First interview with pilot who told Christian passengers to raise hands

Advocate (via Christianity Today) ^ | Feb. 10, 04 | Pilot Roger Findiesen/Compiled by Ted Olsen

[churchillbuff]

Guess who scored the interview with the Christian airline pilot? On his first flight after a short-term missions trip to Costa Rica, American Airlines captain Roger Findiesen flipped on the Public Address system in the cabin and explained that flight 34 was second in line for takeoff. Then he continued on a personal note.

"I just got back from a mission," he said. "You know, they say about half of Americans are Christians. I'd just like the Christians on board to raise their hands." After a pause, he went on.

"I want everyone else on board to look around at how crazy these people are," he said jokingly. "Make good use of [the flight], or you can read your paper and watch the movie." ....[snip]

Amazingly, only one publication was able to score an interview with Findiesen himself. Even more amazing, that publication is The Advocate, a gay magazine—editor-in-chief Bruce C. Steele was on the flight. Even more amazing: The Advocate's article is fair, even positive, toward Findiesen's actions.

"I just wanted to give Christians a chance to talk about why they're Christians," Findiesen told Steele (who notes that "at no time did Findiesen mention homosexuality or say anything antigay") "I obviously couldn't go back there and address everyone directly, so I used the P.A. I felt that God was telling me to say something. … There's actually no regulation against doing what I did."

[EggsAckley]

A statement WELL WORTH REPEATING!

[anonymous_user]

Compare this Advocate article to an AFP article on Yahoo!

NEW YORK (AFP) - An American Airlines pilot is facing an internal investigation after reportedly asking Christian passengers to identify themselves, and suggesting that non-Christians on his flight were "crazy."

Speaking Monday on CNN's "American Morning," several passengers said the Sunday flight from Los Angeles to New York had not yet taken off, when the pilot chose to address everyone on board.

"He said he'd recently been on a mission trip, and he'd like all the Christians to please raise their hands," said passenger Jen Dorsey.

According to fellow passenger Karla Austin, "He said, 'If you are a Christian, raise your hand.' He said, 'If you are not, you're crazy'."

Austin said no passengers raised their hands.

The pilot also asked passengers to look around at each other and use their flying time wisely. [snip]

Wow. No bias to see here. Move along.

[babble-on]

a lot of other good points on this thread about why he shouldn't have done this, but I agree with you, too.

Compared to the first version I read of this story, this version sounds like no big deal, and I can't really see people being too offended on the religion side of it. What he said was relatively innocuous in the first place, and he apologized later when he found out people were non-plussed.

I'm going to send him some flowers for Tu B'Shvat.

[george wythe]

Fair point. I haven't thought about the possibility that some passengers might have thought about a hijacking-related segregation.

[smith288]

I don't want my pilot 'entertaining' the passengers. He has more important duties.

Like staring at his flight stick controlling itself as it sits in auto pilot?

What he did might be considered bad judgement but hardly unsafe.

[Modernman]

Wow. No bias to see here. Move along.

Looks like there's some confusion as to what exactly he said.

[EggsAckley]

Precisely. It wouldn't have taken much for the "Christians" to be afraid to put up their hands lest the pilot pull out a gun and off them all, in the name of HIS "religion."

[TheGunny]

Thats right only clergy may speak of such things!

[Doctor Stochastic]

I'd just like the Christians on board to raise their hands.

Sort of like the hijackers in "Delta Force"?

[Truth29]

The versions of what the pilot allegedly said vary significantly. I didn't realize the plane was still on the ground. The pilot is lucky that one or more of the passengers did not demand to get off the plane immediately, or worse, take steps to drploy the emergency ramps and keep the plane from taking off.

[imintrouble]

There is a behavior which is often occasioned by certain events in a person's life. They go into a temporary "rapture" and want to "share" this rapture with the rest of the world who are primarily embarrassed by the personal display.

Unfortunately the pilot chose an inappropriate moment to get personal, as close to heaven as he was, the passengers probably didn't want to be reminded of anything to do with mortality.

These euphoric episodes happen after "retreats" either in psychological marathons or religious retreats, after experiencing a breakthrough in a therapeutic setting, and I have heard some who visit The Holy City on a religious tour cannot think of leaving - that the city is full of these people who wish to exist in proximity to the place where this break with reality was occasioned.

And break with reality it was people.

If the pilot was concerned for the safety of the passengers in any way, it should have been for their physical safety - not their souls. It was his duty at that moment in time to get those good people to their destinations.

Had this rapture been exhibited prior to the flight, he should have been replaced. It is as out of touch and disabling as too many drinks and replaces rational thought - sometimes for days.

The crew was also put in danger by the man and while the Christian and/or religious aspect of his break was well accepted and met with relief, he was not in control when he should have been AT the controls.

Sorry for the cold water, but I hope he has recovered and can now reflect on his mission as a wonderful experience to be shared in less grandiose circumstances glorifying the event as he lived it.

[Lazamataz]

I don't want my pilot 'entertaining' the passengers. He has more important duties.

Oh come on. You'd turn down a strip-tease from a really hot-lookin' pilot.

[Ken H]

It could have been worse. He could have asked the passengers, "How many of you have ever been in a Turkish prison?"

[Lazamataz]

JJJJEEEEEEZ.

You'd have me believe religion is a mental illness -- some sort of 'break with reality'?????

Balderdash.

[cinFLA]

Like staring at his flight stick controlling itself as it sits in auto pilot? What he did might be considered bad judgement but hardly unsafe.

Please reread my post.

[You Dirty Rats]

Totally inappropriate.

[Blue Screen of Death]

I'd rather fly with a pilot who's somewhat concerned that he might burn in Hell.

That is better than a pilot that believes in reincarnation.

[jwalsh07]

If the pilot was concerned for the safety of the passengers in any way, it should have been for their physical safety - not their souls. It was his duty at that moment in time to get those good people to their destinations.

Criiiiipes, the rush to hyperbole begins anew.

[Modernman]

Oh come on. You'd turn down a strip-tease from a really hot-lookin' pilot.

Come on now, as much as I wish it was, life is not like a Van Halen video (actually, I think that's teachers, but whatever).

[Lazamataz]

It could have been worse. He could have asked the passengers, "How many of you have ever been in a Turkish prison?"

Have you ever seen a gladiator movie, Tommy? Or a grown man, naked?