom for a show of hands and an interfaith gab fest crosses the line between pilot and preacher.
If Capt. Rodger Findiesen believes he is on a mission from God, amen to that. Let him go forth and plant the seeds of understanding where the ears have the choice of whether to listen. And where the guy telling people to put their hands up isn't flying tons of combustible metal through the clouds.
But, as for a future in commercial flight, I think it's time to say Rodger and out.
That pretty much sums up the problem with what the pilot said.